Enguistics

The English Language - Must Read!

2007-09-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Got this from an aunt earlier today – very amusing…

For those who speak English well, you will find it amusing.
For those who don’t, then this is an eye-opener.

See if you can read these right the first time:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it - English is a crazy language:
There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work
slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and, hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what langua ge do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people; not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn’t “Buick” rhyme with “quick”

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this…

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is “UP.”

It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.

When it rains, it wets the earth and often mess things UP.
When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so… time to shut UP!

feng shui basics

2007-08-23T23:33:00.000-07:00

Got this interesting Feng Shui piece in the mail today. Heard it, but no harm sharing:

1. Allow the space at the main door to be free and clear: Do not leave any shoes or slippers lying around outside the main door of your house. The chi (energy) rides with the wind and will collect all the smell of those shoes and slippers into your house, causing sickness. The chi then travels about in your house looking for water to stay in, but if there are no water fountains or fish tanks, the chi will be dispersed by wind.

2. No television sets in bedrooms: If not, after watching, cover the television set with a PLASTIC tablecloth.

3. No mirrors opposite or at the side of your bed: these can attract a third party to your relationship, especially when placed in your bedroom.

4. No dining table opposite an altar table.

5. A fish tank placed correctly can bring about greater fortune as you tap on the Divine Water Dragon’s Den. But if tapped wrongly, it can cause lawsuits, bankruptcy, work pressure, and problems: If you notice any of these approximately four months after placing a fish tank in your home, shift the tank to different location.

6. No refrigerator, washing machine, washbasin and toilet, opposite the stove in the kitchen: The fire and water clash causes family disagreements: Remove one of them.

7. No sleeping children on floor mattresses: causes children to fall sick frequently as chi is not able to flow underneath the bed. Ideally, chi should circulate around the mattress where our children sleep.

8. It is important to have a solid wall behind a children's writing table: allows the child to have support in longer, more effective study sessions.

9. No double-decked beds for children. It may save space, but the child sleeping in the bottom bunk will be deprived of “fresh chi” and so, weakened health. If the case cannot be avoided due to space constraints, add a metal 6-rod wind chime to break the “stale chi” around his/ her bed.

10. Always have a solid wall behind your bed to have a good rest so you wake up in the morning feeling fresh, well rested and able to better focus on your work.

11. No beam above furniture, your bed, stove, sofa sets or the altar table: The beam above causes chi – and your life to be pressured: Level the beam, but ensure you have enough height for that space.

12. No marble table in your dinning room. It can cause a lot of work pressure: remove the marble table or replace it with a wooden one.

13. If a child often falls sick in a bedroom, transfer the child to another bedroom or hang a six rod metal wind chime: the metal element will break all the earth energies in that room. If the wind doesn’t too well work for you, “chime" it yourself and watch out for good results.

14. No red sofa sets: Red represents the element of fire, which simply cannot be placed in some areas: A red sofa set gives rise to heavy work pressure, troubles and obstacles: Change the colour of your sofa.

15. Always open your bedroom windows at least once 20 minutes a day to allow fresh chi to enter: sleeping with stale chi nightly restricts the entrance of good fortune into your life. Don’t worry about dust: The great good fortune you can have far exceeds the time you take to clean off dust!

MySpace Graphics & MySpace Layouts

Vocabulary: Ind, Nicholas

2007-04-10T01:43:00.000-07:00

Ind, Nicholas (2nd Ed.) (2004). Living the brand. London: Kogan Page

Idiosyncratic, adj.
Of or relating to idiosyncrasy; peculiar or individual: she emerged as one of the great idiosyncratic talents of the Nineties.
DERIVATIVES: Idiosyncratically, adv.

Obsolescent, adj.
Becoming obsolete: the custom is now obsolescent.
DERIVATIVES: obsolesce, v., n., existing systems begin to obsolesce.

Anathema, n.
1. something or someone that one vehemently dislikes: racial hatred was anathema to her. 2. a formal curse by a pope or a council of the Church, excommunicating a person or denouncing a doctrine. •poetic/literary a strong curse: the sergeant clutched the ruined communicator, muttering anathemas.

Despoil, v.[trans.] (often be despoiled)
Steal or violently remove valuable or attractive possessions; plunder: the church was despoiled of its marble wall covering.
DERIVATIVES: despoiler, n., despoilment, n., despoliation, n.: the despoliation of the countryside plunder, plundering, pillaging, looting, ransacking, ravishing, sacking; ravaging, devastation, ruination, vandalism.
NOTE: A learned word, spoliation means “the act of ruining, destroying, or spoiling something.” In the hands and mouths of the less-than-learned, it’s often misspelled and mispronounced spoilation.

Proselytize, v.[trans.]
Convert or attempt to convert (someone) from one religion, belief, or opinion to another: the program did have a tremendous evangelical effect, proselytizing many [ intrans.] proselytizing for converts [as n. ] ( proselytizing) no amount of proselytizing was going to change their minds. • advocate or promote (a belief or course of action): Davis wanted to share his concept and proselytize his ideas.
DERIVATIVES: proselytizer, n.

Apposite, adj.
Apt in the circumstances or in relation to something: an apposite quotation [the observations are apposite to the discussion.]
DERIVATIVES: appositely, adv., appositeness, n., apposite, adj.: an apposite caption accompanies each photo appropriate, suitable, fitting, apt, befitting; relevant, pertinent, appurtenant, to the point, applicable, germane, material, congruous, felicitous.

Maverick, n.
1. An unorthodox or independent-minded person: a free-thinking maverick. • A person who refuses to conform to a particular party or group: the maverick Connecticut Republican. [Adj., unorthodox: a maverick detective.]

Provenance, n.
The place of origin or earliest known history of something: an orange rug of Iranian provenance. The beginning of something’s existence; something’s origin: they try to understand the whole universe, its provenance and fate; The provenance of the paintings origin, source, place of origin; birthplace, fount, roots, pedigree, derivation, root, etymology; formal radix.

Truism, n.
A statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting: the truism that you get what you pay for. Logic a proposition that states nothing beyond what is implied by any of its terms.
DERIVATIVES: truistic, adj., truism, n., “look before you leap” is a truism that Sharon has rarely heeded. platitude, commonplace, cliché, stock phrase, banality, (old) chestnut, (old) saw, axiom, bromide.

Tonal, adj.
Of or relating to the tone of music, color, or writing: his ear for tonal color; the poem’s tonal lapses. of or relating to music written using conventional keys and harmony. Phonetics (of a language) expressing semantic differences by varying the intonation given to words or syllables of a similar sound.
DERIVATIVES: tonally, adv.

Infer, v.
[Trans.] deduce or conclude (information) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements: [with clause] from these facts we can infer that crime has been increasing.
DERIVATIVES: inferable (also inferrable) adj.

USE: There is a distinction in meaning between infer and imply. In the sentence: the speaker implied that the general had been a traitor, the word implied means that something in the speaker’s words ‘suggested’ that this man was a traitor (although nothing so explicit was actually stated). However, in- we inferred from his words that the general had been a traitor, the word inferred means that something in the speaker’s words enabled the listeners to ‘deduce’ that the man was a traitor.

Infer and imply can describe the same event, but from different angles. Mistakes occur when infer is used to mean imply, as in, are you inferring that I’m a liar? instead of, are you implying that I’m a liar?

Corollary, n. ( pl. -laries)
A proposition that follows from (and is often appended to) one already proved. A direct or natural consequence or result: the huge increases in unemployment were the corollary of expenditure cuts. Adj., forming a proposition that follows from one already proved. associated; supplementary. n., job losses are the unfortunate corollary of budget cutting consequence, result, end result, upshot, effect, repercussion, product, by-product, offshoot.

Collation, n.
1. the action of collating something: data management and collation. 2. a light, informal meal: in the Roman Catholic Church: a light meal allowed during a fast.

Misanthrope (also misanthropist), n.
A person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society.
DERIVATIVES: misanthropic, adj., misanthropical, adj., misanthropically, adv.

Intransigent, adj.
Unwilling or refusing to change one’s views or to agree about something. n., an intransigent person.
DERIVATIVES: intransigence, n., intransigency, n., intransigently, adv.

Plaudits, pl. n.
Praise: the network has received plaudits for its sports coverage. the applause of an audience: the plaudits for the winner died down; The mayor won plaudits for his aggressive campaign against crime praise, acclaim, commendation, congratulations, accolades, compliments, cheers, applause, tributes, bouquets; a pat on the back; informal a (big) hand.

Volte-face., n. ( pl. same)
An act of turning around so as to face in the opposite direction; an abrupt and complete reversal of attitude, opinion, or position : a remarkable volte-face on taxes.

Encumbrance., n.
A burden or impediment; Law a mortgage or other charge on property or assets. [archaic: a person, esp. a child, who is dependent on someone else for support.]
1. He soon found the old equipment a great encumbrance hindrance, obstruction, obstacle, impediment, constraint, handicap, inconvenience, nuisance, disadvantage, drawback; literary trammel; archaic cumber.
2. she knew she was an encumbrance to him; burden, responsibility, obligation, liability, weight, load, stress, strain, pressure, trouble, worry; millstone, albatross, cross to bear; informal ball and chain.

Untenable, adj.
(Esp. of a position or view) not able to be maintained or defended against attack or objection: this argument is clearly untenable.
DERIVATIVES: untenability, n., untenably, adv.
These untenable explanations are not helping your case; indefensible, insupportable, unsustainable, unjustified, unjustifiable, flimsy, weak, shaky.

Didactic, adj.
Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive: a didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice. In the manner of a teacher, particularly so as to treat someone in a patronizing way: slow-paced, didactic lecturing.
DERIVATIVES: didactically; adv., didacticism, n.
The didactic photojournalism of Jacob Riis instructive, instructional, educational, educative, informative, informational, edifying, improving, pedagogic, moralistic.

Serendipity, n.
The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way: a fortunate stroke of serendipity; a series of small serendipities.
DERIVATIVES: serendipitous, adj., serendipitously, adv.
Our meeting was purely serendipitous chance; accidental, coincidental; lucky, fluky, fortuitous; unexpected, unforeseen.

Consecrate, v. [trans.]
Make or declare (something, typically a church) sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose: the present Holy Trinity church was consecrated in 1845.
[as adj. ] consecrated ground. In Christian belief, make bread or wine into the body or blood of Christ: [as adj.] They received the host but not the consecrated wine. Ordain (someone) to a sacred office, typically that of bishop: in 1969 he was consecrated bishop of Uganda.
Informal devote (something) exclusively to a particular purpose: they’d decided to consecrate all their energies to this purposeful act.
DERIVATIVES: consecration, n., consecrator, n., consecratory, adj.

Idiosyncrasy, n. (pl. -sies) (usu. idiosyncrasies)
A mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual: one of his little idiosyncrasies was always preferring to be in the car first.

Transient, adj.
Lasting only for a short time; impermanent: a transient cold spell. Staying or working in a place for only a short time: the transient nature of the labor force in catering.
n., 1. a person who is staying or working in a place for only a short time. 2. a momentary variation in current, voltage, or frequency.
DERIVATIVES: transience, n., transiency, n., transiently, adv.,
Our interest in the environment must not be transient; transitory, temporary, short-lived, short-term, ephemeral, impermanent, brief, short, momentary, fleeting, passing, here today and gone tomorrow; literary evanescent, fugitive. n., the plight of poor transients hobo, vagrant, vagabond, street person, homeless person, down-and-out; traveler, drifter, derelict.

Iconoclasm, n.
1. The action of attacking or assertively rejecting cherished beliefs and institutions or established values and practices.
2. The rejection or destruction of religious images as heretical; the doctrine of iconoclasts.

Irreverent, adj.
Showing a lack of respect for people or things that are generally taken seriously: she is irreverent about the whole business of politics.
DERIVATIVES: irreverence, n., irreverential, adj., irreverently, adv.

Hubris, n.
Excessive pride or self-confidence. (In Greek tragedy) excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.
DERIVATIVES: hubristic, adj., n., the hubris among economists was shaken; arrogance, conceit, haughtiness, hauteur, pride, self-importance, egotism, pomposity, superciliousness, superiority; informal big-headedness, cockiness. antonym humility.

Litigious, adj.
Concerned with lawsuits or litigation. Unreasonably prone to go to law to settle disputes. Suitable to become the subject of a lawsuit.
DERIVATIVES: litigiously, adv., litigiousness, n.

Silo, n. ( pl. -los)
1. A tower or pit on a farm used to store grain. A pit or other airtight structure in which green crops are compressed and stored as silage. 2. An underground chamber in which a guided missile is kept ready for firing.

Catharsis, n.
The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. The hope was that hypnosis would bring about a catharsis emotional release; relief, release, venting; purging, purgation, purification, cleansing; Psychoanalysis abreaction.

Obfuscate, v. [trans.]
Render obscure, unclear, or unintelligible: the spelling changes will deform some familiar words and obfuscate their etymological origins. Bewilder (someone): it is more likely to obfuscate people than enlighten them.
DERIVATIVES: obfuscation, n., obfuscatory, adj., v., 1. Mere rationalizations to obfuscate rather than clarify the real issue. obscure, confuse, make unclear, blur, muddle, complicate, muddy, cloud, befog. antonym clarify. 2. Her work became more and more obfuscated by mathematics and jargon bewilder, mystify, puzzle, perplex, confuse, baffle, confound, bemuse, befuddle, nonplus; informal flummox.

Osmosis, n.
Biology & Chemistry: a process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one, thus equalizing the concentrations on each side of the membrane. Figurative the process of gradual or unconscious assimilation of ideas, knowledge, etc. What she knows of the blue-blood set she learned not through birthright, not even through wealth, but through osmosis.

Proselytize, v. [trans.]
Convert or attempt to convert (someone) from one religion, belief, or opinion to another: the program did have a tremendous evangelical effect, proselytizing many [ intrans. ] proselytizing for converts | [as n. ] ( proselytizing) no amount of proselytizing was going to change their minds. Advocate or promote (a belief or course of action): Davis wanted to share his concept and proselytize his ideas.
DERIVATIVES: proselytizer, n., v., 1. I’m not here to proselytize evangelize, convert, save, redeem, win over, preach (to), recruit, act as a missionary. 2. He wanted to proselytize his ideas promote, advocate, champion, advance, further, spread, proclaim, peddle, preach, endorse, urge, recommend, boost.

Veracity, n.
Conformity to facts; accuracy: officials expressed doubts concerning the veracity of the story. Habitual truthfulness: voters should be concerned about his veracity and character. n., We do not question the veracity of your story truthfulness, truth, accuracy, correctness, faithfulness, fidelity; reputability, honesty, sincerity, trustworthiness, reliability, dependability, scrupulousness, ethics, morality, righteousness, virtuousness, decency, straightforwardness, goodness, probity.

Homonyms - Homophones

2006-10-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

The list below provides a homonym worksheet for each homonym pair (or in some cases list of 3) with definitions and example sentences. A homonym is defined as one of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning, such as too (also) and two (the number). This list focuses on the most important homonyms for English learners and does not include all homonyms.

Homonym List A-E
affect - effect
affect (V) - to change or influence something or someone
She wanted to affect the students in a way they’d never forget.

effect (N) - the result of a change or influence
The effect of the performance was stunning.

aisle - isle
aisle (N) - the walkway, as in a theatre
I quickly walked down the aisle and took my seat.

isle (N) - island
He grew up on the isle of Elba.

allowed - aloud
allowed - past tense of the verb ‘to allow’ - to permit
His mother allowed him to stay up late on Saturday.

aloud (ADV) - using the voice, not silently
She read the story aloud.

ate - eight
ate (V) - past tense of the verb ‘to eat’
She ate a quick lunch and returned to work.

eight - number - the number 8
I bought eight tickets to the concert.

ball - bawl
ball (N) - a round object used in games and sports
He took a ball to the beach to play with the children.

Bawl (V) - to cry (usually very hard)
Please don’t bawl! It’s not that bad.

bear - bare
bear (V) - to stand something
He can’t bear exams.

bare (ADJ) - naked, without clothing
He stood outside in the rain completely bare.

base - bass
base (N) - the bottom support of something
I think we need a new base for that lamp.

bass (N) - the lowest pitches in music, singer of the lowest pitches
I sang bass in the church choir.

billed - build
billed (V) - past tense of the verb ‘to bill’
She billed the clients for $4,000.

build (V) - to construct
They build houses in Portland, Oregon.

blew - blue
blew (V) - past tense of the verb ‘to blow’
She blew a lot of bubbles at her birthday party.

blue (ADJ) - a colour
Her house is painted blue.

board - bored
board (N) - a plan of wood
I used a board to cover the window.

bored (ADJ) - not interested
He was bored by the meeting.

break - brake
break (V) - to damage something
Unfortunately, I often break my toys!

brake (N) - stopping device on a vehicle
He used the brake to stop quickly.

buy - by- bye
buy (V) - to purchase
Do they often buy clothes in that shop?

by (PREP) - often used to express the agent in a passive sentence
The song was written by Hammersmith.

bye (N) - farewell
Bye! I’ll see you tomorrow.

capital - capitol
capital (N) -A town or city that is head of government
Olympia is the capital of Washington state.

capitol (N) - A building where the government meets
The capitol is a beautiful building.

cell - sell
cell (N) - a small room, usually in a prison
There are two prisoners per cell in that prison.

sell (V) - to provide for sale
They sell books and magazines.

cent - scent- sent
cent (N) - 1/100 of a dollar
One cent isn’t worth very much.

scent (N) - an aroma
The scent in the air is fabulous!

sent (V) - past tense of the verb ‘to send’
I sent you some pictures last week.

chance - chants
chance (N) - not on purpose
I saw Mary by chance in California.

chants (N: plural) - simple song or melody
We did some grammar chants in class last week.

chews - choose
chews (V) - third person present singular of the verb ‘to chew’
My daughter chews her food well.

choose (V) - to make a decision from amongst more than one
OK, I choose the red one.

close - clothes
close (V) - to shut
Please close the door when you come in.

clothes (N) - articles of clothing
He put on his clothes and left for work.

coarse - course
coarse (ADJ) - rough, not smooth
The fabric is rather coarse.

course (N) - a class in which a subject is studied
The English course will begin next week.

creak - creek
creak (V) - to squeak (make a high pitch sound)
The doors in the house all creak.

creek (N) - small stream
The creek winds through the beautiful valley.

days - daze
days (N) - plural of ‘day’
I work five days a week.

daze (N) - confused state
He walks around in a daze.

dear - deer
dear (ADJ) - beloved, often used to begin a letter
My dear Richard, you just don’t understand!

deer (N) - an animal (Bambi - irregular plural: deer)
We saw three deer on our hike in the mountains.

dew - do- due
dew (N) - light water condensation usually found in the morning
The grass was covered with dew.

do (V) - to perform
They usually do their homework immediately after school.

due (ADJ) - payable
The full payment is due by the end of the month.

Homonym List F-L
facts - fax
facts (N) - things objectively considered ‘true’
The facts pointed to Mr Smith as the criminal.

fax (N) - a document transmitted via telephone
I sent a fax to the office in Chicago.

fair - fare
fair (ADJ) - light skinned, of light complexion
She is fair with long blond hair.

fare (N) - cost of ticket (generally travel)
I paid fifteen dollars for the fare.

fairy - ferry
fairy (N) - a magic person or being
The tooth fairy brings $1 for each tooth.

ferry (N) - a boat that transports cars and other vehicles
We took the ferry to Sardinia last summer.

find - fined
find (V) - to discover
I often find coins at the beach.

fined (ADJ) - charged a penalty
He was fined $50 for illegal parking.

flour - flower
flour (N) - powdered grain used for cooking
I want to make some cookies. Could you pick up a bag of flour at the supermarket?

flower (N) - beautiful blooming part of a plant
That flower is beautiful!

for - four
for - preposition
I bought these for you.

four - number - 4
She wants to bring four friends with her to the party.

foreword - forward
foreword (N) - introduction to a book
Timothy Leary wrote the foreword to Ken’s book.

forward (ADJ) - advancing
We moved forward in the line.

gene - jean
gene (N) - a chromosome
The X gene is responsible for eye colour.

jean (N) - fabric
Jeans are made of jean.

grease - Greece
grease (N) - lubricant, fat
He put some grease on the wheel.

Greece - (PROP N) - the country
Greece is considered the birthplace of western philosophy.

groan - grown
groan (N) - low sound expressing displeasure
Students often groan when I announce a test.

grown (V) - past participle of the verb ‘to grow’
My daughter has grown quite a bit this year.

hair - hare
hair (N) - the collective strands on your head
She’s got long brown hair.

hare (N) - similar to a rabbit
He shot a hare while in the field.

hay - hey
hay (N) - dried grass often used as food for cattle, horses, etc.
We spent last week collecting hay from the fields.

hey - expression - shout
Hey! Watch out!

heal - heel
heal (V) - to cure a disease
Doctors heal thousands of patients a year.

heel (N) - the back part of the foot or shoe
I hurt my heel playing tennis.

hear - here
hear (V) - to listen
Did you hear what he said?

here (ADV) - at this place
Is this your book here?

hi - high
hi - salutation - Hello
Hi! How are you today?

high (ADJ) - tall, way up
Mount Rainier is extremely high.

hoarse - horse
hoarse (ADJ) - rough voice
Your voice is hoarse. Do you have a cold?

horse (N) - animal
Cowboy Tom had a horse named Joe.

hole - whole
hole (N) - round opening
There is a hole in the wall we need to repair.

whole (ADJ) - entire
He ate the whole pie!

hour - our
hour (N) - sixty minutes
It took one hour to finish the exercise.

our (POSS ADJ) - belonging to us
That’s our house on the corner.

knight - night
knight (N) - warrior from the middle ages
Arthur was a knight of the round table.

night (N) - evening to early morning
I went to bed late last night.

knot - naught - not
knot (N) - fastening in a cord
He tied a knot to secure the rope.

naught (N) - nothing
His efforts came to naught.

not (ADV) - in no way
It’s not her fault.

know - no
know (V) - to have knowledge
They didn’t know where she had studied.

no (ADV) - expresses refusal
No! I don’t want to come!

leased - least
leased (V) - past form of ‘lease’: to rent
They leased they office for three months.

least (superlative ADJ) - the minimum
She was the least successful of the candidates.

loan - lone
loan (V) - to allow someone to borrow
Can you loan me some money until tomorrow?

lone (ADJ) - the only one
She is the lone person who speaks French.

Homonym List M-R
made - maid
made (V) -past tense of the verb ‘to make’
She made me a cup of tea.

maid (N) - domestic help
The maid cleaned the room.

mail - male
mail (N) -post
I got a lot of mail today.

male (ADJ) - relative to men
His male friends are crazy!

marry - merry
marry (V) - to join in matrimony
Is a pastor going to marry them?

merry (ADJ) - happy
We had a merry time at the pub.

meat - meet
meat (N) - animal flesh
I really don’t like horse meat.

meet (V) - to see someone, to be introduced
Let’s meet next week.

mince - mints
mince (V) - to chop finely
Can you mince that parsley?

mints (N PLU) - type of sweet
I enjoy After Eight mints.

missed - mist
missed (V) - past tense of verb ‘to miss’
I missed the airplane and had to book another flight.

mist (N) - light fog
Ireland is famous for mist.

morning - mourning
morning (N) - am
Let’s meet tomorrow morning at nine.

mourning (N) - remember the dead
She was in mourning for three years.

none - nun
none - pronoun -not one
None of the students came to the party.

nun (N) - woman of God (Catholic)
The nun helped the children understand the song.

one - won
one - number - 1
Only one man came to the presentation.

won (V) - past tense of the verb ‘to win’
I won a prize at the competition.

pail - pale
pail (N) - bucket
Use that pail to hold the water.

pale (ADJ) - light colored
She looks rather pale.

pear - pair
pear (N) - a type of fruit
She ate a pear for lunch.

pair (N) - two (usually matching)
I bought a new pair of shoes last weekend.

patience - patients
patience (N) - quality of being willing to wait
Success requires a lot of patience.

patients (N PL) - person treated in a hospital or by a doctor
There are too many patients waiting in the emergency room.

piece - peace
piece (N) - part of something
I had a piece of pie for dessert.

peace (N) - the state of no war
We all hope to live in peace.

plain - plane
plain (ADJ) - not fancy
The food was rather plain in England.

plane (N) - short for ‘airplane’
The plane took off at six in the morning.

practice - practise
practice (N) - a period of training generally for sport or music
I went to practice after school was finished.

practise (V) - to train for music
I practise the piano for two hours every day.

rain - reign
rain (N) - precipitation
I can’t stand rain! I prefer sunny weather.

reign (N) - period of rule
Queen Elizabeth the Second’s reign continues to this day.

read - red
read (V) - past tense of the verb ‘to read’
I read Rabbit At Rest last week.

red - color
My favorite color is red.

right - write
right (ADJ) - correct
That answer is right!

write (V) - to put something down on paper
I prefer to write my letters in pen.

road - rode
road (N) - street
I took the country road instead of taking the freeway.

rode (V) - past tense of the verb ‘ride’
He rode a horse last weekend.

rose - rows
rose (N) - flower
I gave my girlfriend a red rose for her birthday.

rows (noun plural)- horizontal line of something
There are fifteen rows in the theater.

Homonym List S-Z
sail - sale
sail (V) - to go by sailboat
They often sail at weekends.

sale (N) - selling at reduced prices
Let’s go to the sale at the supermarket this afternoon.

scene - seen
scene (N) - visual location
The scene was set in the south of France.

seen (V) - past participle of the verb ‘to see’
I haven’t seen him in years!

sea - see
sea (N) - large body of water
We took a ferry across the sea.

see (V) - to visualize
Can you see him over there?

sew - so
sew (V) - to use needle and thread
Most people don’t sew their own clothes.

so (ADV) - to a great extent, very
The test was so difficult I almost failed.

sole - soul
sole (ADJ) - the only one
She was the sole person to understand him.

soul (N) - immortal part of a person
Many people believe that the soul goes to heaven when we die.

son - sun
son (N) - male child
Our son goes to Harvard!

sun (N) - the star that lights our solar system
The sun shone bright yesterday.

stair - stare
stair (N) - step
Be careful of that stair - it’s broken.

stare (V) - to look at steadily
Don’t stare at that woman! It’s rude.

steal - steel
steal (V) - to take unlawfully
I think there should be no punishment for people who steal food to survive.

steel (N) - metal
Most cars have some steel in their body.

suite - sweet
suite (N) - large room in a hotel
They stayed in the honeymoon suite.

sweet (ADJ) - the opposite of sour
Candy is very sweet.

their - there
their (possessive ADJ) -belonging to them
That’s their house on the corner.

there (ADV) - at or in that place
Please sit over there.

threw - through
threw (V) - past tense of the verb ‘to throw’
He threw the ball to his father.

through (PREP) - passing from one place to another
He went through the tunnel.

to - too - two
to (preposition) - towards (among many uses)
I went to him and offered my congratulations.

too (ADV) - also
Tom visited New York, too.

two - number - 2
She bought two magazines and some candy.

vary - very
vary (V) - to change
Results may vary with daily or weekly use.

very (ADV) - to a high degree
She was very happy to see Jim.

waist - waste
waist (N) - area between ribs and hips
I need to reduce the fat around my waist.

waste (V) - to not use well
Don’t waste time! Start studying!

wait - weight
wait (V) - to remain ready for someone or something
Can you wait just a moment?

weight (N) - an amount of heaviness
I wish my weight were lower.

war - wore
war (N) - armed conflict
The war in Iraq is damaging relations with the rest of the world.

wore (V) - past tense of the verb ‘to wear’
He wore a beautiful suit to the interview.

wear - where
wear (V) - to attire
Models generally wear jeans and not the expensive clothes they show on the walkway.

where - question word
Where does he come from?

weak - week
weak (ADJ) - opposite of strong
My left arm is very weak. I need to do some exercises.

week (N) - seven days
My work week is very long and hard.

weather - whether
weather (N) - the meteorological conditions
The weather has been quite beautiful this week.

whether (conjunction) - whether ... or - indicates an alternative
I don’t whether he will come or not.

which - witch
which - question word -> indicating choice among many
Which vacation should we choose?

witch (N) - magic woman
Sarah was burned as a witch during the Salem Witch Trials.

wood - would
wood (N) - material coming from trees
The desk is made out of wood.

would (V) - conditional auxiliary
I would like to visit you soon.

DEALING WITH DAILY COMMUNICATION

2006-10-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

SAYING ‘NO’ NICELY
Sometimes you need to say no when someone makes a suggestion, offers something or asks you to do something for them. Some common ways to say ‘no’ nicely:

• Would you like to see a film tonight?
- I’m afraid I can’t go out tonight. I’ve got a test tomorrow.
• Why don’t we have some Chinese food?
- Sorry, but I don’t particularly like Chinese food.
• How about taking a nice walk?
- I’d really rather not take a walk this afternoon.
• Would you like to come to the museum with us?
- Thank you, but it’s not my idea of a fun afternoon out.
• Let’s go for a drive
- Sorry, I’m not really fond of driving for the fun of it.
• Why don’t you stay the night?
- That’s very kind of you, but I really have to get back to the city.

✭ When someone makes an offer it is polite to first thank that person and then say no,
often offering an excuse for not wanting or being able to do something. Just saying ‘no’ is considered rude.

Construction
Formula - I’m afraid I can’t...
Verb Form - Use the base form of the verb without ‘to’

Formula - I don’t particularly like...
Verb Form - Use the ‘-ing’ form of the verb with the verb ‘like’ in the present simple.

Formula - I’d (really) rather not...
Verb Form - Use the base form the verb without ‘to’ with ‘rather’

Formula - It’s not my idea of...
Verb Form - Use the ‘-ing’ form following a preposition, or a noun

Formula - I’m not (really) fond of...
Verb Form - Use the ‘-ing’ form following a preposition, or a noun

Formula - Thank you (…for asking, …very much, etc.) but I have to...
Verb Form - Use the base form the verb without ‘to’ following the modal form ‘have to do’

CONTRASTING IDEAS
Some of the most common formulas used when contrasting ideas in English:

• We’d love to stay for dinner, but we have got to get going.
• They decided to stay in the area, in spite of their problems with the local residents.
• Despite the difficulties of a long journey, Peter decided to visit India.
• Getting a good job is hard work, however,
most people eventually find one with patience.
• There were a number of people who came, although the hotels were not equipped to
handle them all.

Construction
Formula - main statement, but contrasting statement
Example - I’d really like to come to the film, but I have to study tonight.

Explanation - Use a comma or semi colon with ‘but’, a common way to show
contrasting ideas.

Formula - main statement, in spite of contrasting statement
OR in spite of contrasting statement, main statement
Example - They continued on their journey, in spite of the pouring rain.
OR In spite of the pouring rain, the continued on their journey.

Explanation - Use ‘in spite of’ plus a noun, noun phrase or gerund

Formula - main statement, despite contrasting statement
OR Despite contrasting statement, main statement
Example - They continued on their journey, despite the pouring rain.
OR Despite the pouring rain, the continued on their journey.
Explanation - Use ‘despite’ plus a noun, noun phrase or gerund

Formula - main statement, however, contrasting statement OR main statement.
Example - She is a very intelligent girl, however, her tendency to not pay
attention in class causes her problems.
OR She is a very intelligent girl. However, her tendency to not
pay attention in class causes her problems.
Explanation - Use ‘however’ preceded and followed by a comma. You can also
contrast ideas in two sentences by beginning the contrasting sentence
with ‘However’.

Formula - main statement, although contrasting statement
OR Although contrasting statement, main statement
Example - We wanted to buy a sports car, although we knew that fast
cars can be dangerous.
OR Although we knew that fast cars can be dangerous, we
wanted to buy a sports car.

Explanation - Use ‘although’ with a subject and a verb.

MAKING COMPLAINTS
A direct complaint or criticism in English can sound rude or aggressive. Some common ways to mention a problem in an indirect manner:

• I’m sorry to have to say this but...
• I’m sorry to bother you, but...
• Maybe you forgot to...
• I think you might have forgotten to...
• Excuse me if I’m out of line, but...
• There may have been a misunderstanding about...
• Don’t get me wrong, but I think we should...

Construction
Formula - I’m sorry to have to say this but
Example Finish - I think we need to take another approach.

Formula - I’m sorry to bother you, but
Example Finish - I think you need to refine this layout.

Formula - Maybe you forgot to
Example Finish - include his name and number.

Formula - I think you might have forgotten to
Example Finish - finish the report on time.

Formula - Excuse me if I’m out of line, but
Example Finish - your work has not been adequate lately.

Formula - There may have been a misunderstanding about
Example Finish - what I expected from you.

Formula - Don’t get me wrong, but I think we should
Example Finish - concentrate on the Smith account for the moment.

ASKING FOR INFORMATION
Some common formulas when asking for information in English:
• Could you tell me...?
• Do you know...?
• Do you happen to know...?
• I’d like to know...
• Could you find out...?
• I’m interested in...
• I’m looking for…

2 forms for asking for information on the telephone:
• I’m calling to find out...
• I’m calling about...

Construction
Formula - Could you tell me
Question Word - when
Example Finish - the next train leaves?

Formula - Do you know
Question Word - how much
Example Finish - that vase costs?

Formula - Do you happen to know
Question Word - where
Example Finish - Tom lives?

Formula - I’d like to know
Question Word - what
Example Finish - you think about the new project.

Formula - Could you tell me
Question Word - when
Example Finish - the next train leaves?

Formula - Could you find out
Question Word - when
Example Finish - she is going to arrive?

Formula - I’m interested in
Gerund (-ing) - buying
Example Finish - a boat

Formula - I’m looking for
Noun - information on
Example Finish - holidays in Spain.

Formula used only on the telephone - I’m calling to find out...
Question Word - if
Example Finish - flight AZ098 will leave on time today.

Formula used only on the telephone - I’m calling about...
Noun - the offer
Example Finish - published in today’s newspaper.

GIVING ADVICE
Some common formulas for Giving Advice in English:

✭ I don’t think you should work so hard.
✭ You ought to work less.
✭ You ought not to work so hard.
✭ If I were you, I’d work less.
✭ If I were in your position, I’d work less.
✭ If I were in your shoes, I’d work less.
✭ You had better work less.
✭ You shouldn’t work so hard.
✭ Whatever you do, don’t work so hard.

Construction
Formula - I don’t think you should work so hard.
Verb Form - Use ‘I don’t think you should’ as the base form of the verb in a statement.

Formula - You ought to work less.
Verb Form - Use ‘You ought to’ the base form of the verb in a statement.

Formula - You ought not to work so hard.
Verb Form - Use ‘You ought not to’ the base form of the verb in a statement.

Formula - If I were you, / If I were in your position, I wouldn’t work so hard.
Verb Form - Use ‘If I were’ ‘you’ / ‘in your position’ ‘I wouldn’t’ / ‘I would’ as base form of the verb in a statement.

Formula - You had better work less.
Verb Form - Use ‘You had better’ (you’d better) as the base form of the verb in a statement.

Formula - You shouldn’t OR You should work less.
Verb Form - Use ‘You should’ OR ‘You shouldn’t’ the base form of the verb in a statement.

Formula - Whatever you do, don’t work so hard.
Verb Form - Use ‘Whatever you do’ as the imperative.

GUESSING
Some common ways to guess in English:
✭ I’d say he’s about ready to quite his job.
✭ It might need some oil.
✭ He could be in the garden.
✭ It looks like a miniature motor.
✭ Perhaps he needs some time off work.
✭ Maybe they want to come and visit this summer.
✭ It’s difficult to say, but I’d guess that it’s used for cleaning house.
✭ I’m not really sure, but I think they enjoy hiking in the mountains.

Construction
Formula - I’d say he’s about ready to quite his job.
Form - Use ‘I’d say’ as an independent clause.

Formula - It might need some oil.
Form - Use ‘might’ the base form of the verb.

Formula - He could be in the garden.
Form - Use ‘could’ as the base form of the verb.

Formula - It looks like a miniature motor.
Form - Use the verb ‘look like’ as a noun.

Formula - Perhaps he needs some time off work.
Form - Begin the sentence with ‘perhaps’.

Formula - Maybe they want to come and visit this summer.
Form - Begin the sentence with ‘maybe’.

Formula - It’s difficult to say, but I’d guess that it’s used for
cleaning house.
Form - Use the phrase ‘It’s difficult to say, but I’d guess’ as n independent clause.

Formula - I’m not really sure, but I think they enjoy hiking in
the mountains.
Form - Use the phrase ‘I’m not really sure, but I think’ an independent clause.

VAGUE EXPRESSIONS – BEING IMPRECISE
Some common ways to give imprecise information in English:

• There are about 600 people working in this company.
• There are approximately 600 people working in this company.
• There are a large number of students interested in taking his course.
• Management predicts up to 50% growth for the coming year.
• It’s kind of a bottle opener which can also be used to peel vegetables.
• It’s the type of place you can go to relax for a week or so.
• They’re the sort of people that like going bowling on Saturday evenings.
• It’s difficult to say, but I’d guess that it’s used for cleaning house.
• I’m not really sure, but I think they enjoy hiking in the mountains.

Construction
Formula - There are about 600 people working in this company.
Form - Use ‘about’ for a numbered expression.

Formula - There are approximately 600 people working in this company.
Form - Use ‘approximately’ for a numbered expression.

Formula - There are a large number of students interested in taking
his course.
Form - Use ‘a large number of’ for a noun.

Formula - Management predicts up to 50% growth for the coming year.
Form - Use ‘up to’ for a noun.

Formula - It’s kind of a bottle opener which can also be used to
peel vegetables.
Form - Use ‘kind of’ for a noun.

Formula - It’s the type of place you can go to relax for a week or so.
Form - Use ‘type of’ for a noun and ‘or so’ at the end of a sentence to express the
meaning ‘approximately’.

Formula - They’re the sort of people that like going bowling on
Saturday evenings.
Form - Use ‘sort of’ a noun.

Formula - It’s difficult to say, but I’d guess that it’s used for cleaning house.
Form - Use the phrase ‘It’s difficult to say, but I’d guess’ an independent clause.

Formula - I’m not really sure, but I think they enjoy hiking in
the mountains.
Form - Use the phrase ‘I’m not really sure, but I think’ an independent clause.

STATING A PREFERENCE
Sometimes you need to state a preference when someone makes a suggestion, offers something or asks your opinion about what to do.

✭ Would you like to see a film tonight?
- I’d rather go dancing. How does that sound?
✭ Why don’t we have some Western food?
- Well, I’d prefer eating Chinese. What do you think?
✭ What do you think we should do?
- If it were up to me, I’d go out for dinner.
✭ What are we going to do today? The weather is awful!
- I think we should go to a museum.

✭Why don’t we go to a museum.
✭Let’s go to a museum.
✭How about going to a museum.

Construction
Formula - I’d rather...
Verb Form - Use the base form of the verb without ‘to’ with ‘rather’

Formula - I’d prefer...
Verb Form - Use the ‘-ing’ form following the verb ‘prefer’

Formula - If it were up to me, I’d...
Verb Form - Use the 2nd conditional form followed by the base form of the
verb without ‘to’

Formula - I think we should...
Verb Form - Use the base form the verb without ‘to’ following the modal form ‘should’

Formula - Why don’t we...?
Verb Form - Use the base form of the verb in a question

Formula - Let’s go...
Verb Form - Use the base form of the verb with ‘let’s’

Formula - How about...?
Verb Form - Use the ‘-ing’ form of the verb after a preposition - here ‘about’

DEMANDING EXPLANATIONS
Sometimes, things happen that we would like explained and we must demand explanations. Here are some formulas used when demanding explanations in English:

• Can you tell me why...
• I don't understand why...
• Can you explain why..
• Why is it that...
• How come...
• Does this mean...
• Do you really expect me to believe...

Construction
Formula - Can you tell me why it has taken you so long to respond?
Verb Form - Use 'Can you tell me why' as a full clause in the positive statement
form (S V O).
✭ This is an indirect question and requires a question mark (?).

Formula - I don't understand why it has taken you so long to respond.
Verb Form - Use 'I don't understand why' a full clause in the positive statement
form (S V O).
✭ This is a statement and does NOT require a question mark (?)

Formula - Can you explain why it has taken you so long to respond?
Verb Form - Use 'Can you explain why' a full clause in the positive statement
form (S V O).
✭ This is an indirect question and requires a question mark (?).

Formula - Why is it that it has taken you so long to respond?
Verb Form - Use 'Why is it that' a full clause in the positive statement form (S V O).
✭ This is an indirect question and requires a question mark (?).

Formula - How come it has taken you so long to respond?
Verb Form - Use 'How come' a full clause in the positive statement form (S V O).
✭ This is an indirect question and requires a question mark (?).

Formula - Does this mean (that) it has taken you so long to respond?
Verb Form - Use 'Does this mean (that)' a full clause in the positive statement
form (S V O).
✭ This is an indirect question and requires a question mark (?).

Formula - Do you (really) expect me to belive (that) you weren't able to
finish on time?
Verb Form - Use 'Do you (really) expect me to belive (that)' a full clause in the positive
statement form (S V O).
✭ This is an indirect question and requires a question mark (?).

GIVING WARNINGS
Some common formulas when Giving Warnings in English:

✭ Don't push so hard on that toy, or you might / will break it!
✭ Watch out! Be careful!
✭ Work hard otherwise you'll fail your exam.

Construction
Formula - Don't..., or you might / will...
Verb Form - Use the imperative followed by might or will in a statement

Formula - Watch out! Be Careful
Verb Form - Use the imperative

Formula - Work hard, otherwise you'll...
Verb Form - Use the imperative otherwise you will / might plus the base form of the
verb to show consequences

For more info- http://esl.about.com/blgrammar.htm

REPORTED SPEECH – INDIRECT SPEECH

2006-10-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Indirect or Reported Speech refers to a sentence reporting what someone has said.

✭ If the reporting verb is in the past [e.g. said], the reported clause will be in a past form (usually one step back into the past from the original).
Examples:
• He said the test was difficult.
• She said she watched TV every day.
• Jack said he came to school every day.

✭ If the reporting verb is in the simple present [e.g. says], present perfect or the future is used.
Examples:
• He says the test is difficult.
• She has said that she watches TV every day.
• Jack will say that he comes to school every day.

✭ If reporting a general truth the present tense will be retained.
Example:
• The teacher said that phrasal verbs are very important.

CHANGING PRONOUNS AND TIME SIGNIFIERS
When changing from Direct speech to Indirect speech, it is often necessary to change the pronouns to match the subject of the sentence.

Examples:
• She said, “I want to bring my children.”
BECOMES: She said she wanted to bring her children.

• Jack said, “My wife went with me to the show.”
BECOMES: Jack said his wife had gone with him to the show.

✭ It is also important to change time words (signifiers) when referring to present, past or future time to match the moment of speaking.
Examples:
• She said, “I want to bring my children tomorrow.”
BECOMES: She said she wanted to bring her children the next day.

• Jack said, “My wife went with me to the show yesterday.”
BECOMES: Jack said his wife had gone with him to the show the day before.

INDIRECT QUESTIONS
✭ When reporting questions, it is important to pay attention to sentence order.
✭ When reporting Yes/ No questions, connect the reported question using ‘if’.
✭ When reporting questions using question words [e.g. why, where, etc.), use the question word.
Examples:
• She asked, “Do you want to come with me?”
BECOMES: She asked me if I wanted to come with her.

• Dave asked, “Where did you go last weekend?”
BECOMES Dave asked me where I had gone the previous weekend.

• He asked, “Why are you studying English?”
BECOMES She asked me why I was studying English.

The following shows sentences changed from quoted speech to reported speech
using a past form.
• He said, “I live in Paris.”
- He said he lived in Paris.

• He said, “I am cooking dinner.”
- He said he was cooking dinner.

• He said, “I have visited London twice.”
- He said he had visited London twice.

• He said, “I went to New York last week.”
- He said he had gone to New York the week before.

• He said, “I had already eaten.”
- He said he had already eaten.

• He said, “I am going to find a new job.”
- He said he was going to find a new job.

• He said, “I will give Jack a call.”
- He said he would give Jack a call.

✭ Simple past, present perfect, and past perfect ALL change to past perfect in the reported form.

PREPOSITIONS NOUNS
When using reported speech, most students learn to use "say" and "tell":

Examples:
• John told me he was going to stay late at work.
• Peter said he wanted to visit his parents that weekend.

There are a number of other reporting verbs, which can more accurately describe what someone has said. These verbs take a variety of structures. The following is a list of reporting verbs in various categories based on sentence structure. Notice that a number of verbs can take more than one form.

✭ Verb object infinitive – advise; encourage; invite; remind; warn
Examples:
• Jack encouraged me to look for a new job.
• They invited all their friends to attend the presentation.

✭ Verb infinitive – agree; decide; offer; promise; refuse; threaten
Examples:
• She offered to give him a lift to work.
• My brother refused to take no for an answer.

✭ Verb (that) – admit; agree; decide; deny; explain; insist; promise; recommend; suggest
Examples:
• Tom admitted (that) he had tried to leave early.
• She agreed (that) we needed to reconsider our plans.

✭ Verb gerund – deny; recommend; suggest
Examples:
• He denied having anything to do with her.
• Ken suggested studying early in the morning.

✭ Verb object preposition gerund – accuse; blame; congratulate
Examples:
• They accused the boys of cheating on the exam.
• She blamed her husband for missing the train.

✭ Verb preposition gerund – apologize; insist
Examples:
• He apologized for being late.
• She insisted on doing the washing up.

[Ref: Kenneth Beare: http://esl.about.com/blgrammar.htm]

Modal forms

2006-10-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

Can / Be Able To
Below are examples of can / could / be able to for ability and permission

Examples
a. He can play tennis well.
b. She is able to speak five languages.
c. They can come on Friday.
d. Jack will be able to come next week.

Usage
Use ‘can’ or ‘be able to’ to express an ability or possibility
✦The future of ‘be able to’ is ‘will be able to’

Example
He could swim when he was five.

Usage
Could in the past means the general ability to do something.

Examples
a. They were able to get tickets for the concert.
b. I was able to finish before 6.
c. I couldn’t come last night, sorry. -OR- I wasn’t able to come last night, sorry.

Usage
If someone was in the position to do something, or managed to do something, we use was/were able to instead of ‘could’
✦ In the negative, ‘wasn’t able to’ -OR- ‘couldn’t’ are both correct.

Must / Have To - Mustn’t / Don’t Have to
Below are examples of must / have to / mustn’t / not have to

Examples
a. We have to get up early.
b. She had to work hard yesterday.
c. They will have to arrive early.
d. Does he have to go?

Usage
Use ‘have to’ in the past, present and future to express responsibility or necessity.
✦ ‘Have to’ is conjugated as a regular verb and therefore requires an auxiliary verb in the question form or negative.

Examples
a. I must finish this work before I leave.
b. Must you work so hard?

Usage
✦ Use ‘must’ to express something that you or a person feels is necessary.
✦ This form is used only in the present and future.

Examples
a. You don’t have to arrive before 8.
b. They didn’t have to work so hard.

Usage
The negative form of ‘have to’ expresses the idea that something is not required. It is however, possible if so desired.

Examples
a. She mustn’t use such horrible language.
b. Tom. You mustn’t play with fire.

Usage
The negative form of ‘must’ expresses the idea that something is prohibited - this form is very different in meaning than the negative of ‘have to’!

Examples
a. Did he have to leave so early?
b. He had to stay overnight in Dallas.

Usage
✦ The past form of ‘have to’ and ‘must’ is ‘had to’. Must does not exist in the past.

More on modal forms
Below is a general outline of modal forms and their possible time reference.

Examples of MODAL Simple Verb forms
a. He can answer your question. [Time reference: Present]
b. They should leave early tomorrow. [Time reference: Future]
c. He had to leave at 7 this morning. [Time reference: Past]

Example of MODAL Continuous form
a. He might be joking! [Time reference: Present]

Examples of MODAL Verbs Present Perfect
a. She can’t have been serious! [Time reference: Past]
b. They might have gone to the country. [Time reference: Past]

Example of MODAL Present Perfect Continuous Verb
a. They might have been working at that time. [Time reference: Past]

Modal Verbs of Probability
Below are examples of modal verbs of probability, which are used to express an opinion of the speaker based on information that the speaker has.

Example: He must be at work, it’s 10 o’clock.
In the above case, the speaker is 100% sure that the person is at work based on the speaker’s knowledge that the person in question usually works at during the day.

Examples
a. They must be in Spain by now.
b. She must have done well on the test.

Usage
Use ‘must’ plus the verb when you are 100% (or almost 100%) sure that something is the case.

Examples
a. She might come this evening.
b. David may invite Jesica to the match.
c. Jack might have gone to France.

Usage
Use ‘might’ or ‘may’ to express an opinion that you think has a good possibility of being true.

Examples
a. Jane could be at work.
b. Peter could have arrived late.

Usage
Use ‘could’ to express a possibility (one of many). This form is not as strong as ‘might’ or ‘may’. It is just one of a number of possibilities.

Examples
a. You can’t be serious!
b. They can’t have worked until late.

Usage
Use ‘can’t’ to express an opinion that you are 100% sure is NOT true.
✦ Notice that the past form remains ‘can’t have done’

STRUCTURE
In the present: Subject Modal Base Form Objects
I - must be/ might be/ could be/ can’t be - at work.
You - must be/ might be/ could be/ can’t be - at work.
He, She - must be/ might be/ could be/ can’t be - at work.
We - must be/ might be/ could be/ can’t be - at work.
They - must be/ might be/ could be/ can’t be - at work.

In the past: Subject Modal Perfect Form Objects
I - must have left/ might have left/ could have left/ can’t have left - early.
You - must have left/ might have left/ could have left/ can’t have left - early.
He, She - must have left/ might have left/ could have left/ can’t have left - early.
We - must have left/ might have left/ could have left/ can’t have left - early.
They - must have left/ might have left/ could have left/ can’t have left - early.

ADVERBS

2006-10-06T02:22:00.000-07:00

★ Adverbs modify verbs.
★ Tell you how something is done.
Example: How does she sing? - She sings beautifully.

RULE: Adverbs are often formed by adding -ly to an adjective
Example: beautiful - beautifully; careful - carefully

★ Some adjectives DON'T CHANGE in the adverb form.
Examples: fast - fast; hard - hard

★ Good is an exception: The adverb form of 'good' is 'well'.
Example of incorrect use: He plays tennis good.

RULE: Adverbs can modify an adjective. In this case, the adverb is placed before the adjective.
Example: She is extremely happy; They are absolutely sure.

★Do NOT use 'very' with adjectives that express an increased quality of a basic adjective. Example: good - fantastic
Example of incorrect use: She is a very beautiful woman.

RULE: Adverbs of frequency (always, never, sometimes, often, etc.) usually come before the main verb
Examples: He is often late for class; Do you always eat in a restaurant?; They don't usually travel on Fridays.

★ Adverbs of frequency expressing infrequency are NOT usually used in the negative or question form.
Examples of incorrect use: Does she rarely eat fish?; They don't seldom go to the cinema.

★ Adverbs of frequency are often placed at the beginning of a sentence.
Example: Sometimes, he likes to go to museums.

★ Adverbs of frequency follow or come after the verb 'to be'.
Example: He is sometimes late for work.

5 TYPES OF ADVERBS
1. Adverbs of Manner: provide information on how someone does something.
For example: Ner drives very carefully.

2. Adverbs of Time: provide information on when something happens.
For example: We'll let you know our decision next week.

3. Adverbs of Frequency: provide information on how often something happens.
For example: They usually get to work at eight o'clock.

4. Adverbs of Degree: provide information about how much of something is done.
For example: They like playing golf a lot.

5. Adverbs of Comment: provide a comment, or opinion about a situation.
For example: Fortunately, there were enough seats left for the concert.

ADVERB FORMATION
Adverbs are usually formed by adding '-ly' to an adjective.
For example: quiet - quietly; careful - carefully; careless - carelessly

Adjectives ending in '-le' change to '-ly'.
For example: possible - possibly; probable - probably; incredible - incredibly

Adjectives ending in '-y' change to '-ily'.
For example: lucky - luckily; happy - happily; angry - angrily

Adjectives ending in '-ic' change to '-ically'.
For example: basic - basically; ironic - ironically; scientific – scientifically

Some adjectives are irregular.
Examples of common irregular adverbs: good - well; hard - hard; fast -fast

ADVERB SENTENCE PLACEMENT
1. Adverbs of Manner: AFTER the verb or entire expression (end of the sentence).
For example: Their teacher speaks quickly.

2. Adverbs of Time: AFTER the verb or entire expression (at the end of the sentence).
For example: She visited her friends last year.

3. Adverbs of Frequency: BEFORE the main verb (not the auxiliary verb).
Examples: He often goes to bed late.; Do you sometimes get up early?

4. Adverbs of Degree: AFTER the verb or entire expression (at the end of the sentence).
For example: She'll attend the meeting as well.

5. Adverbs of Comment: AT THE BEGINNING of a sentence.
For example: Luckily, I was able to come to the presentation.

Exceptions to Adverb Placement
Some adverbs are placed at the beginning of a sentence to provide more emphasis.
For example: Now you tell me you can't come!

Adverbs of frequency are placed after the verb 'to be' when used as the main verb.
For example: Jack is often late for work.

Some adverbs of frequency (sometimes, usually, normally) are also placed at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis.
For example: Sometimes I visit my friends in London.

ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY
Tell us how often:
something happens/ is the case;
happened/was the case;
will happen/will be the case, etc.

Some examples:
★ always
★ constantly; habitually; chiefly; predominantly; typically; continuously
★ usually; normally; mostly; generally; commonly; largely; regularly
★ often; frequently
★ repeatedly
★ sometimes, occasionally, sporadically, intermittently, spasmodically
★ rarely infrequently seldom
★ never

Where do adverbs come in the sentence?
1. If the sentence has one verb in it (i.e. no auxiliary verb) we usually put the adverb in the
middle of the sentence (i.e. after the subject and before the verb):

Position A
Subject: Tom
Adverb: usually
Verb: goes
Predicate: to work by car.

2. The adverb usually comes after the verb “be”:

Position B
Subject: Tom - Anne
Verb: is - isn’t
Adverb: often - usually
Predicate: late - early.

★ This is NOT the case IF we put the adverb at the beginning or end of the sentence.

★ This rule also does NOT apply to short answers:
Speaker A: Is she usually on time? - Tell her not to be late.
Speaker B: Yes, she usually is. - She never is.

★ The rule is BROKEN in other cases too:
Speaker A: What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at school?
Speaker B: I – normally – am - at school at this time, - but my teacher is ill.

Speaker A: You’re late again!
Speaker B: I – usually – am - late on Mondays because the traffic is so bad.

Speaker A: Tom is late again!
Speaker B: Tom – usually – is - late!; I – never – was - any good at maths.

3. If the sentence has more than one verb in it (e.g. auxiliary verb) we usually put the adverb after the first part of the verb:

Position C
Subject: I - Anne - The children
Verb 1: can - doesn’t - have
Adverb: never - usually - often
Verb 2: remember - smoke. - complained
Predicate: his name. - about the state of the school toilets.

Exception: In sentences with “have to” the adverb is in position A:
Subject: We
Adverb: often
Verb 1: have to
Verb 2: wait
Predicate: for the bus.

4. For emphasis we can put the adverb at the beginning or end of the sentence.
At the end is unusual (usually when we have forgotten to put it in earlier).

Position D
Adverb: Sometimes
Subject: we
Verb 1: go
Predicate: to school by bus.

Position E
Subject: We
Verb 1: go
Predicate: to school by bus
Adverb: sometimes

Exceptions:
★ “Always” CAN’T go at the beginning or end of the sentence.

★ “Never”, “seldom”, “rarely” CAN’T go at the end of a sentence,
and only go at the beginning of a sentence in “polemic statements”.
They also have to be followed by the word order for questions:

Never - has - there - been - a better time to overcome our differences!
Rarely - do - we - have - an opportunity like this to…
Seldom - had - the orchestra - given - a worse performance.

5. With adverbs of frequency in the question form, put the adverb before the main verb.

Position F
Auxiliary verb: Do
Subject: you
Adverb: often
Verb 1: go
Predicate: to the cinema?

Exceptions:
★ “Never”, “seldom”, “rarely” and other adverbs of frequency with a negative sense are NOT usually used in the question form.

6. When using adverbs of frequency in the negative form, put the adverb before the main verb.

Position G
Subject: They
Auxiliary verb: don’t
Adverb: often
Verb 1: go
Predicate: to the cinema.

Exceptions:
“Never”, “seldom”, “rarely” and other adverbs of frequency with a negative sense are NOT usually used in the negative form.

[Re: http://esl.about.com/library/grammar/blgr_adverbs_frequency.htm]

ADJECTIVES

2006-10-05T06:33:00.000-07:00

An adjective describes how something ‘is’
so we usually use the verb 'to be'
when using adjectives.
Example: He is a good doctor.

RULE: Adjectives describe nouns.
The adjective is always invariable.
Example: beautiful trees; they are happy

Adjectives DON'T HAVE:
*A singular and plural form
*A masculine, feminine and neuter form
*A final -s to an adjective.

Example of incorrect use: difficults books

*Adjectives can be at the end of a sentence if they describe the subject of a sentence.
Example: My doctor is excellent

RULE: Adjectives are placed before the noun, NEVER after the noun
Example: a wonderful book; very interesting people

*Don't place an adjective after the noun
Example of incorrect use: an apple red

Adjective Placement
When using more than one adjective to describe a noun place the adjectives in the following order before the noun.

NOTE: Try to use no more than three adjectives preceding a noun.

1. Opinion
Example: an interesting book; a boring lecture

2. Dimension
Example: a big apple; a thin wallet

3. Age
Example: a new car; a modern building; an ancient ruin

4. Shape
Example: a square box; an oval mask; a round ball

5. Colour
Example: a pink hat; a blue book; a black coat

6. Origin
Example: some Italian shoes; a Canadian town; an American car

7. Material
Example: a wooden box; a wool sweater; a plastic toy

Examples of nouns modified with three adjectives in the correct order based on the list above. Notice: the adjectives are not separated by commas.

* A wonderful old Italian clock. (opinion - age - origin)
* A big square blue box. (dimension - shape - colour)
* A disgusting pink plastic ornament. (opinion - colour - material)
* Some slim new French trousers. (dimension - age - origin)

PLURAL FORMS

2006-10-03T03:16:00.000-07:00

How to Spell NOUN PLURALS
Most common nouns
The plural of most nouns is formed by adding -s to the end of the noun.
For example: dog - dogs; light - lights

If the noun ends in -s, -z, -x, -ch or -sh, then the plural is formed by adding -es.
For example: watch - watches; glass - glasses

Plural of nouns ending in -y
When -y is preceded by a consonant, form the plural by changing the -y into -ies.
For example: city - cities; cranberry - cranberries
When -y is preceded by a vowel, the -y is not changed in the plural form -ys.
For example: holiday - holidays; monkey - monkeys

Plural of a noun ending in -o
Some nouns that end in -o add -s to form the plural.
For example: piano - pianos
Some add -es to form the plural.
For example: potato - potatoes; tomato - tomatoes
Others add either -s or -es (both are correct).
For example: volcano - volcanos or volcanoes

How to Spell VERB FORMS
Regular verb forms
Most third person present singular verb forms add -s to the end of the verb.
For example: work - he works;
think - she thinks

However, if the verb ends in -s, -z, -x, -ch or -sh,
the third person present singular is formed by adding -es to the verb.
For example: watch - she watches;
brush - he brushes

The past tense and the past participle of regular verbs are formed by adding -ed.
For example: watch - watched, watched; wait - waited, waited

If the verb ends in -e or -ee, then the past tense and past participle are formed by only adding -d to the end of the verb.
For example: live - lived, lived; agree - agreed, agreed

The present participle of a verb (like the gerund form) is formed by adding -ing.
For example: sing - singing; think - thinking

However, if the verb ends in a 'silent' -e, then the present participle is formed by dropping this -e from the end of the verb and adding -ing.
For example: like – liking; stare - staring

Forms of a verb ending in -y
The third person present singular of verbs ending in -y preceded by a consonant is formed by changing the -y to -ies.
For example: query - he queries; carry - she carries
The third person present singular of verbs ending in -y preceded by a vowel does not change the -y
For example: play - he plays; stay - she stays

Regular verbs ending in -y preceded by a consonant form the past tense and the past participle by changing the -y into -ied.
For example: query - queried, queried; carry - carried, carried
Regular verbs ending in -y preceded by a vowel do not change the -y for the past tense and the past participle.
For example: stay - stayed, stayed; pray - prayed, prayed

The present participle (like the gerund form) of verbs ending in -y is formed by adding -ing.
For example: play - playing; carry - carrying

Doubled Consonants
Sometimes single syllable verbs ending with a single consonant have this letter repeated in the spelling for the present and past participles and the past tense.
For example: drop - dropped, dropping; stop, stopped - stopping

Definitions in a Dictionary - British & American English

2006-10-02T02:06:00.000-07:00

Once you found the word you are looking for, you need to understand a few common conventions to make best use of your dictionary.

An example entry in a dictionary:
feat (fi:t) n. a remarkable, skillful, or daring action; exploit; achievement: feats of strength...
(Collins English Dictionary)

1. feat - defined word

2. (fi:t) - a phonological transcription of the word (the correct pronunciation), usually using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

3. n. - the part of speech, in this case 'n.' means noun (look for a list of abbreviations used in your Dictionary).

4. a remarkable, skillful, or daring action; exploit; achievement: definitions of the word. Different meanings of a word will be separated by numbers.

5. feats of strength - example sentence using the defined word

Differences Between British and American Spelling
Most dictionaries include both spellings. Usually the differences are noted in one of two ways:

In many US dictionaries the difference is included in the headword with the variation in parentheses. For example: colo(u)r

In British Dictionaries, the Dictionary makes note of the difference in brackets immediately after the headword.

List of the main differences between British and American spelling:
British -our (honour)
American -or (honor)

British -re (centre)
American -er (center)

British -ogue (dialogue)
American -og (dialog)

British -ence (defence)
American -ense (defense)

British -ise 1 (recognise)
American -ize (recognize)

American English spelling sometimes does not double the consonant at the end of a word, while British English spelling does, especially when the consonant is an 'l'.
For example: travel, traveller, travelling (British)
and travel, traveler, traveling (American)

Differences Between British and American English
Generally, it is agreed that no one version is "correct". The most important rule of thumb is to be consistent in your usage. The following guide is meant to point out the principal differences between these two varieties of English.

Use of the Present Perfect
In British English the present perfect is used to express an action that has occurred in the recent past that has an effect on the present moment.
For example: I've lost my key. Can you help me look for it?

In American English the following is also possible (though incorrect in British English):
I lost my key. Can you help me look for it?

Other differences involving the use of the present perfect in British English and simple past in American English include already, just and yet.

British English:
I've already seen that film
I've just had lunch
Have you finished your homework yet?

American English:
I've already seen that film OR I already saw that film.
I just had lunch OR I've just had lunch
Have your finished your homework yet? OR Did you finish your homework yet?

Possession
There are two forms to express possession in English. Have or Have got

Do you have a car?
Have you got a car?
He hasn't got any friends.
He doesn't have any friends.
She has a beautiful new home.
She's got a beautiful new home.

While both forms are correct (and accepted in both British and American English), have gothave you got, he hasn't got, etc.) is generally the preferred form in British English while most speakers of American English employ the have (do you have, he doesn't have etc.)

The Verb Get
The past participle of the verb get is gotten in American English.
Example: He's gotten much better at playing tennis.
British English - He's got much better at playing tennis.

Vocabulary
Probably the major differences between British and American English lies in the choice of vocabulary. Some words mean different things in the two varieties.

For example:
Mean
American English - angry, bad humored
British English - not generous, tight fisted

Rubber
American English - condom
British English - tool used to erase pencil markings

There are too many more examples to list here. Your dictionary will note differences in usage in its definition of the term. Many vocabulary items are also used in one form and not in the other. One of the best examples of this is the terminology used for automobiles.
American English - hood British English - bonnet
American English - trunk British English - boot
American English - truck British English - lorry

For a more complete list of the vocabulary differences between British and American English use this British vs. American English vocabulary tool: http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blbritam.htm

Prepositions
American English - on the weekend
British English - at the weekend

American English - on a team
British English - in a team

American English - please write me soon
British English - please write to me soon

Past Simple/Past Participles
The following verbs have two acceptable forms of the past simple/past participle in both American and British English. However, the irregular form is more common in British Englishthe first form of the two) and the regular form is more common to American English.

Burn
Burnt OR burned

Dream
dreamt OR dreamed

Lean
leant OR leaned

Learn
learnt OR learned

Smell
smelt OR smelled

Spell
spelt OR spelled

Spill
spilt OR spilled

Spoil
spoilt OR spoiled

Spelling
Here are some general differences between British and American spellings:

Words ending in
-our (British) colour, humour, flavour
-or (American) color, humor, flavor, etc.

Words ending in
-ise (British) recognise, patronise
-ize (American) recognize, patronize, etc.

*Use the spell check to make sure that you are consistent in your spelling
*Choose which variety of English you would like
*The largest difference between standard British English and American English is probably that of the choice of vocabulary and pronunciation

For more information, check out Kenneth Beare.

More on Prepositions

2006-09-27T03:06:00.000-07:00

Preposition Use - in / at / on
prepositions of place

IN
Use 'in' with spaces:
* in a room / in a building
* in a garden / in a park

Use 'in' with bodies of water:
* in the water
* in the sea
* in a river

Use 'in' with lines:
* in a row / in a line
* in a queue

AT
Use 'at' with places:
* at the bus-stop
* at the door
* at the cinema
* at the end of the street

Use 'at' with places on a page:
* at the top of the page
* at the bottom of the page

Use 'at' in groups of people:
* at the back of the class
* at the front of the class

ON
Use 'on' with surfaces:
* on the ceiling / on the wall / on the floor
* on the table

Use 'on' with small islands:
* I stayed on Maui.

Use 'on' with directions:
* on the left
* on the right
* straight on

IMPORTANT NOTES
In / at / on the corner
We say 'in the corner of a room', but 'at the corner (or 'on the corner') of a street'

In / at / on the front
* We say 'in the front / in the back' of a car
* We say 'at the front / at the back' of buildings / groups of people
* We say 'on the front / on the back' of a piece of paper

Preposition Use - in / at / to / nothing
prepositions of place and movement
IN
Use 'in' with static (non-movement) verbs and cities, countries, states, etc.:
* stay in the USA
* work in New York

AT
Use 'at' with static (non-movement) verbs and places:
* at the cinema
* at work
* at home

TO
Use 'to' with verbs of movement such as go, come, drive, etc.:
* go to work
* drive to California

IMPORTANT NOTES
The use of ' ' (nothing)
* With verbs of movement and the noun 'home' - He went home. - they drove home.
* With the verb 'visit' - She visited France last summer.

Preposition Use - for / while / during
FOR
Use 'for' with a period of time to express the duration or 'how long' something has happened:
* for three weeks
* for many years

WHILE
Use 'while' plus a verb form:
* while I was watching TV
* while I lived in New York

DURING
Use 'during' with a noun to express 'when' something happens:
* during class
* during my vacation
* during the discussion

Preposition Use - in / at / on
prepositions of time and date
IN
Use 'in' months and years and periods of time:
* in January
* in 1978
* in the twenties

Use 'in' a period of time in the future:
* in a few weeks
* in a couple of days

AT
Use 'at' with precise time:
* at six o'clock
* at 10.30
* at two p.m.

ON
Use 'on' with days of the week:
* on Monday
* on Fridays

Use 'on' with specific calendar days:
* on Christmas day
* on October 22nd

IMPORTANT NOTES
in the morning / afternoon / evening - at night
We say in the morning, afternoon or evening BUT we say 'at night'

Noun Prepositions
FOR
Use 'for' preceded by the following nouns:
* a check for (amount of money)
Example: She gave me a check for $50.

* a demand for something
Example: Unfortunately, there wasn't enough demand for our product.

* a need for something
Example: There is a real need for discipline in this class.

* a reason for something
Example: I have a reason for doing that!

IN
Use 'in' preceded by the following nouns:

* a rise in something
Example: There has been a rise in prices recently.

* an increase in something
Example: We have seen many increases in production levels.

* a fall in something
Example: There has been a fall in prices recently.

* a decrease in something
Example: We have seen many decreases in production levels.

OF
Use 'of' preceded by the following nouns:

* a cause of something
Example: She is the cause of all his problems.

* a photograph OR a picture of something or someone
Example: He took a photograph of the mountains.

TO
Use 'to' preceded by the following nouns:

* damage to something
Example: I did a lot of damage to my car the other day.

* an invitation to a celebration of some type
Example: We were invited to their wedding.

* reaction to something
Example: Her reaction to his behavior was quite funny.

* a solution to a problem
Example: He provided the solution to our financial situation.

* an attitude to something (or TOWARDS something)
Example: Your attitude to your problems doesn't help them get resolved.

WITH
Use 'with' preceded by the following nouns:

* a relationship with someone or something
Example: My relationship with Mary is wonderful.

* a connection with someone or something
Example: His connections with the CIA are very limited.

* a contact with someone or something
Example: Have you had any contact with Sarah?

BETWEEN
Use 'between' preceded by the following nouns:

* a connection between TWO things
Example: There is no connection between the two crimes.

* a relationship between TWO things
Example: The relationship between the two friends was very strong.

* a contact between TWO things
Example: There is little contact between the two parents.

* a difference between TWO things
Example: There is no difference between those two colors.

Prepositions Nouns
BY
Use 'by' with the following nouns:

* to pay by check (credit card)
Example: I paid the bill by check.

* to do something by accident
Example: I broke the vase by mistake.

* to do something by mistake
Example: I'm afraid I brought the wrong book by mistake.

* to do something by chance
Example: I saw Jack at the supermarket by chance.

* a play, song, book, etc. by someone
Example: The opera 'Otello' is by Giuseppe Verdi.

FOR
Use 'for' with the following nouns:

* (to go / come) for a walk
Example: Let's go for a walk.

* (to go / come) for a swim
Example: We went for a swim as soon as we arrived.

* (to go / come) for a drink
Example: Would you like to come over for a drink?

* (to go / come) for a visit
Example: I'd love to come for a visit sometime.

* (to have something) for breakfast / lunch / dinner / supper (US English)
Example: I had bacon and eggs for breakfast.

IN
Use 'in' with the following nouns:

* to be OR to fall in love with someone
Example: I fell in love with my wife at first sight.

* in my opinion
Example: In my opinion, we need to invest in some development.

* a need for something

ON
Use 'on' with the following nouns:

* (to be) on fire
Example: Help! The house is on fire!

* (to be) on the telephone / phone
Example: I think Tom is on the phone at the moment.

* on television
Example: There is a good film on television tonight.

* on the radio
Example: Mahler's fifth was on the radio last night.

* (to be / go) on a diet
Example: I really need to go on a diet.

* (to be / go) on strike
Example: The sanitary engineers have gone on strike again.

* (to be / go) on holiday (UK English) / vacation (American English)
Example: I really need to go on vacation soon.

* (to be / go) business
Example: He went away this weekend on business.

* (to be / go) on a trip
Example: We were on a trip this past weekend.

* (to be / go) a tour
Example: Have you ever been on a tour of the French countryside?

* (to be / go) on an excursion
Example: We went on an excursion to Versailles when we were in Paris.

ABOUT
Use the following adjectives followed by 'about'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.

* angry / annoyed / furious about something
Example: I'm really angry about our losses on the stock market!

* excited about something
Example: He's excited about his birthday party next week.

* worried / upset about something
Example: He's worried about his upcoming examinations.

* sorry about something
Example: I'm very sorry about Losing your book.

AT
Use the following adjectives followed by 'at'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.

* good / excellent / brillant at something OR at doing something
Example: They are excellent at planning fun parties.

* bad / hopeless at something OR at doing something
Example: Unfortunately, I'm hopeless at being on time.

AT / BY
Use the following adjectives followed by 'at' or 'by'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.

* amazed / astonished / shocked / surprised at OR by something
Example: I was amazed at his stamina.

FOR
Use the following adjectives followed by 'for'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.

* angry with someone for something
Example: I'm really angry with John for his total lack of responsibility.

* famous for something
Example: She's famous for her watercolor paintings.

* responsible for something
Example: You'll have to speak to John, he's responsible for customer complaints.

* sorry for doing something
Example: He says he's sorry for shouting at you.

* (to feel or be) sorry for someone
Example: I really feel sorry for Pam.

FROM
Use the following adjectives followed by 'from'.

* different from someone / something
Example: His photographs are very different from his paintings.

Adjective Preposition Combinations
'of / on / to / with'

OF
Use the following adjectives followed by 'of'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.

* nice / kind / good / generous of someone (to do something)
Example: It was very nice of him to buy me a present.

* mean of someone (to do something)
Example: It was very mean of Susan to say that to Tom.

* stupid / silly of someone (to do something)
Example: I'm afraid it was stupid of me to come.

* intelligent / clever / sensible of someone (to do something)
Example: That was quite sensible of Tom.

* polite of someone (to do something)
Example: It was very polite of Peter to invite my sister to the party.

* impolite / rude of someone (to do something)
Example: I can't believe how rude it was of Jack to shout at his daughter in front of all those people.

* unreasonable of someone (to do something)
Example: Don't be so hard on yourself! It's unreasonable of you to expect to understand everything immediately.

* proud of something or someone
Example: I'm very proud of my daughter's wonderful progress in school.

* ashamed of someone or something
Example: She's ashamed of her bad grades.

* jealous / envious of someone or something
Example: She's really envious of her sister's wealth.

* aware / conscious of something
Example: Teens are often overly conscious of skin blemishes.

* capable / incapable of something
Example: Peter is quite capable of conducting the meeting on his own.

* fond of someone or something
Example: She is so fond of her niece.

* short of something
Example: I'm afraid I'm short of cash tonight.

* tired of something
Example: I'm tired of your complaining!

ON
Use the following adjective followed by 'on'. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.

* to be keen on something
Example: She is very keen on horses.

TO
Use the following adjectives followed by 'to'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.

* married / engaged to someone
Example: Jack is engaged to Jill.

* nice / kind / good / generous to someone
Example: She was very generous to me when I was staying with her.

* mean / impolite / rude / unpleasant / unfriendly / cruel to someone
Example: How can you be so unfriendly to your neighbors?

* similar to something
Example: His painting is similar to Van Gough.

WITH
Use the following adjectives followed by 'with'. Each group of adjectives have the same or related meanings. Use the verb 'to be' with these expressions.

* angry / annoyed / furious with someone for something
Example: I'm furious with my brother for having lied to me!

* delighted / pleased / satisfied with something
Example: He is quite satisfied with his results.

* disappointed with something
Example: She's really disappointed with her new car.

* bored / fed up with something
Example: Let's go. I'm fed up with this party.

* crowded with (people, tourists, etc.)
Example: Disneyland is crowded with tourists in July.

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE REFERENCE
Reference sheet:
AT
at first; at least; at most; at times; at any rate; at last; at the latest; at once; at short notice; at an advantage; at a disadvantage; at risk; at a profit / loss

BY
by accident; by far; by all means; by heart; by chance; by and by; by the way; by the time; by no means; by name; by sight; by now; by then

FOR
for now; for instance; for example; for sale; for a while; for the moment; for ages; for a change; for better or worse

FROM
from now on; from then on; from bad to worse; from my point of view; from what I understand; from personal experience

UNDER
under age; under control; under the impression; under guarantee; under the influence of; under obligation; under no obligation; under suspicion; under his thumb; under discussion; under consideration

WITHOUT
without fail; without notice; without exception; without someone's consent; without success; without warning

IV. WORDS TO WATCH

2006-05-12T03:39:00.000-07:00

Human eyes are always better than any ‘spell-check’ software. The most troublesome 2 in business and scientific writing are perhaps “affect” and “effect”.

The following are words you may need to check carefully. According to Ian Gordon in his book A word in your ear, these words may be described as confusables.

Actual/Actually
“Actual” is an adjective
“Actually” is an adverb

Both are overworked. They may convey a shade of meaning when talking, but it’s almost always better to leave them out in writing.

Adoption/Adaptation
The noun from “adopt” (or take over as one’s own) is “adoption”. However the noun from “adapt” (or alter to suit one’s particular purposes) is “adaptation”.
E.g. They hoped to be offered twins for adoption.
BUT
My adaptation of the manual is much clearer than the original.

Advice/Advise
“Advice” is a noun meaning suggestion for action.
E.g. She gave me helpful advice so my cooking was delicious.

“Advise” is the verb meaning to give suggestions for action.
E.g. I advise you to report the accident at once.

Several similar pairs exist (like the noun “device” and “the verb “devise”; or the noun “practice” and the verb “practise”). Sometimes, as with “advice” and “advise”, pronunciation helps you distinguish the pair from each other.

Affect/Effect
These 2 common words are often confused in formal writing. Their meanings are completely different.

To “affect” (verb) means to influence or change in some way.
E.g. Smoking had affected her lungs

It can also mean to put on or show a pretence of something.
E.g. After watching the film, she affected a Texan accent

To “effect” (verb) is to being something about.
E.g. The new legislation effected an increase in the number of people buying shares.
OR
The medicine effected an immediate cure.

An “effect” (noun) means a result. It can be used in the singular or plural.
E.g. The effect of the taxation decrease was immediate.
OR
Her personal effects were left to her daughter.

The real danger with “affect” and “effect” is that in some sentences either meaning could be intended.

E.g. The drug effected his chance of success (caused, was responsible for)
OR
The drug affected his chance of success (changed, usually but not necessarily, reduced)

All ready/already
“All ready” refers to everyone in a group.
“Already” means by this time.

E.g. Are the guests all ready to have their meal?
OR
Has the whistle been blown already?

All right: The 2 words “all right” should NOT ever be run together in formal writing

All together/Altogether
“All together” can be 2 words meaning “all at the same time” e.g.
All together they heaved on the rope.

The single word “altogether” means completely e.g.
This equipment is altogether unsatisfactory.

Allude/Delude/Elude
To “allude” to something is to mention or refer to it e.g.
She alluded to her holiday in Bali.

To “delude” someone is to deceive or take that person in e.g.
Don’t think you can delude me with such a far-fetched story.

To “elude” someone is to escape e.g.
Mat eluded capture by a swift side step.

Allusion/Delusion/Illusion
An “allusion” is a reference to, or mention of, something.
E.g. Her allusion to the accident made me realise she was ready to talk about it.

A “delusion” is a false belief.
E.g. He held to the delusion that the earth is flat.

An “illusion” is an unrealistic hope or dream.
E.g. He has illusions about winning the lottery or inheriting a fortune.

“Allude” and “Allusion”; “Delude” and “Delusion” are likely to be useful words in business writing while “Elude” and “Illusion are quite rare.

Among/Between
“Among” is used of more than 2, whereas “between” is used of 2 e.g.
The trustee said the estate was to be divided among the three sisters but YuLi and
YuLa decided between themselves that YuLu should have the whole estate.

Amount/Number
“Amount” refers to things in mass or bulk.
“Number” refers to units or things or people or ideas that can be counted.
E.g. The amount of dust increased with the continuous roadwork.
BUT
The number of scientists working on the project needed to be increased.

* “Fewer” and “Less” follow the same pattern.

Ante-/anti
“Ante-” comes from a Latin word meaning before e.g.
Antenatal exercises are performed before a baby is born.
An anteroom is a room a patient waits in before going into a surgery.

“Anti-” comes from a Latin word meaning against e.g.
Anticorrosive substances prevent corrosion occurring.
An antidote counteracts the effects of a poison.

Sometimes the word “anti” is used by itself in speech and, rarely, in writing e.g.
Is he pro or anti the present government?

Such a sentence would be better worded this way:
Is he for or against the present government?

The exception to the rule with “ante” and “anti” is the word “anticipate”, which means to act before something else happens. The pronunciation will help you remember that the word anticipate breaks the pattern. The “i” is clearly short, like in “hit” or “tip”.

Appraise/Apprise
To “appraise” something is to work out its value e.g.
She appraised the antique cabinet in her own mind.

To “apprise” someone of something is to inform him or her about it e.g.
She apprised her friend of the arrangements for the secret meeting.

Biannual/Biennial/Bimonthly/Biweekly
Avoid all these words.
“Biannual” and “Biennial” can mean twice a year or every second year.
Some dictionaries give one meaning, others the other, and some both.
The same is true for the others so it is better to say what you mean without using them.

E.g. “You must submit a bimonthly report” should be rewritten as:
You must submit a report twice a month.
OR
You must submit a report every two months.

Canvas/Canvass
These 2 are interchangeable but usually “canvas” is used for fabrics from which tents and deck chairs can be made and “canvass” of soliciting opinions or votes.

E.g. Please put the canvas chairs out on the deck.
OR
The chairperson tried to canvass support for his idea.

Casual/Causal
Be careful not to transpose (switch) letters with these 2.
“Casual” means “without careful thought”
“Causal” means “acting as the cause of” / “the cause of”
E.g. His casual attitude to punctuality meant he was late to the appointment and missed
out on the job
OR
The experiment showed that bacteria were the causal factor in the development of mould.

Complement/Compliment
Both these words can be used as verbs or nouns.
A “complement” is something that completes a whole e.g.
The perfect complement to a roast dinner is a light dessert.

A “compliment” is a flattering statement e.g.
She blushed at the compliment but thanked her new friend for it.

“Comprise” means “to contain” or “consist of” e.g.
Our company comprises four sections: production, marketing, account and sales.

“Comprise” is an indispensable word in report writing. Unlike “contain” or “include” it implies that the whole range is covered.

If you wrote, “Our team includes three women” you would mean that the three are part of a larger group, the others not being women.

If you wrote, “Our team comprises three women” you would be saying that there are no other people in the team.

*Remember: “Comprise” can only be used as an active verb.
NEVER say anything “is comprised of” any more than you would say anything “is included of”.

Continual/Continuous
“Continual” means recurring at constant, short intervals.
“Continuous” means going on all the time.

E.g. - Continual telephone calls interrupted his work.
- The continuous noise of passing traffic never ceased.

Council/Counsel
A governing body or board is a council and those who are on I are the councillors.

Advice is sometimes known as counsel and those who give it, including study skills
experts, are known as counsellors.

*A barrister who represents a client in court is known as a counsel, NOT a counsellor.

Coarse/Course
“Coarse” literally means consisting of rough, large bits.
Figuratively it has come to mean ordinary, common, rude.
E.g. - Coarse gravel at the bottom of a clay pot will give good drainage.
- I don’t like his coarse manners, but he had a good heart.

A “course” originally meant a race at a sports meeting, now most often means a plan of action or defined block of study e.g.
He is taking an English course this semester.

Credible/Creditable/Credulous
“Credible” means easily believable e.g.
Her explanations are always credible but they not necessarily true.

“Creditable” means deserving credit e.g.
Though he usually plays on the wing he gave a creditable performance as a goal keeper.

“Credulous” means willing to believe on weak grounds e.g.
A person who is credulous is not necessarily a fool, as is a person who is gullible, but may
easily be taken in.

Device/Devise
Like “advice” and “advise”, and “practice” and “practise”, this is another pair of words with the noun ending in –ce, and the verb in –se.

A “device” is a clever gadget whereas to “devise” is to work out, or invent e.g.
She invented a clever device for holding a hot cup.
Then she had to devise a way of marketing it.

Disburse/Disperse
To “disburse” is to pay out or spend money.
Similarly, “disbursement” is money spent or paid out.
E.g. The accountant disbursed the rest of the money to her client’s heirs.
The disbursement each received was $1000.

To “disperse” is to move away in various directions e.g.
The crowd dispersed as soon as the rain started.

Discrete/Discreet
These 2 words have different meanings and are likely to be used in different contexts.
- “Discrete” particles, in a chemistry experiment, are completely separate from each other.
- “Discreet” behaviour is courteous, intended to please but not attract unwelcome attention.
E.g. The mixture separated into discrete blue and green layers.
She behaved in a discreet manner in her mother-in-law’s house.

Disinterested/Uninterested
“Disinterested” means without bias.
“Uninterested” means not interested.
E.g. A coach would be disinterested when taking down the times of athletes, but certainly
not uninterested.

Effective/Effectual/Efficacious/Efficient
“Effective” means able to achieve its purpose e.g.
I hope this ‘blog’ will be effective and help you improve your writing skills.

“Effectual” has the same meaning limited to people. It is often used in its negative form e.g.
That new head of department in the English faculty is ineffectual in a crisis.

“Efficacious” is used of remedies e.g.
Tiger balm was efficacious in curing his chest pain.

*Effective can serve for both Effectual and Efficacious so use it when in any doubt at all.

“Efficient” or skilled and active is quite different from the first 3. It is appropriate to say, e.g.
a policy or practice is effective and efficient.

Eke out
To “eke out” is to add to, to supplement in a necessary way e.g.
He eked out his superannuation (deductions for pension scheme) by doing occasional jobs.

*It does NOT mean to make something go a long way. It is WRONG to write, ‘You should eke out your allowance by spending less on entertainment.’

Elder/Older
“Elder” is the most senior in a particular group, usually a family or religious group.
You can say a preschooler is the “eldest” of the children or speak of an “elder” in a church.

“Older” and “Oldest” refer to age and have nothing to do with status e.g.
The oldest member of parliament may have been there only two years.

Elicit/Illicit
To “elicit” something is to draw or even drag it out e.g.
I could not elicit a single fact from the witness.

“Illicit” means illegal, existing without the necessary authority e.g.
The police confiscated the parcel of illicit drugs.

Emigrant/Immigrant
- An emigrant is a person who leaves her country to settle permanently in another country.
- An immigrant is a person who moves to a country to settle there permanently.

E.g. SuQin, who is an emigrant from Malaysia, is now an Italian immigrant, having taken
out citizenship in Italy.

Eminent/Imminent
Something or some person who is eminent is outstanding, or high above others e.g.
The eminent University of China historian visited our university.

Something which is about to happen is “imminent” e.g.
Worry about the costs of the imminent wedding occupied his whole waking day.

“Equally” must NOT be followed by “as” e.g.
Yong and his brother are equally capable.

*Putting “as” after equally (on analogy with ‘just as’) is wrong

Especially/Specially
These two are not alternatives.

“Especially” means in particular.
“Specially” means on purpose.
E.g. - You look especially well dressed. (Exceptionally well dressed)
- You look specially well dressed. (Dressed well for some deliberate reason)

*The difference better seen when the order is changed e.g.
- He went to the meeting especially early. (Earlier than he usually did)
- He went to the meeting early specially. (For some reason or other)

Everyone/Everybody
These are plural in sense but singular in form.
They are “distributive pronouns” i.e. refer to a group by considering them one at a time.

Only singular pronouns e.g. he, she, it and singular possessive adjectives e.g. his, her, its
can be used with them.

English has no singular epicene (both masculine and feminine) third person pronoun you may either be cumbersome or sexist if you use “everyone” correctly e.g.
Everyone is to take his or her books when he or she leaves (clumsy).
OR
Everyone is to take his books when he leaves (sexist unless referring to all male group).
OR
Everyone is to take his/her books when he/she leaves (slack).

A sensible alternative is to use plural e.g.
All members of the committee are to take their papers with them when they leave.

Farther/Further
“Farther” refers only to geographic distance.
“Further” can be used geographically and metaphorically,
OR to mean “furthermore” or “moreover” e.g.
The pigeon flew farther afield every day. The pigeon flew further afield every day.

But “further” is the only word to use in sentences like these:
His proposal went further than I expected.
OR
Further, he had borrowed heavily from his partners.

*If in doubt, always use “further”

Fewer/Less
Use “fewer” for countable nouns.
Use “less” for uncountable nouns.
E.g.
- Fewer parents went to the function.
- Less rain fell this season than last season.

Though the distinction is often ignored in speech, it should be observed in writing.

Figuratively/Literally
“Figuratively” means taking an imaginative licence
OR representing something with some symbolic exaggeration e.g.
Figuratively speaking, Ahmad was twice the weight of any of his friends.

“Literally” means exactly but often wrongly used where “figuratively” belongs e.g.
She was literally eight metres tall (i.e. according to accurate and verifiable measures)

“Finalise” is a useful word meaning to settle the last outstanding details e.g.
I will try to finalise the draft before Friday.

*In British English it should NOT be used to mean “to complete” or “finish” (vs American)

Italics, Capital letters and Spelling

2006-05-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

Italics are equivalent to underlining in longhand. They are used for the titles of complete works and foreign words and phrases like ab initio.

Words from other languages which have been fully absorbed into English e.g. sputnik and bourgeois do not need italics.

For more effective business-writing try to replace words not yet fully absorbed with English equivalents.

E.g. phrases like vis à vis can be replaced with “face to face”, prima facie with “on the face of it”, and so on.

Think of italics as a sign to search in a dictionary of synonyms like Roget’s Thesaurus for an equivalent from the rich and flexible language.

Capital letters are used much less often now than they used to be. Use them for specific purposes only:

1. For the first letter of the first word of a sentence, a direct quotation within a sentence, a title or a subtitle.
E.g. She asked, “Have you ever been in a submarine?”

2. For proper nouns or names given to individual people or things.
E.g. Tang Li La instead of the common noun, the manager, or Fiat instead of the common noun, car.

3. For “I” wherever it occurs in a sentence.

E.g. He asked whether I would go to the party.

Spelling
Faulty spelling can cause ambiguity, and can detract credibility from their writers.

A problem in English spelling arises from the fact that the spelling often gives no help to the pronunciation.

E.g. –ough in words like cough, bough and although. In these cases you just have to become familiar with the spelling and pronunciation of such words.

Another problem is that most of the spelling rules have exceptions (except perhaps for the rule that in English “q” is always followed by “u”.

You can decide to use either British or American spelling, but whichever you choose, keep to it consistently except when using words within a quotation or are part of an official title.

E.g.
“My American friend wrote, “ The flavor of the soup in the restaurant you recommended was delicious.”
OR
Theresa Lee’s article, Organizational Behaviour, has just been reprinted.

TIPS
- Keep to whatever system you choose (and add British/ American spellings to dictionary)
- Keep a list of words you often misspell to help reduce common errors that trip you up
- Use a dictionary to check doubtful words to ensure you used correct meaning
- It’s hard for even the best writers to see their own mistakes- get others to read your work
- Use a reliable, up-to date dictionary e.g. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary

Abbreviations

2006-05-10T01:28:00.000-07:00

Unfamiliar abbreviations confuse readers. If you intend to use an acronym, or word made up from the first letters of a group of words e.g. ASEAN, UNESCO, NS; first, write the words in full, giving the acronym afterwards. From then on you may use the acronym as long as you limit the number of different acronyms.

In formal writing, it is better not to abbreviate anyone’s name e.g. even if your broker calls himself Jimmy Li, in a formal report you should write Mr. Jimmy Li

English has a variety of conventions with names. One widely approved is NOT to put a full stop after Mr; Miss; Mrs; Dr or other courtesy titles.

However, the full stop is still required for words like Rev. for Reverend or Prof. for Professor.

The reason for this is that words in the former group are not really abbreviations, but contractions, since the last letter of the original word is still there.

This same rule applies for other abbreviations e.g. foot would be abbreviated to ft but inches to in.

If you often use a full stop after all such abbreviations, it doesn’t matter as long as you do so consistently.

In addresses on correspondence, current practice is to drop all punctuation e.g.
Mr Ching Chong Chang
100 Orchid Road
Singapore

Dear Mr Ching (OR Dear Chong Chang if you know him well)

Some Latin abbreviations are constantly useful in English. Be sure to use them correctly:
- i.e. = that is

- e.g. = for example

- etc. = that is and so on
[Careful with this in formal writing: some readers take it to mean “I know more but can’t be bothered to write it all out for you.” It’s safer to keep it out or write: …and so on]

The ampersand (&) should be used only with the names of companies and joint authors.

In plural abbreviations, remember that an apostrophe does NOT show the plural. Simply add s e.g. Vols; The 1990s; The ABCs of grammar

Apostrophes; Exclamation marks; Question marks

2006-02-04T06:36:00.000-08:00

APOSTROPHES
The apostrophe has 2 main uses:

1. The apostrophe to show possession:
a. Singular
An apostrophe and the letter s is used to show possession with indefinite pronouns, with animate nouns and with expressions of time.

An indefinite pronoun is one which refers to some unknown or unspecified person.
I borrowed someone’sbook.
Anyone’s comments will be welcome.

An animate noun is one used for anything living such as a person or animal.
Carol’s skill;
Thedog’s bark;
Myfriend’s bible

Notice the difference between those examples and inanimate nouns, or objects which are not living. Possession is then shown by the word of
The colour of the lantern;
The population of China

An expression of time, whether singular or plural can, and usually does, take an apostrophe ands.
One hour’s work;
three years’ experience

b. Plural
When, as happens almost all the time, the plural ends in s, an apostrophe follows the s to show possession.
The boys’ team;
The dogs’ training session;
The ladies’ evening

However when the plural ends in any other way an apostrophe and s are added.
The men’s room;
The children’s playhouse

When you have a double subject, only give the second noun an apostrophe.
Ee Chuan and Lyn’s report.

Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives NEVER take apostrophes.
Personal pronouns - Mine, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs
Possessive adjectives - My, his, her, its, our, your their

2. The apostrophe to show contraction:
When 2 words are run together to make writing seem closer to speech, an apostrophe shows something is left out and 2 words have been merged:
I am delighted becomes I’m delighted.
It is hot becomes It’s hot.
We have finished becomes We’ve finished.
They will be coming becomes They’ll be coming.

Notice the difference in meaning and form between the two words it is contracted into it’s and the possessive adjective its in its colour.

EXCLAMATION MARKS
Don’t use them unless you must, and don’t ever use 2 or more together. Too much punctuation is like too much salt in the soup. It completely spoils the taste.

QUESTION MARKS
Question marks for direct questions go INSIDE the quotation marks.
She asked, “Have you seen my thesis?”

Question marks go OUTSIDE quotation marks for a statement within a question.
Did Shima say, “I handed it to Raman”?

Drop the 2nd question mark (at the end) if you have a question within a question.
Did Lyn ask, “Are you going to supervise my thesis?"

Dashes; Hypens; Quotation marks

2006-02-03T01:37:00.000-08:00

DASHES
A dash is a way of forcing your reader to pause. It can be used singly or in pairs, and can be useful when you want to show a break in thought e.g.
Faulty brakes cause accidents – some of them serious.
I went to the police station – as you guessed I would – to bail him out.

HYPHENS
Hyphens are used for 2 very different purposes:
1. To make 2 words into a single adjective before a noun.
She dived into the deep-blue sea. (The colour blue was deep.)

NOTE: The hyphen is ONLY used when the ADJECTIVE comes immediately before a NOUN e.g.
Michelle Yeoh is a well-known Malaysian BUT Michelle Yeoh is well known in Malaysia.

2. A hyphen is used to split a word divided between 2 lines e.g.
accom-
modation

Writing is easier to read if words are not divided, so avoid dividing them. Since 1 syllable standing alone looks odd, try too avoid hyphenating words with fewer than four syllables. If you have four or more syllables in a word and are not sure how the syllables are divided, check a dictionary.

QUOTATION MARKS
Quotation marks are used to draw attention to words in several ways:

1. Use double quotation marks at the very beginning and very end to quote directly from speech or writing. Use single quotation marks to set off a quotation within a quotation:

Ang said, “I heard him say, ‘I won’t go’ but I noticed he did go.”

2. Use quotation marks to draw special attention to a word or phrase, but not to apologise for one. I am not sure what “commission” really means.

3. Use quotation marks to indicate the title of something that makes up part of a published work. When you are writing a paragraph, put the title of an article within journal, for instance, or a poem within a collection, in inverted commas, single or *double.

NOTE: *This rule applies to paragraphs, but not to all types of bibliography. In the APA format, you do not use quotation marks for titles of articles or chapters.

The group, Beyond, sang “Karm Tin Ngo” beautifully.

III. PUNCTUATION & OTHER CONVENTIONS

2006-02-02T00:30:00.000-08:00

Think of punctuation as the most wonderful help to both reader and writer. Reading anything unpunctuated is so difficult as to be hardly worth doing, rather like playing tennis on a court without a net.

Writing can be much more exact and spirited when punctuation is used deftly. Punctuation enables the writer to convey, and the reader to receive, exactly the message intended.

Consider these sentences:
Azli, the police officer, acted conceitedly.
The name ‘Azli’ and the label ‘police officer’ are equally important. If either of them were dropped the message would be almost the same but the information, less.

Azli (the police officer) acted conceitedly.
This time the information ‘Azli’ is a police officer is slid in, but of minor importance. The name ‘Azli’ must be kept but the incidental information in brackets could be dropped without much loss. The brackets do the same thing in writing as a dropped voice would do in speaking.

Azli - the police officer - acted conceitedly.
This time the fact that the person who acted conceitedly is a police officer, risking his reputation, his job, and the safety of those he should be protecting, is stressed. The dashes hint at shock. The voice is either raised or hushed to draw great attention to the words between them.

Such is the power of punctuation. The following suggestions may help you use it more skilfully. Especially make yourselves familiar with semicolons and colons which are so useful in effective business writing and so unnecessary almost everywhere else.

COLONS are used for balance.
1. They introduce a list, which follows on separate lines e.g.
The farm comprises:
a. two acres of horticultural land
b. twenty acres of forest
c. five hundred acres of palm old trees.

2. They introduce a list on the same line e.g.
The farm comprises the following: two acres…

Notice that this time the part before the colon must be an independent clause, one that can standalone and still make sense.

3. They show extreme opposites e.g.
She succeeded brilliantly; he failed dismally.

SEMICOLONS show a strong break.
1. They can separate items in a complex list e.g.
I ordered chicken rice with soup; mixed vegetables, with plenty of mushrooms; bubur chacha, accompanied by sliced mango, pineapple and oranges’ and a tall glass of iced tea.

2. They can separate independent clauses, which are linked in thought e.g.
Xia Ming studied science; she intended to be a botanist. Kar Mun took management studies; she hoped to be an accountant.

The twins enrolled in social science; they both wanted to be high school teachers.
OR
The bus had crashed into the train; however, the damage was minimal.

Sometimes both colons and semicolons are useful in a single sentence. The example given above could well be worded this way:

I ordered the following: chicken rice with soup; mixed vegetables, with plenty of mushrooms; bubur chacha, accompanied by sliced mango, pineapple and oranges; and a tall glass of iced tea.

COMMAS are used to break the flow of a sentence. Most are optional but they are mandatory for 5 kinds of construction:

1. To separate introductory, long clauses e.g.
After the chemist had checked his findings rigorously, he wrote his paper.

2. To indicate non-restrictive clauses (ref: COMMON ERRORS 18 & 19; 1st Feb 2006) e.g.
The engineer, who has travelled overseas, is now employed at Singapore.

Without the 2 commas, the words who has travelled overseas are indispensable. With them, the information who has travelled overseas could be dropped without affecting the main message of the sentence.

3. To indicate that 2 nouns both refer to the same person or object. Sometimes these are called nouns in apposition. E.g. Lennie Brideson, the physicist, has been awarded a grant.

4. To show that adverbs go with a whole clause e.g. I believe, however, that the results should be checked.

Notice the difference between such a sentence and one in which an adverb simply belongs with an adjective e.g. However hard he works, he never catches up.

5. To set off information which is extra to the main thread of the sentence e.g.
Speeding on his skateboard, Zamri crashed into the fence.

Remember that all commas, colons and semicolons break rather than join. They should not interrupt a sentence but rather show the pattern within it.

COMMON ERRORS 17, 18, 19 and 20

2006-02-01T01:01:00.000-08:00

COMMON ERROR 17: SHIFT OF THE GRAMMATICAL “PERSON”
However many pronouns the language has, the noun and pronoun system of any language has three “persons”. In English, the 1st person words are I, me, we, us; the 2nd person word is you; and the 3rd person words are he, him, she, it, they, them, and every other pronoun e.g. someone and every noun that exists.

Do NOT shift from one “person” to another within a sentence.

WRONG: If one is a student, you need to study hard and get good grades.
RIGHT: When you are a student, you need to study hard and get good grades.

COMMON ERROR 18: WRONG SHIFT OF TENSE
Tense shows time. A sentence may show different times within it e.g. “Before she came over, I had decided what to do.” Here, the word “before” signals that the sentence will contain different tenses. However, unless the meaning dictates that you need a change in tense, keep your tenses consistent.

WRONG: The dean makes careful plans to check on student harassment within the university but all his efforts came to nothing.

RIGHT: The dean made careful plans to check on student harassment within the university but all his efforts came to nothing.

COMMON ERROR 19: FLOATING INFINITIVE
Ensure that infinitives (i.e. groups of word e.g. “to go” / “to have gone” which have no subject of their own) link logically with the subject of a full verb.

WRONG: To succeed in sport, regular practice is necessary.
RIGHT: To succeed in sport, you need to practice regularly.

Note: A person, not practice, will succeed in sport, so a person must become the subject of the full verb.

COMMON ERROR 20: CONFUSION OF CASE WITH PRONOUNS
Inflections (or different forms of a word) given to show whether a noun or pronoun is subject or object of a sentence are rare in English. That’s why some writers are not clear about them.
A few are left in English. They are all pronouns and in constant use.

Personal pronouns e.g. I, me, he, him, she and so on don’t cause much trouble but relative pronouns can be troublesome e.g. I know whois coming; and interrogative pronouns e.g. Who gave you the apple?

“WHO” is always the SUBJECT. E.g.
I wondered who she was. OR Who is that?

“WHOM” is the OBJECT. E.g.
I wonder whom you insulted. OR Whom did she meet?

In some cases, although strict grammar requires whom to be used, these days most people say and accept sentences e.g.
Who did you take to the party?

HOWEVER, to use whom when you should use who is seriously incorrect. So, if in doubt, always use “WHO”.

Try to avoid all 20 irregularities especially the first 10 which tend to make writing ambiguous.

COMMON ERRORS: 15 and 16

2006-01-18T23:11:00.000-08:00

15: USE OF AN ADVERBIAL CLAUSE TO COMPLEMENT A VERB

Certain verbs e.g. to be and to become can only take a complement,
or word or phrase which completes the sense, after them.

The complement can be a NOUN e.g. Sun Khin became a doctor, an ADJECTIVE e.g. Timothy is handsome or an ADVERB e.g. The Soo’s annual meeting is in progress. It cannot be an adverbial clause, unless the verb is changed.

WRONG: Bankruptcy is when a company cannot meet its debts.
RIGHT: Bankruptcy occurs when a company cannot meet its debts.

16: CONFUSION BETWEEN RESTRICTIVE AND NON-RESTRICTIVE CLAUSES

Relative clauses i.e. those that begin with who, whom, which, or thatcan work in 2 ways: Restrictive and Non-restrictive.

Restrictive, which has no comma, restricts whatever is said in the relative clause to the specific term used in the main clause e.g.

Main clause: This is the report Relative clause: that I wrote yesterday.

The writer is talking about 1 specific report and no other. In the 2nd clause that can be dropped or can have which substituted for it.

This means you could write perfectly acceptably and without changing the meaning e.g.
This is the report I wrote yesterday OR This is the report which I wrote yesterday.

In all 3 versions the relative clause is essential to the meaning to of the sentence. A speaker would not pause at any time during the sentence.

In restrictive clauses, instead of narrowing the term used in the main clause, the writer simply adds more information e.g.

Professor Lim Guat Sim admired the report, which three of us had prepared.

In the above sentence the relative clause could be dropped without affecting the main message in the sentence. If left in, it must begin with which and have a comma immediately before it. A writer cannot drop the word which or substitute that for it. A speaker must pause to convey the force of the comma.

Be particularly careful when both meanings are possible but you intend to convey only one e.g.
Dr Lim Guat Loo admired the report which she had just finished reading (= Dr Lim Guat Loo admired a specific report).

Dr Lim Guat Loo admired the report, which she had just finished reading (= Dr Lim Guat Loo admired the specific report which, as it happens, she had just finished reading).

COMMON ERRORS 11, 12, 13 and 14

2006-01-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

11. FAULTY PLACING OF ADVERBS e.g. ‘only’
Because you cannot rely on your voice to show stress in writing, place adverbs and adverbial phrases as close as possible to the words they belong with.

AMBIGUOUS The meeting was only held a week ago.
UNAMBIGUOUS The meeting was held only a week ago.

Though only causes most trouble, almost any verb or adverbial phrase can be badly placed.

CLUMSY We returned to Singapore after a week’s holiday on Friday.
UNAMBIGUOUS On Friday we returned to Singapore after a week’s holiday.

12: FAULTY CO-ORDINATION
The word and and phrases e.g. as well as or together with should only be used to link items which are of equal importance and belong together.

WRONG Thanks for supplying the information so promptly and I look forward to further bulletins from you on this project.
RIGHT Thanks for supplying the information so promptly. I look forward to further bulletins from you on this project.

Stringing together 2 independent clauses which are not closely connected in thought occurs frequently in the last sentence of business correspondence, like an awkward farewell from a host reluctant to shut the door. These sentences should always be broken.

WRONG Thanks for your enquiry and please ask if you have further questions.
RIGHT Thanks for your enquiry. Please ask if you have further questions.

Some writers string several loosely related clauses together, which makes their sentences boring to read. These sentences also lose impact because each part seems to be equally important. Reduce the number of coordinating conjunctions e.g. and, but, so and subordinating some clauses so the main ideas clearly stand out.

POOR At the end of next week I hope the thesis proposal will be finished and next steps recommended and I hope we can then have a meeting to discuss the recommended steps but it may be difficult for some of you so I hope you will make every effort and plan to attend the meeting. (55 words)

BETTER Although I know it will be difficult for some of you, I hope we can meet at the end of next week to discuss the next steps recommended in the thesis proposal. (32 words)

13: CONFUSION OF CONJUCTION AND PREPOSITION

Like is a preposition, which introduces a noun phrase.
As is a conjunction, which introduces a clause.

[Refer Thursday, December 29, 2005: Parts of speech: conjunction & preposition]

RIGHT She twitched her nose like a witch.
ALSO RIGHT She lent me money as a friend would.

14: CONFUSION OF ADJECTIVE AND ADVERB
Using the wrong adjective or adverb can make some writing sound careless.

[Refer Thursday, December 29, 2005: Parts of speech: Adjective / Adverb]

NOT She was real friendly. BUT She was really friendly.

COMMON ERROR 10: MISUSE OF A DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN

2006-01-09T02:02:00.000-08:00

The pronouns this, that, these, and those, like other pronouns, stand for nouns. In writing they should not be used to relate back to clauses or sentences. If they are, some readers are bound to become confused.

WRONG The board decided to double her salary. This upset Hisham.
RIGHT The board decided to double her salary. Their decision upset Hisham.

COMMON ERROR 9: MISUSE OF A REFLEXIVE PRONOUN

2006-01-09T01:01:00.000-08:00

Reflexive pronouns are easy to recognise because they all end in –self (singular) or –selves (plural).

A reflexive pronoun can be used to give emphasis or to reflect back to the subject. It should never be used because the writer is not sure whether a pronoun is subject or object of a verb.

WRONG My colleague and myself have checked the creative material.
RIGHT My colleague and I have checked the creative material.
RIGHT I, myself, have checked the final campaign. (emphasis)

RIGHT I blamed myself for the errors. (same subject and object)

WRONG Please see that your wife and yourself sign the enclosed forms.
RIGHT Please see that your wife and you sign the enclosed forms.

COMMON ERROR 8: CONFUSED USE OF A PRONOUN

2006-01-08T06:06:00.000-08:00

A pronoun should refer to one noun or noun group in a sentence or the reader may be confused or misled.

WRONG The visitor told the nurse that she was wrong.
RIGHT The visitor told the nurse that he, the visitor, was wrong.
ALSO RIGHT The visitor told the nurse that she, the nurse, was wrong.

COMMON ERROR 7: LACK OF AGREEMENT WITH PRONOUNS AND POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES

2006-01-08T05:55:00.000-08:00

Pronouns (e.g. he, they) and possessive adjectives (e.g. my, your) must agree in number and gender with the words they refer to.

WRONG Any building will deteriorate if they are not painted regularly, and their maintenance is neglected.
’Building’ is singular and the words ‘they’ and ‘their’ are plural.

RIGHT Any building will deteriorate if it is not painted regularly, and its maintenance is neglected.
’Building’, ‘it’ and ‘its’ are all singular.

COMMON ERROR 6: DISAGREEMENT OF SUBJECT AND VERB

2006-01-08T04:00:00.000-08:00

A verb must agree in number with its subject. Make sure that an intervening phrase doesn’t mislead you.

WRONG The pile of forms are on the desk.
RIGHT The pile of forms is on the desk.

WRONG A considerable proportion of the bills are unpaid.
RIGHT A considerable proportion of the bills is unpaid.

Watch also when a phrase follows the subject, separated by commas or brackets:

The child, as well as her mother, looks tired.
The lawyer, with his two clients, is waiting at the court.
Lousy driving is to result in lousy road accidents.

When the subject has 2 parts separated by or the verb will be singular or plural, depending on the number of the parts:

Either Ali or his brother has made this mess.
but
Neither the men nor the womenare responsible.

When 1 part is singular and the other plural, the verb agrees with the closer:

Neither the professor nor the students have stayed in the smoke-filled room.
and
Neither the students nor the professor has stayed in the smoke-filled room.

If you don’t like the sound of the last 2, change your sentence in some way e.g.
The students have not stayed in the smoke-filled room, nor has the professor.

A different but related error occurs when the subject agrees with only part of the verb. You need a past participle (refer blog entry: December 29, 2005; PARTS OF SPEECH: PARTICLE & PARTICIPLE) after a helping or auxiliary verb e.g. ‘is’ or ‘has’.

WRONG Documents are design by graphic artists.
RIGHT Documents are designed by graphic artists.

WRONG The campaign was complete by the deadline.
RIGHT The campaign was completed by the deadline.

COMMON ERROR 5: COMPARISON OF DISIMILAR OBJECTS

2006-01-08T02:22:00.000-08:00

2 objects within a comparison must be of the same kind.

WRONG His wages were lower than a shop attendant.
RIGHT His wages were lower than a shop attendant’s.

WRONG The value has increased far more than the Jalan Guat Sim home.
RIGHT The value has increased far more than that of the Jalan Guat Sim home.

A variant of this error occurs when something is compared with the whole class it belongs to.

WRONG
Creative writing is more interesting than any subject taught in a National university.
RIGHT
Creative writing is more interesting than any other subject taught in a National university.

The implication of the former is that creative writing is not taught at any National university, which is incorrect.

COMMON ERROR 4: NON-PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION

2006-01-08T01:11:00.000-08:00

If words, phrases, clauses and sentences, which ought to be parallel in form or content but are not, the writing is ‘non-parallel’.

WRONG
I heard about her novel, her job and she was going to town.
RIGHT
I heard about her novel, her job and her trip to town.

Instead of 2 nouns and an adverbial clause, the correct version has its list of 3 nouns.

Parallel structure is important in tables of contents and sets of instructions because it helps readers understand what you have to say.

WRONG
The residents heard about the planning of a new roundabout and that access to their properties could be affected.
RIGHT
The residents heard that a new roundabout was planned and that access to their properties could be affected.

Instead of a noun phrase and a noun clause, the correct version has 2 noun clauses.
[For difference between phrases and clauses, refer blog entry: December 29, 2005;
SINGLE WORDS & GROUPS OF WORDS]

COMMON ERROR 3: RUN-ON SENTENCE

2006-01-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

A run-on sentence fragment occurs when 2 complete sentences are pushed together without an adequate means of joining.

WRONG
He was tall and muscular his brother was short and weak.
RIGHT
He was tall and muscular but his brother was short and weak.

Often this error occurs when a writer treats a comma, an adverb, or the 2 together, as a joining device. Remember that a comma always shows a break, never a link.

WRONG
Upgrading of facilities was urgent, however, the school board did not have the necessary finance to authorise the work.
RIGHT
Upgrading of facilities was urgent but the school board did not have the necessary finance to authorise the work.

Above, the conjunction ‘but’ replaces the adverb ‘however’

ALSO RIGHT
Upgrading of the facilities was urgent; however, the school board did not have the necessary finance to authorise the work.

Above, a semi-colon replaces the comma, but a comma is needed after ‘however’

ALSO RIGHT
Upgrading of the facilities was urgent. However, the school board did not have the finance to authorise the work.

Above, a period replaces the comma, and ‘however’ is given a capital followed by a comma.

ALSO RIGHT
Although upgrading of the facilities was urgent, the school board did not have the finance to authorise the work.

Above, the first of the complete sentences has been made into a dependent clause.

Run-on sentences may force a reader to reread what is written in order to grasp the meaning. They are particularly common in business writing because terms like ‘however’ and ‘therefore’ are often used to show logical connection. Logical and grammatical connection are not the same. Words e.g. ‘however’ and ‘therefore’ could often come at the end of a sentence but can never perform the grammatical work of a conjunction.

Compare the following:
She worked hard but could not repay her mortgage.
She worked hard; however, she could not repay her mortgage.

In the first sentence the word butis immovable. It cannot go anywhere else in the sentence apart from where it is. In the second, the semicolon, not ‘however’ linked the 2 parts of the 2nd sentence and the writer can easily rearrange the sentence:

She worked hard. She could not repay her mortgage, however.

COMMON ERROR 2: SENTENCE FRAGMENT

2006-01-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

A sentence fragment is a group of words, which looks like a sentence i.e. it starts with a capital and ends with a period, but doesn’t make complete sense by itself. Often a change in punctuation will cure the error.

WRONG
We had two options. To drive to the nearest police station, or to lock the doors till the tailgater passed by.
RIGHT
We had two options: to drive to the nearest police station, or to slow down till the tailgater passed by.
ALSO RIGHT
We had two options. We could drive to the nearest police station or we could slow down till the tailgater passed by.

WRONG
Various procedures need to be considered. Altering the interest rate. Renegotiating the terms. Calling in all mortgages.
RIGHT
Various procedures, such as altering the interest rate, renegotiating the terms or calling in all mortgages, have to be considered.

Notice that a word phrase in answer to a question is NOT considered a fragment because the meaning is incomplete.
RIGHT
Should I spend more effort on my thesis? Certainly

Formal business writers must watch particularly carefully for fragments because they are common and acceptable in some kinds of writing. Stream of consciousness novels and short stories use them effectively. So do certain kinds of advertising. Other business writing hardly ever does.

It may help to remember that there are 2 kinds of sentences. Full sentences have at least 1 independent (could stand alone) clause e.g. I enjoy reading. Minor sentences are either exclamations e.g. Certainly not! or answers to questions like Three in answer to the question “How many bananas have you eaten?” A sentence, whether full or minor, makes sense in context and so is acceptable. A fragment lacks something that makes it unacceptable.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE: COMMON ERRORS

2006-01-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

There are about 40 errors in English. 10 are common in any writing and another 10 are common in business writing. If your writing is free of the errors below it is probably sound.

COMMON ERROR 1.: MISRELATED PARTICIPLE
Participles can be troublesome when they work as adjectives but do not immediately go before the noun they relate to. When a phrase begins with a participle e.g. having in having left the country, the participle must link with the nearest noun or pronoun outside the phrase.

WRONG
Having left the country, it is obvious that Andy will not be attending the seminar this Saturday.
RIGHT
Having left the country, Andy will obviously not be attending the seminar this Saturday.
ALSO RIGHT
Since he has left the country, it is obvious that Andy will not be attending the seminar this Saturday.

A comic example from the 19th century will help you remember the pattern:
WRONG
Peeping over the graveyard wall, the headstone was seen by us all.
RIGHT
Peeping over the graveyard wall, we all saw the headstone.
ALSO RIGHT
When we peeped over the graveyard wall, we all saw the headstone.

To correct a misrelated participle, use 1 of 2 strategies:

a. Ensure that the nearest noun or pronoun outside the construction, which usually means straight after the comma, links naturally with the participle, as in the first correct example (above). WE are the ones peeping.

OR

b. Change the participle so that it is a complete verb instead of part of one as in the 2nd correct example (above). “Peeping” is incomplete but “When we peeped” is complete.

II. SENTENCE STRUCTURE

2006-01-05T06:06:00.000-08:00

The patterns of English are flexible. Contorted, stilted and ambiguous are words used to describe writing that does not conform to established patterns.

The most familiar pattern: Subject - Verb e.g. She smiled.

The most common words: Structure words, which include articles (a, an, the), pronouns (he, she, it, they), conjunctions (and, so), and prepositions (in, at, over, under).

MOOD & VOICE

2005-12-30T01:01:00.000-08:00

MOOD
English has 3 moods:

1. INDICATIVE is used for both a
statement e.g. You are reading this book. and, a
question e.g. Will you reread it?

2. SUBJUNCTIVE is used when something is possible but not actual e.g.
If I were a blackbird I’d whistle and sing.

The subjunctive causes little trouble in English. It does not matter if the indicative is used in its place. You can write, “If I was a blackbird…” if you prefer BUT don’t use the subjunctive when you don’t need one: If in doubt, don’t.

3. IMPERATIVE is used to give an order e.g.
Hurry up. Come here.

VOICE
English verbs have 2 voices:

1. ACTIVE e.g. Shu Zi read the book.
2. PASSIVE e.g. The book was read by Shu Zi.

For most strong writing, the active is the better choice though it can seem harsh in some contexts. The passive is always longer, less direct, and often, more gentle as it can be useful to convey certain shades of meaning e.g.

The judge would not grant him a reprieve sounds as though the judge was merciless.
He was not granted a reprieve by the judge imply that he did not deserve one.

The intended meaning dictates which voice is appropriate in each context.

SINGLE WORDS & GROUPS OF WORDS

2005-12-29T11:11:00.000-08:00

A word is a group of letters with a space on either side, which conveys a unit of meaning e.g. word, wordy, wordplay and worded are words.

A phrase is a group of words which acts as a unit. ‘A phrase’ is itself a phrase e.g.

- ‘A car’ is a noun phrase;
- To ‘put up with’ is a verb phrase, which is made up of 3 words, which together means to ‘tolerate’;
- ‘Very pretty’ is an adjectival phrase;
- ‘Quite quickly’ is an adverbial phrase;
- ‘In front of’ is a prepositional phrase.

Clauses contain both subject and verbs.

Some clauses are main or independent i.e. they are, or could be whole sentences and so, could exist alone e.g. She read the magazine.

Some clauses are dependent i.e. they must be linked before, within or after other clauses e.g.

DEPENDENT: Before he ate his lunch,
INDEPENDENT: he read the article
OR
He read the sports article [DEPENDENT:] because he was a sports fan.

MAIN CLAUSE: He read the article
DEPENDENT CLAUSE: while he ate his lunch.

PARTS OF SPEECH: INFINITIVE & COMPLEMENT

2005-12-29T10:01:00.000-08:00

The infinitive is the basic form of a verb, without an inflection e.g. see in we came to see, let him see; it is a verb form that commonly begins with to and does not have a subject e.g. To go, to have, to run.

As a noun it is the basic form of a verb without an inflection binding it to a particular subject or tense (normally occurring in English with the word to, as in to see, to ask). It’s definition originates from Latin infinitus, from in- ‘not’ + finitus ‘finished, finite’.

A complement is the word or group of words which follows a being or linking verb (as opposed to an action). It can be a noun, an adjective, or adverb e.g.

- Neenah became a singer, where a singer is a noun complement;
- Lyn Qi was beautiful, where beautiful is an adjectival complement;
- Yuan was on the stage, where on the stage is an adverbial complement;

A complement can also be a clause itself e.g. Qing became what I thought. (Noun clause)

Notes
Some words can work as several parts of speech without changing a single letter e.g.
- She tried to round off her presentation well. (verb)
- He bought a round of drinks to celebrate the occasion. (noun)
- Golf uses a round ball. (adjective)
- When mother called out, they spun round. (adverb)
- He sauntered round the shopping mall. (adverb)

PARTS OF SPEECH: PARTICLE & PARTICIPLE

2005-12-29T09:00:00.000-08:00

A particle, sometimes called a tied preposition, is a word which belongs with a verb and is part of its meaning e.g. I looked at my lover. She looked like a movie star.

To find the meaning of looked at and looked like, a person learning English as a foreign language would have to search in a dictionary for look at and look like because searching for words like at and like would be no help.

As a noun, a particle is a minute portion of matter. In physics, a component of the physical world smaller than an atom e.g. an electron, proton, neutrino, or photon. Grammatically, it is a minor function word that has comparatively little meaning and does not inflect e.g. in, up, off, over used with verbs to make phrasal verbs. The definition is of Latin origin i.e. particula ‘little part’.

A participle can be present e.g. talking or eating or past e.g. talked or eaten, and can work as a noun e.g. e.g. Jogging is enjoyable
OR it can work as part of a verb e.g. I am enjoying this.
OR it can work as an adjective e.g. This was a stimulating exercise routine.

All present participles end in –ing e.g. hurrying
Past participles end in –ed, -d, -en, -n, -t, or –k e.g. hurried, found, taken, torn, put, sunk.

PARTS OF SPEECH: CONJUNCTION & PREPOSITION

2005-12-29T08:08:00.000-08:00

A conjunction joins words, phrases or clauses, which usually contain their own verbs e.g.
- He found it difficult but I helped him;
- They made lunch for Alice and Mary;
- I waited until you came.

It cannot move its position in a sentence unless all the words it introduces are also moved. It always comes at the beginning of a phrase, clause or sentence e.g. I spotted Charlie because she was so stylishly dressed. It often describes the position of something, e.g. under the chair OR the time at which something happens e.g. in the evening.

Some common conjunctions include…
after, although, and, as, because, before, but, for, if, in order that, like, now, once, or, since, so, so that, than, that, though, till, unless, until, when, where, whether, while

A preposition is used in front of a noun or pronoun to form a phrase, showing a relationship with the rest of the sentence e.g. I placed the bookon the table, not under the chair.

Some common prepositions include:
about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, as, at, before, behind, beside, between, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, outside

PARTS OF SPEECH: ADVERB

2005-12-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

An adverb or adverbial group can be shifted within a sentence without any other word or word group being moved. Each shift will change the meaning e.g. However (on the other hand), I enjoy playing card games.
OR
I, however (you might not, but I do), enjoy playing card games.
OR
I enjoy playing card gameshowever (in spite of all that has been said…)

An adverb is used with a with a verb…
- to say how something happens e.g. he walks quickly;
- where something happens e.g. I live here;
- when something happens e.g. they visited us yesterday;
- how often something happens e.g. we usually have coffee.

An adverb is used to strengthen or weaken the meaning of…
- a verb e.g. he really meant it; I almost fell asleep;
- an adjective e.g. she is very clever; this is a slightly better result;
- another adverb e.g. it comes off terribly easily; the boys nearly always get home late.

An adverb is used to add to the meaning of a whole sentence e.g. he is probably our best player; luckily, no one was hurt.

In writing or formal speech it is wrong to use an adjective instead of an adverb e.g. use…
Do it properly and not do it proper

Note that many words are both an adjective and an adverb e.g.
a fast horse (adjective) he ran fast (adverb);
a long time (adjective); have you been here long? (adverb).

Exception
The only kind of adverb that cannot be moved is one that comes before an adjective or adverb that indicate degree e.g. However intelligent he is, he is not very considerate.

Although some words which end with –ly e.g. lovely and ugly are adjectives, –ly is a common adverb ending e.g. She strolled along slowly, but thoughtfully and carefully.

PARTS OF SPEECH: ADJECTIVE

2005-12-29T05:55:00.000-08:00

An adjective restricts or extends the meaning of a noun. It goes either before or soon after a noun e.g. Petite Tanya is gorgeous or Tanya is petite and gorgeous. If you see these endings (suffixes) on a word, then you know they are probably adjectives:

-able / -ible / -ble at the end of a word means capable of, fit for, tending to, likely to e.g. trainable, flexible.

-al at the end of a word means relating to, having the nature of e.g. musical, personal.
-ant at the end of a word means in the act or process of doing e.g. vigilant, militant.

-ed at the end of a word are often adjectives formed from nouns e.g. interested, bored.

-ent at the end of a word often means having the quality of e.g. dependent, resilient.

-er means a comparative ending e.g. bigger, faster.

-est means a superlative ending e.g. biggest, fastest.

-ful often means full of or characterized by e.g. beautiful, bountiful.

-ic means pertaining to, connected with, resembling e.g. volcanic, angelic.

-ing means participial [adj., with the form or function of a verb that can be used as both adjective or verb] form of an adjective e.g. interesting, boring.

-istic means having the qualities of, formed from a form of an adjective e.g. realistic, socialistic.

-ite word endings are derived from some Latin verbs e.g. infinite, polite.

-ive means having a tendency to or the nature of e.g. attentive, massive.

-ory means a place or instrument for doing the main element e.g. laboratory, dormitory.

-ose means full of; like e.g. verbose, grandiose.

-ous / -ious means full of; having the qualities e.g. poisonous, anxious.

PARTS OF SPEECH: VERB

2005-12-29T04:00:00.000-08:00

A verb is a word or word group which can show tense or mood e.g. She has driven to Penang island but might fly to Langkawi island. If you see these endings (suffixes) on a word, then you know they are probably verbs:

-en at the end of a word are often verbs formed from adjectives and mean to make ‘X’ e.g. brighten i.e. bright + en means to make bright; soften i.e. soft + en means to make soft.

-ise / -ize at the end of a word means to to cause to become, resemble; make into ‘X’, or to act in the manner of e.g. publicize i.e. public + ize means to make public or to make the public aware of; authorize; sympathize.

-ate are verbs derived from some Latin forms. At the end of a word, means to have or be characterized by ‘X’ e.g. activate i.e. active + ate means to make active; differentiate i.e. different + ate means to make or show a difference.

-ify / -fy at the end of a word means to cause to become or to make ‘X’ e.g. simplify i.e.
simple + ify means to make simple or simpler; liquefy.

-ed at the end of a word forms the simple past and past participle of regular verbs e.g. walked i.e. walk + ed means has walked; landed i.e. land + ed means has landed.

-s / -es [-ss, z after a vowel sound or voiced consonant] at the end of a word forms the third person singular of the present tense e.g. sews i.e. sew + s means ‘X’ is being described as a person who sews; walks, runs.

-er at the end of a word are often verbs with a habitual or repeated action e.g. stutter; canter.

-ing at the end of a word are often present participle and part of progressive tenses e.g. walking; is walking.

PARTS OF SPEECH: ARTICLE & PRONOUN

2005-12-29T03:00:00.000-08:00

Article
An article comes before a noun or noun group. The only articles in English are a, an and the.

Pronoun
A pronoun stands for a noun or noun group but cannot take an article in front of it e.g. Jean did not realise I was observing her but someone else did.

I. PARTS OF SPEECH: NOUN

2005-12-29T02:22:00.001-08:00

A few months ago, I attended a workshop at UPM and met two wonderful professors during a workshop on thesis writing. I found their patience and guidance extraordinarily helpful. During the next couple of weeks, I hope to share some of what I learnt with you by using a book by professor Margaret as a guide. Research based on information from the Internet, which I found useful have also been added to lend a more comprehensive helping hand to students like myself who need a quick reference guide or useful tips as and when the need arises.

During the course of this endeavour, I only hope you benefit from the work here, in your own works, and subsequently, whenever you have a thought anout any of the pieces here, please feel free to share your comments.

Ready? Let's get back on topic, then.

So what's a noun?
A noun is a word or word group which:
1. is a unit of meaning which follows an article (a, an or the) e.g. a song;
2. can form a plural e.g. songs;
3. needs a capital whenever it occurs in a sentence e.g. I saw Ryan in the library.

Exceptions
2 other groups also have capitals whenever they occur in a sentence:

a. The pronoun I, and the pronouns He and Him when referring to God e.g. He is my saviour.

b. Adjectives formed using nouns, which take a capital letter e.g. Cantonese from Canton.

If you see these endings (suffixes) on a word, then you know it is a noun:
-dom at the end of a word means state or condition; domain, position or rank; a group with position, office or rank, e.g. wisdom i.e. wise + dom means the state of understanding what is good, right and lasting; kingdom i.e. king + dom means the domain or area belonging to a king.

-ity at the end of a word means condition or quality of ‘X’ (a specific subject) e.g. capability i.e. capable + ity means the condition of being capable; flexibility i.e. flexible + ity means the quality of being flexible.

-ment at the end of a word means act of ‘X’; state of ‘X’; result of ‘X’ e.g. contentment i.e. content + ment means the state of being satisfied or content.

-sion / -tion at the end of a word means act of ‘X’; state of ‘X’ e.g. celebration i.e. celebrate + tion means the act of celebrating.

-ness at the end of a word means state of ‘X’ e.g. kindness i.e. kind + ness means the state of being kind.

-ance / -ence at the end of a word means act of ‘X’; state of ‘X’; quality of ‘X’ e.g. assistance i.e. assist + ance means act of giving help; eminence i.e. eminent + ence means quality of being eminent or distinguished.

-er / -or at the end of a word means one who ‘X’; that which ‘X’ e.g. fighter i.e. fight + er means one who fights; actor i.e. act + or means one who acts.

-ist at the end of a word also means one who ‘X’; that which ‘X’ e.g. pianist i.e. piano + ist means one who plays the piano.

-ism at the end of a word means an ‘X’ approach or style e.g. naturalism i.e. natural + ism means an artistic or literary approach or style, or an exponent of naturalism.

Let's talk about graduates.

2005-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

I always find true love during those awesome sunset days.

But let's talk about graduates. Which of the following sentences do you think are problematic?

1. Our new employee was graduated from Newberry College.
2. Our new employee graduated from Newberry College.
3. Our new employee graduated Newberry College.
4. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in finance.
5. She earned a bachelors degree in business administration and a masters degree in finance.

Let’s begin with a discussion of the verb to graduate.
Most dictionaries, including Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th edition) agree that sentences 1 and 2 both reflect standard usage. In the 19th century, the preferred use was the transitive passive form (1). Since then, the intransitive sense (2) has become widely used and as a result, has long been considered acceptable, if not preferable.

Many people would consider sentence 3 problematic.
Webster’s claims that such usage is standard but points out that it is the least common of the three forms.
The American Heritage Dictionary, however, considers this usage substandard, noting that 77 percent of its usage panel finds the transitive active use of to graduate unacceptable.

Sometimes the best choice in word usage depends upon the meaning the writer intends. In the present case, if we want to place emphasis on the institution conferring the degrees rather than on the students who earned them, then it would be better to say,
“Three hundred students were graduated from Newberry College in the spring” or “Newberry College graduated three hundred students in the spring.”

Consider that the verb to graduate can mean either “to earn a degree” or “to confer a degree,” and then decide which use is more appropriate in your sentence.

All dictionaries agree that when we write the names of academic degrees, we use the possessive forms because these words refer to the person who is at a certain level of training.

In the middle ages, a bachelor was a young knight-in-training. The bachelor’s degree became the name of the lowest degree a college or university can award; a master was someone recognized in the guild system as having the highest level of expertise in a particular craft, above the apprentice and the journeyman. We now have the master’s degree- the next level of college degree above the bachelor’s but the lowest of the advanced degrees. Sentence 4 is thus correct, and sentence 5 is unacceptable.

2 final points:
1. We do not capitalize such terms as bachelor of arts, bachelor's degree, master of arts, master's degree, and doctorate; however, we do of course use capitals in their abbreviated forms: BA, MA, PhD (notice that PERIODS are NOT used).

2. We do not capitalize the names of academic subjects, subject areas, disciplines, or career fields. If such names are or contain words that are proper nouns or proper adjectives, then those particular words are capitalized- English, for example, or French history.

TRY IT OUT!
Rate the usage of the verb to graduate as most acceptable, acceptable, or least acceptable:
1. Ana Sofia graduated Columbia College last Saturday and will pursue a master’s degree in physics in the fall.

2. Sally graduated from Columbia College last Saturday and will pursue a master’s degree in physics in the fall.

3. Omar was graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in both French history and English.

ANSWERS
1. Ana Sofia graduated Columbia College last Saturday and will pursue her master’s degree in the fall. [least acceptable if not totally unacceptable]

2. Sally graduated from Columbia College last Saturday and will pursue her master’s degree in the fall. [most acceptable]

3. Omar was graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in both French history and English. [acceptable]

Note that the possessive case, master’s and bachelor’s is correct in all 3 sentences.

What's this about possessive cases?

2005-12-01T04:00:00.000-08:00

Amazing... such a little tree with such significantly beautiful flowers... I can just imagine how stunning they'll look when they're in full bloom! Oh uhh... all right, let's get back to the possessive case.

So what's with using the Possessive Case with Gerunds?
Read on and you tell me...

The problems in the following sentences are identified in bold.
1. I appreciate you taking the time to read our year-end report.

2. The revised plan would result in the family paying for services that previously would have been covered by the public insurance program.

3. All child safety seats must be properly installed to reduce the risk of a child being injured.

In each of these sentences, we need to use the possessive case to modify a gerund.
The correct phrases, then, are (1) “your taking” (2) “family’s paying,” and (3) “child’s being.”

But what’s a gerund?
A gerund is a verbal i.e. a word formed from a verb, which retains certain characteristics of a verb
e.g. tenses and the ability to take an object, but no longer functions as that part of speech.

A gerund always functions as a noun.
It is formed by adding “ing” to the verb. Because a gerund functions as any other noun does, we must use the possessive case of nouns that modify it. For example, we’d write: “My sister’s singing always pleases my father.” Here, “singing” is the gerund and “sister’s” is the possessive noun modifying it.

2 central problems thus arise with regard to the use of the possessive case with the gerund:
1. The failure to use the possessive case with the gerund can give a sentence an entire different meaning.

Consider these two sentences:
(a) Chuan did not like the woman standing in front of him at the parade.
(b) Chuan did not like the woman’s standing in front of him at the parade.

In sentence (a), “standing” is an adjective modifying “woman.”
We call “standing in front of him at the parade” a participial phrase.
The sentence says that Chuan did not like the woman who was standing in front of him at the parade.
The participial phrase answers the question “which woman?”
It identifies her as “the standing woman” and states that she is the person whom Chuan did not like.

In sentence (b), “standing” is a noun- a gerund. This sentence says that Chuan did not like the fact that someone (the “woman”) was standing in front of him at the parade. Chuan probably did not know the woman at all. The notion of his liking or disliking her has nothing whatsoever to do with the idea that the sentence intends to convey.

It was the *standing in front of him* that Chuan did not like- the *woman’s* standing. The true meaning of the sentence- the fact that Chuan did not like having someone stand in front of him at the parade, hinges entirely on the use of the possessive case of the word “woman.”

2. The failure to use the possessive case with the gerund can create an illogical statement.

Consider the following sentence:
I appreciate you taking time to talk with me about the project.

The possessive case of “you” is not used with the gerund “taking” so the writer ends up making the illogical statement (in this context) “I appreciate you.” The point is not that the writer of the sentence appreciates *you* per se; instead, he or she appreciates the fact that you took time to talk with him or her: I appreciate *your* taking time to talk with me about the project.

More examples?
1. Each office wants to arrange its own schedule, but doing so would result in the *company’s* being inundated with calls and scheduling requests.

This practice does not result in the company; it results in the inundation of the company i.e. in *its* being inundated.

2. The principal may require the parents to come to the school for a conference prior to the *student’s* being allowed to resume riding the bus.

The parents will not have to come to the school prior to the student; they will have to come before the student can be allowed to resume riding the bus i.e. prior to *his or her* being allowed to resume riding.

3. What can we do about *others’* not being able to read well?
The question is not what can we do about others but what can we do about the fact that they are not able to read well i.e. about *their* not being able to read well.

4. Funding eligibility is contingent upon the *entity’s* meeting the financial reporting requirements.
The eligibility is not contingent upon the entity but upon the fact that the entity meets the financial reporting requirements i.e. upon *its* meeting the requirements.]

Want to try?
Identify problems with gerunds in the following sentences:

1. The tax incentive program has resulted in South Carolina gaining seventy new businesses in the northern coastal area.

2. The principal will notify the parents that any disruptive conduct will result in a student losing his or her hall privileges for the remainder of the school year.

3. An emergency technician had recorded vital signs prior to the patient receiving medical care.

4. The “employee of the month” award is based on an employee having demonstrated a strong work ethic, collegiality, and dedication to the company.

5. The board of directors realized that its actions were responsible for the company having lost $2.3 million in revenue during the fourth quarter.

ANSWERS
1. The tax incentive program has resulted in South Carolina’s gaining seventy new businesses in the northern coastal area.

The incentive program has not resulted in South Carolina; instead, it has resulted in the *state’s* gaining seventy new businesses in the northern coastal area.

2. The principal will notify the parents that any disruptive conduct will result in a student’s losing his or her hall privileges for the remainder of the school year.

The conduct will not result in the student; it will result in the loss of hall privileges by the student- in *his or her* losing the privileges.

3. An emergency technician had recorded vital signs prior to the patient’s receiving medical care.

The technician did not record the vital signs prior to the patient; instead, he or she recorded vital signs prior to the *receiving* of the medical care.

4. The “employee of the month” award is based on an employee’s having demonstrated a strong work ethic, collegiality, and dedication to the company.

The award is not based on the employee; instead, it is based on *his or her* having demonstrated certain qualities.

5. The board of directors realized that its actions were responsible for the company’s having lost $2.3 million in revenue during the fourth quarter.

The sentence means to convey that the board was responsible not for the company per se but for *its* having lost revenue.

The Story of Ellipsis

2005-11-30T02:00:00.000-08:00

Nice little tree, huh? This is the first time in my life I've ever come across a FLOWERING curry leaf tree. Awesome!
Now let's get back to the ellipsis.

The Story of Ellipsis

Why ellipsis?
The ellipsis is used to indicate OMISSION of words in:
a. The middle of a quoted sentence
b. The middle of sentences within a quoted paragraph

In creative writing, the ellipsis functions to indicate that the speaker has trailed off
and left a sentence or thought unfinished.

What does ellipsis look like?
The ellipsis can consist of either 3 or 4 periods (also known as dots).

- A single dot is called an ELLIPSIS POINT.
- Use 3 spaced dots to indicate the omission of 1 or more words within a sentence
In this case, in addition to the spaces between the dots, we put a SPACE BEFORE the 1st ellipsis point AND AFTER the last one.

Consider the following:

“An elected member's seat will be considered vacant if he or she misses three or more consecutive meetings of the council without a reasonable excuse. A council member may miss a meeting because of personal illness or a family emergency but should not be absent because of vacations, business trips, or other meetings.”

Example: How to quote first sentence but omit “of the council”: The constitution states that council members will forfeit their seats if they miss “three or more consecutive meetings . . . without a reasonable excuse” (County Constitution 78).

The phrase “of the council” is not necessary in this context because:
a. Omitting that phrase does not change the intended meaning of the original text.
b. Omitting that phrase does not mislead the reader in any way.

The 3-dot ellipsis lets readers know that our quotation omits some words, is taken from the same sentence in the original text. This is called the MEDIAL ELLIPSIS.

Sometimes we want to omit words from the end of one sentence but continue to quote from subsequent sentences. Experts differ on how to handle this type of ellipsis, called the TERMINAL ellipsis.

Some style manuals tell us to use 3 spaced dots, just as we would for an omission within a sentence.

Others advocate the use of 4 spaced dots. The 4th dot stands for the period at the end of the sentence that we have not entirely quoted:
The 4th dot lets readers know that the quotation borrows from more than one sentence of the original text.

Notice that with the terminal ellipsis, we put NO SPACE between the 1st ellipsis point and the last word in the quoted text: The constitution states that council members will forfeit their seats if they miss “three or more consecutive meetings of the council. . . . because of vacations, business trips, or other meetings” (County Constitution 78).

Most style manuals discourage the use of ellipses at the beginning or end of a quotation except in rare cases:

Rare: The constitution explains under what conditions a council member's seat “. . . will be considered vacant . . .” (78).

Widely accepted: The constitution explains under what conditions a council member's seat “will be considered vacant” (78).

In cases where we have NO parenthetical documentation, we use a period (ALWAYS goes INSIDE the quotation marks): The constitution explains under what conditions a council member's seat “will be considered vacant.”

The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6th ed.), published by the Modern Language Association advocates enclosing an ellipsis in square brackets to let the reader know that the ellipsis was not in the original text.

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA); The Chicago Manual of Style; and, The Texas Law Review Manual on Usage, Style & EditingDO NOT encourage the use of brackets around ellipses.

When omitting material from a source text, be very careful NEVER to skew the intended meaning of a passage so we can represent the intended meaning honestly and accurately.

Anything else?
Yes! The ellipsis is also used to indicate that a sentence trails off, unfinished e.g.
“We thought the doors were locked, but just to be sure . . .”

This type of TERMINAL ellipsis always consists of 3 spaced dots, rather than 4, with NO SPACE between the LAST DOT and the closing quotation marks.

However, we should generally avoid this construction in expository writing, including business writing because in such contexts we want our thoughts to be clear and complete. An unfinished, incomplete construction is more appropriate in informal or creative writing.

PLUS it is ALWAYS INAPPROPRIATE in professional contexts to use ellipses widely and without discretion in place of other punctuation marks. Not only does the writer appear vague and uncertain but the writing is difficult to read in the absence of more appropriate punctuation.