grammar

You are currently browsing the archive for the grammar category.

Would

November 25, 2009 in grammar | No comments

Would has various different uses:

  • politeness

    • Would you like to have a coffee?

    • Would you mind introducing customer information to us?

  • Past, to talk about repeated events

    • When I was young I would go swimming every Saturday.

    • When I was head of department I would have meetings every day.

  • Hypothetical situations

    • What would you say if you met Barack Obama?

    • I think it would be helpful to the treasury department.

    • If I lived in New York, I would have much more chance of meeting famous people.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , ,

Verb + -ing & inf. with a change in meaning

November 19, 2009 in grammar | No comments

This is something I covered with a client the other day, something which causes problems at all levels of ability. When it comes to verbs that take BOTH -ing AND inf. after them, but with a change in meaning, the following four are perhaps the most important.

  • Remember
    • I remember swimming in the Thames when I was a boy.
    • Didn’t you remember to buy milk, I asked you twice!
  • Forget
    • Damn! I forgot to take my library books back.
    • I can’t believe you can remember that! I’d completely forgotten bumping into Tony Blair last year.
  • Try
    • I tried to pass my driving test last year. = I attempted to and therefore failed
    • I tried cooking her dinner, but still failed to impress her.
  • Stop
    • Can we stop (the car) to take some photos, the view is magnificent!
    • Will you stop talking with your mouth full, it’s disgusting to watch!
  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , ,

Confusion with As and Like

July 3, 2009 in grammar | 2 comments

There is often quite a bit of confusion with As and Like, in one of their uses they both seem to mean ’similar’ or ‘the same’. I’ve written this with the intention of trying to make this a little clearer so that less mistakes will be made.

Both As and Like can be used as conjunctions and prepositions, whilst As is also sometimes an adverb and Like also a verb. Here’s an example of each:

As as an adverb – Alice is as intelligent as her brother.

As as a conjunction – As prices rise, so people find it more difficult to maintain their standard of living.

As as a preposition – As your manager, you are expected to do what I tell you.

Like as a verb – He didn’t like her very much.

Like as a conjunction – It looks like it’s going to be hot today. (informal – see below*)

Like as a preposition – John is like his father.

The confusion between these two words is when they are used as prepositions.

Read the rest of this entry »

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , ,

What’s the difference between look (at), watch and see?

June 17, 2009 in grammar | No comments

All these verbs are related to sight and vision

  1. See is the most common of the three verbs and is usually followed by an OBJECT:
    They’ve seen MANY PEOPLE wearing hats.
    John     saw ANDREA at the party.
    But it doesn’t always have an OBJECT:
    I can’t see well, so I need to wear glasses.
    See (meaning vision – there are other meanings of see) doesn’t usually take the progressive form, but look (at) can:
    We’ve been looking at churches all day!
    We’ve been seeing churches all day!
  2. Watch is used when animals or people look at something (or something happening) over a period of time:
    I’ve been watching the cricket, what have you been doing?
    Last night we watched a film.
  3. Look (at) means ‘using eyes for a particular reason.’
    “I want you to     look straight into my eyes.”
    He     wasn’t looking where he was going.
    Look also refers to appearance when what you are looking at is the SUBJECT:
    SHE looks great in that red dress.
    THE HOUSE     has been looking awful for the last few months.

So in summary I’d say that see is the most common option while look (at) and watch are both similar to each other, except that watch is used when describing actions that take place over a longer period of time.

look-see-watchpdficon_large.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , ,

Wait / Await

March 27, 2009 in grammar | No comments

wait-awaitQuestion last week, “What’s the difference between waiting and awaiting?”

The examples given were something like

What are you waiting for?
He’s awaiting promotion.

The verb wait has several meanings, but in the context here the MDO defines it as

to stay in one place because you expect or hope that something will happen

while await is defined as

Read the rest of this entry »

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , ,

Can you see the mistakes? 27/03/09

March 26, 2009 in grammar | 1 comment

Each class I have with a client I document their mistakes as they speak. The following session I print out the mistakes and ask the client to correct them. I thought it would be useful to put together a collection of these on a weekly basis and publish them, so others can try and correct them. I have collected them by first language, because each language group makes it’s own mistakes.

So, the following are all WRONG, if you want to download this as a document, with answers, you can do that here – Can you see the mistakes? 27/03/09pdficon_large.

French Speakers

… yes and it don’t sound correct to me …

… they thought the crisis was going to be bad, but not so much …

… but I think it’s not helpful …

… there is a lot of value destruction which is not taking into account in the market price …

… I’ll just take my glasses …

… obviously the market has not a strong view on …

Read the rest of this entry »

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , ,

lay / lie / lie

February 25, 2009 in grammar | No comments

This recently came up on a forum I sometimes visit. What is it about lay and lie that is so difficult?

There are two basic issues:

  1. This is not a problem of two verbs, but of three:
    1. ‘to lie’ = to intentionally say something that is not true
    2. “to lie” (a different verb) = to be in a position in which your body is flat on a surface such as the ground or a bed (but also used as in “there are clothes all over the floor”), This is often used in the phrasal verb form, to lie down
    3. “to lay” = to put something or someone down carefully, especially so that they are or it is lying flat
  2. As you can see from the first two infinitives, the verbs share some of the same spelling (these are called homonyms = a word that is spelled the same or sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning), especially because b. & c. are irregularIf I show the infinitives, pasts and past participles, that should show you where the confusion is:
    1. lie lied lied (this is regular)
      I don’t know why, but he always lies to me.
      She lied about her father again and again.
      Have you lied to       me again?
    2. lie lay lain (irregular)
      Look, you had better lie down, you look awful.
      As soon as they lay in bed, they fell asleep.
      The tree had lain where it had fallen for many years.
    3. lay laid laid (irregular)
      Lay the patient carefully on the bed over there.
      They laid they new carpet in the lounge, and it looked great.
      The body was laid carefully on the bed.

    3. And how do English people tell the difference? Well, as in any language, it’s in the context, no one ever listens to any single word, but instead to a phrase in the context of a situation etc.

Download a pdf of the article here (you need to be registered to do this): Confusion! lay / lie / lie pdficon_large

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , ,

The Human Sponge (Learning outside the class) – Part Two

December 18, 2008 in grammar | 1 comment

This is the second part of the article, if you haven’t read the first part, you can find it here.

Becoming a sponge

Squeezed SpongeTo incorporate language learning into life, one needs to bring the target language, in this case English, out from the cold and into the warm front room of the everyday. Almost every client I have, whatever their level and situation, automatically disengages from English when they don’t have to use it (for most this means when not at work), and many are disengaged even when they are using it.

This is not a criticism. Except for a very select few, we are all disengaged from whichever language we use because language is a tool. It is natural to think about what we are saying not how we are saying it. The trick to becoming a sponge, to my mind, is to get back to concentrating on the how at the expense, at least initially of the what. This concentration on the how doesn’t even need to be conscious all of the time. Merely hearing a conversation without listening to it the brain will be taking in some of that information subconsciously and filing it away, in much the same way that a baby spends the time before it can ’speak’ listening to the way it’s parents communicate, subconsciously organising linguistic structures in the brain.

Read the rest of this entry »

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , ,

The Human Sponge (Learning outside the class) – Part One

December 10, 2008 in grammar | 3 comments

Introduction

Unsqueezed Sponge

For me, the most key element of learning a language is awareness. I usually spend no more than three or four hours with a client in any given week, normally spread over two sessions or ‘classes’. For me, therefore, four hours is little more than 3.5% of the time during a week when a client is not asleep. If the client or ’student’ thinks that they only need to concentrate on what they are learning during the sessions, then what teacher can hope to succeed in improving their client’s ability to speak a foreign language?

In my view, there is no teacher who can succeed this way. No teacher can succeed if the client is not engaged in the learning process. Teaching is not about feeding a client knowledge, it is about them using their skill, knowledge and personality to help the student overcome the barriers and complexities that lie in the way of the absorbing the knowledge.

Read the rest of this entry »

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , ,