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English Grammar
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Syntax - Who Owns the English Language?
When writing these blobs,
a friend of mine made a comment, perhaps complaining, of my syntax.
In fact, I occasionally get complaints about my English. In elementary
school I was sent to some specialist who helped me read, like I
had problems reading. I never really enjoyed reading because I found
it extremely slow and tedious, but this has changed over the last
ten years because of my full time job of either translating or responding
to emails…
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the full article…
English grammar
English grammar is a body
of rules (grammar) specifying how phrases and sentences are constructed
in the English language. Accounts of English grammar tend to fall
into two groups: the descriptivist, which describes the grammatical
system of English; and the prescriptivist, which does not describe
English grammar but rather sets out a small list of social regulations
that attempt to govern the linguistic behaviour of native speakers
(see Linguistic prescription and Descriptive linguistics)…
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the full article…
Pronouncing The "S", "Z", "T", "D"
In English
You know that it is difficult
to know when to pronounce the written letter "s" in English like
"s", the sound of air escaping from your bicycle tire, and when
to pronounce it as the letter "z", the sound of an angry bee. This
problem shows up in the plural of nouns…
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the full article…
Top Ten Grammar Errors that Haunt Web Pages
With all of this talk
about content, don’t you think it’s time to have a frank discussion
about grammar? Our Web sites are our online store fronts—our online
images. If our sites are full of grammar errors, what does that
say about the professionalism of our businesses?…
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the full article…
Do we say "an historic" or "a historic"?
You probably know the
grammar rule that says you use "an" before vowel sounds (e.g. AN
accident, AN item, AN hour) and "a" otherwise; e.g. A book, A report,
A hotel.
Following this rule, we would say "a historic", not "an historic"…
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the full article…
"Which" or "that": Choosing between them made
easy
Consider the following
sentences. Both are acceptable, but they mean quite different things
- The books, which have red covers, are new
- The books that have red covers are new…
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the full article…
Should I "boldly go" or "go boldly"?
Thus starts the famous
voice-over to Star Trek. Quite apart from the 1960s sexism, it raises
the burning question that has probably long been gnawing at you:
should Captain Kirk have said "to boldly go" or "to go boldly"?
…
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the full article…
The American Accent: Pronunciation Of The Vowels
Many learners of English
have a distinct accent because they pronounce English with the vowels
of their language. They commit this error because the English vowels
are "something like" the vowel sounds of their native language,
but they are not the same! …
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the full article…
Intonation In English: Nouns And Adjectives Are Stressed Differently
Than Verbs
Listen and Learn: Nouns
and Adjectives one way; Verbs another. A "ggod" accent is not only
a question of good pronunciation. Many people think that pronunciation
is what makes up an accent. It may be that pronunciation is very
important for an understandable accent …
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the full article…
Reading & Writing English: Words Ending In "D"
The different sounds that
the letter"d" takes at the end of a verb in the past tense. The
English language indicates that the action of the verb is in the
past by having some form of the "d" or "t" sound end the word. We
say some kind of "d" or "t" sound although the word is almost always
written with a "d" …
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the full article…
The American English Accent: The "Explosive" T And P Sounds
The "explosive consonants"
Earlier we said that the vowels are an important factor in hearing
a "foreign" accent. But it is not only the vowels. The consonants
also must be mastered …
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the full article…
"Less" or "fewer": Is there still a difference?
I can't wrap myself around using
"less" when "fewer" seems so right to me. She asked me to comment…
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the full article…
Intonation In English: Expressions Of Two Words
Many people think that pronunciation
is what makes up an accent. It may be that pronunciation is very
important for an understandable accent. But it is intonation that
gives the final touch that makes an accent correct or native…
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the full article…
The American English Accent : The Voiced And Unvoiced
The voiced and unvoiced consonants.
In this section we will try to clarify the difference between the
voiced consonants and the unvoiced consonants…
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the full article…
Words We'd Love to do Without
Anne Connolly, a researcher for the
State University of New York system, talked with me about words
we have grown tired of hearing, especially since they mean almost
nothing. (In fact, they take away impact, because they are annoying.)…
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the full article…
English Intonation:
The Noun And Verb
Intonation, the "music" of a language, is perhaps the most important
element of a correct accent. Many people think that pronunciation
is what makes up an accent. It may be that pronunciation is very
important for an understandable accent. But it is intonation that
gives the final touch that makes an accent correct or native…
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the full article…
Hyphens
made easy
Your readers judge you on the way
you write.
This applies whether you're writing advertising copy, a college
or business report, a web site, or the next great novel; and it's
these judgements that will determine the success or failure of your
venture…
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the full article…
Do you "take" or "make" a decision?
A friend e-mailed me recently and
asked why some people write (and say) "take a decision" instead
of "make a decision".
Being a good friend, he researched his own answer before I got around
to replying. :-) His investigation suggested that "take a decision"
is primarily British usage, whereas "make a decision" is more common
in the US…
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the full article…
Are full stops placed inside or outside quotation marks?
Should the full stop be inside the closing quotation mark or outside
it?
Well, in US English, the full stop goes inside the closing quotation
mark in this sentence. In British English, it is placed outside…
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the full article…
"Affect" or "effect": it's harder than you
think!
"Affect" and "effect" are commonly misused. Here are some simple
examples to help you get them straight…
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the full article…
"Active" and "passive" voices made simple
Open almost any book on grammar or writing skills, and you'll come
across the advice "Use the active voice in preference to the passive
voice".
Also, if you use Microsoft Word, you'll often get similar advice
from its grammar checker.
Free of all the grammatical jargon, what does this mean?…
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the full article…
Apostrophes:
a gentle introduction
Apostrophes are a common source of confusion for many writers. They
needn't be, though, and this easy-to-follow article will help you
to use them properly.
Let's start with a very simple explanation of what a noun is…
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the full article…
Grammatical
Conversion in English: Some new trends in lexical evolution
English is a very productive language. Due to its versatile nature,
it can undergo many different word formation processes to create
new lexicon. Some of them are much lexicalised—such as derivation
or compounding. However, new trends are pointing up in the productive
field. This is the case of the minor methods of word-formation—i.e.
clipping, blending—and conversion. As they are recent phenomena,
they have not been much studied yet. Even scholars differ in their
opinions about the way they should be treated …
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the full article…
"Ought to" and "Should"
Ought to is a very useful verb which unfortunately is very often
forgotten. Here, we will look at whether there are any differences
between ought to and should, and whether they be used interchangeably
…
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the full article…
Lexicon and Terminology: Of Mesopotamia, cattle and interest (en
anglais)
Pecuniary and impecunious (English), and pécuniaire,
pécune and pécule (French) are just
a few of the terms relating to money that can be traced back to
a period when livestock was the standard currency. This is hardly
surprising since financial activities, i.e. lending, borrowing and
managing wealth, are thought to have originated among the pastoral
societies of the Near East …
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the full article…
British vs. American English (continued)
As well as the differences in vocabulary we looked at in an earlier
article, it is also possible to spot differences in grammar and
country-specific structures in 'British' and 'American' documents.
Often there are no hard and fast rules, it is simply a question
of usage and a result of how the language has developed in each
country …
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the full article…
British vs. American English
George Bernard Shaw famously said that the British and the Americans
were "two nations separated by a common language".
Below are some examples of different usage in British and American
English. You may already be aware of some of these differences,
others may surprise you …
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the full article…
Not and its position in the sentence
In this article we will be looking at the possible problems that
may arise when using the negative 'not'. When 'not' is used in conjunction
with all, every or because there may be some ambiguity as
to the intended meaning …
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the full article…
Word Division
We have been asked for some hints on word division in English documents.
Basically, words should be divided according to syllables and on
the basis of pronunciation.
The main rule is that the pronunciation of the first part of the
word must be recognisable before the eye reaches the second part
in the following line …
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the full article…
Split Infinitives
A split infinitive is an infinitive with an adverb placed between
"to" and the verb.
There is a long-standing rule that infinitives should not be split.
However, many grammarians see no grammatical reason for the rule,
considering it merely a question of style. The split infinitive
has been described as "an ugly thing" (Fowler, The King's English)
…
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the full article…
Common mistakes in using one word for another when they are similar
in spelling but different in meaning
When editing, or simply reading, business documents drafted in English
I have noted that certain pairs of words that are pronounced or
spelt similarly are frequently confused - even at times by native
English writers! Some of the most common mistakes are discussed
below …
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the full article…
Confusion between To Lay and To Lie
Following on from our previous article, today we will be considering
two more verbs that are frequently confused: to lay and to
lie.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary gives no less than 16 different usages
of the first verb …
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the full article…
The Greengrocer's Apostrophe
How should you use the apostrophe?
A surprising number of people in the UK do not seem to know, as
can be seen by the number of mistakes in shop signs and advertisements.
Some of the worst culprits are allegedly greengrocers, hence the
expression the "greengrocer's apostrophe". Signs can frequently
be seen advertising tasty apple's , juicy pear's
or the best banana's . However, they are not the only ones
to get it wrong …
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the full article…
Double Negatives
It is an established rule of English grammar that two negatives
cancel each other out.
In other words, the proper meaning of "he did not do nothing" is
"he did something".
As with all rules, there are exceptions. It is accepted that in
some cases negatives can be multiplied to give added emphasis …
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the full article…
How to use the verb "may"
Many people find the verbs “can”, “may”,
“shall”, “will”, and “must”
confusing, and are often unsure which to choose (may or can? shall
or will?). In an earlier article we looked at the differences between shall and will. In this article we will be focusing
on the verb may …
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the full article…
How to use "might"
After reading the recent article on the modal verb may, you may
(!) be wondering how and when to use the associated word might …
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the full article…
Numbers
After the summer holidays, I thought it appropriate to take a dive
into figures right away … and below you will find the answer
to a "number" of issues people have brought to my attention over
the months…
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the full article…
To ING or not to ING, that is the question!
"Are you finished cooking supper?" " I decided to order a pizza."
Why do we say "finished cooking" and "decided to order"? For some
reason when two English verbs are used together in a sentence, the
second verb will either be an "-ing" form or an infinitive form
(to + verb) …
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the full article…
Words that are often confused (a lesson)
There are many pairs of words in English that are frequently confused
with each other because they are similar in appearance or in meaning.
Your incorrect use of these words makes a glaring statement about
you to well-educated people - that if you are sloppy or inaccurate
in using language, how dependable will you be in other areas? Here
is your chance to fix some of those errors…
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the full article…
Currency Units
This article provides the appropriate English usage for the euro
and the other currency units of the world, particularly appropriate
now that Europe is about to switch over to the single currency.
There seems to be a tendency in Belgium for non-native English speakers
to use a variety of ways to spell out currency amounts. Well, here
are the rules as far as English is concerned…
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the full article…
On Capitalisation
The modern trend is to reduce the use of capitalisation. Proper
nouns must begin with a capital letter, but many associated words
may be written in lowercase without any loss of meaning. The important
thing is to maintain consistency throughout a document…
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the full article…
Slipping into a comma! Again????
There have been previous articles on the subject, but it seems to
me certain items cannot be stressed enough…
Some people seem to think sprinkling commas every few words is a
good rule, but it makes for difficult reading…
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the full article…
The apostrophe (2)
We saw in the last article that one of the apostrophe's main functions
is to denote possession. Today we are going to look at its other
uses…
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the full article…
The apostrophe (1)
Despite its size, the apostrophe is just as important as any other
character used in the English language.
The apostrophe is often a misunderstood little fellow. Contrary
to popular opinion, he is not there just to make our lives difficult;
rather to serve two crucial functions. The first of these is discussed
below. The second will be the subject of our next article…
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the full article…
Double trouble
Spelling, here it comes around again. English is just one of those
languages (not unlike French), where the spelling often has very
little to do with the actual pronunciation of the word and where
the few concrete rules that exist can be difficult to spot.
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the full article…
You say eeither, and I say eiither
That age-old dispute about the pronunciation of the words 'either'
and 'neither' as battled out in the famous song would perhaps
be best left alone given that, at the end of the day, both are correct
and it is merely a matter of regional accent. However, it is not
always so easy to determine the usage of these two words together
with their trusty friends or and nor…
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the full article…
What's in a Name?
Names of places
Often, the names of places in other countries remain the same in
our own language or are recognisable beyond doubt (Londen/Londres
= London). Nevertheless, we can still be caught out by the translations
of place names and other such phenomena in texts written in other
languages, or be unsure as to how to render them correctly when
writing ourselves in a foreign language.
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the full article…
'-ic' and '-al'
Spelling mistakes, as we know, are all too common in written English,
a language with few rules and abundant oddities. Even native speakers
often fall into the trap of mixing their '-ics' with their '-als'.
But you don't want to be misunderstood. This essential guide highlights
the most common areas of confusion.
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the full article…
Hyphenation - some helpful hints
Something I have noticed whilst proof-reading translations sent
by freelance partners over the last months has been the 'grey area'
that sometimes crops up surrounding hyphenation in English. Hyphens
(not the same as the dash) join two or three words together into
a 'compound'. Guidelines on hyphenation can often be found in the
dictionary, but not always, and many words lose their hyphens with
time. Overuse of hyphens becomes ridiculous, but where they are
omitted this can leave meaning ambiguous or may cause your text
to strike a native speaker as having "something missing". In this
article we will try to provide some rough guidelines for use.
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the full article…
Transparent words or Faux-amis?
No language possesses 100% of its words that are free from any foreign
influence. The English language is no exception to the rule and
contains many words borrowed from many different languages worldwide.
Read
the full article…
Unsolved mysteries: Web site or website?
The Internet is here to stay. There is no doubt about that. Many
people see the Internet as a final frontier, where anything goes.
This is certainly vividly expressed by the fact that consistent
linguistic rules for the related vocabulary have yet to be established.
Read
the full article…
Comma Controversies
Commas are like the salt we sprinkle throughout our writing adding
clarity and the rhythms of speech. We could hardly live without
them, and yet, tastes differ. Are there rules?
Read
the full article…
Spelling Dilemmas
The English language is notorious for its inconsistent and irregular
spelling. However, there are some minor rules which can guide you.
In this article we will take a look at a few trouble spots in English
spelling. Read
the full article…
Place Names in English
The names of cities or places may have a different spelling in English
than in other languages. This article will present some examples
which can cause confusion…
Read the full article…
"Ise" or "Ize"?
Freedom of choice can be a terrible responsibility. Faced with two
acceptable alternative spellings in English, how do you make up
your mind? Do you work for an organisation or an organization? Last
year, did your company realise profits or realize them? Is it simply
a matter of choosing between "British" English and "American"
English? This article should help you the next time you find yourself
agonising or agonizing over this question…
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Also, As Well and Too: Three Ways to Say
More
There is an expression in English, "Less is more", which
means that brevity is sometimes the most meaningful style of expression.
However, in the professional world, we often need to communicate
a lot of information at once without losing the reader's attention.
Finding the right way to link ideas and phrases is a crucial factor
in organising what you want to say. This article will focus on the
use of also, as well and too, some little words which go a long
way…
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Conversation Starters: The Correct Way to
Use "Since"
Have you ever heard the expression "to make small talk"?
Small talk is the kind of light social conversation people use to
get to know each other. Like talking about the weather, it is meant
to put people at ease. How good are you at starting up a conversation?
At such moments, the last thing you need is to be unsure of your
English…
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Understanding headlines
Many non-native English speakers wishing to practise their English
comprehension will at some point pick up an English newspaper and
read a few articles. Here are one or two pointers if you, too, decide
to do this…
Read the full article…
Phrasal Verbs With "Get"
One of the grammar/vocabulary areas that causes most problems for
students of English is phrasal verbs, and not surprisingly. Although
discussed in previous columns, this difficult area (where the expression
"you've just got to learn them" applies) is worthy of
further attention. This time we turn the spotlight on phrasal verbs
with the same base verb - "get"…
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Stuck for words? A rough guide to Conversational Fillers
Spoken English differs from written English in many ways, such as
in the use of slang or "semi-slang" expressions and the shortening
of words and elision of two words ("do not" becomes "don't", "donOt
know" becomes "dunno", "going to" becomes "gonna", etc.). However,
perhaps the most obvious difference lies in the way in which words
and phrases are commonly used as "fillers" in conversational English,
to give the speaker time to think or to modify what he/she is saying
…
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the full article…
Comparative structures in English
A review of comparative and superlative forms in English, and ways
of expressing degree of comparison…
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An Englishman in New York. American
and British English
There is an anecdote that tells of an Englishman who was spending
a holiday in New York. The second day he was there, he was doing
some sightseeing when he got talking to a girl from Chicago in the
queue for the Empire State Building. In the course of the conversation
the girl said: "That's a nice pair of pants you're wearing.
Did you buy them here? ". The Englishman was lost for words
for a moment. How did she know what pants he was wearing?
Read the full article…
What´s in a Name: Juliet´s
Question Revisited
This article's aim is to take
the treatment of proper names in translation a little further than
where I left off in the previous article entitled "What´s in a Name: Juliet´s
Question Revisited." I have here tried to red-flag some additional perils I've encountered
in translating proper names—this time on toponymic terminology—
from mere choppy waters to lethal tsunamis. And I certainly hope
to throw an occasional lifeline to you, but I beg you not to expect
anything other than rough sailing when reading it. In preparation,
let's take a Dramamine before we leave shore…
Read the full article…
What´s in a Name: Juliet´s
Question Revisited
During the American Translators
Association's Spanish Division Conference in San Antonio earlier
this year, I was browsing through my favorite bookseller's offerings
when he took my arm and quietly led me to a 225-page book by Virgilio
Moya entitled La traducción de los nombres propios (The Translation of Proper Names). He sat me in a chair and then
went about his business, catching my eye every now and then to throw
me a crooked smile. A friend wandered by and glanced over my shoulder.
"Vero," he said, "you're not going to buy a book
that should never have been written, are you?" He was referring,
of course, to one of translation's coziest fortresses: 'Proper names
are not translated; not ever.' "This book must be nonsense,"
he added. And in one sense, he was right: Moya's siege engine gave
the fortress a tilt, and then its portcullis buckled and its mighty
ramparts tumbled down into the sea…
Read the full article…
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