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Learn How to Speak Like a Native American

Not in my books: not according to my views.

e.g. "Is this good enough?" "Not in my books."

It blows my mind: it's amazing, almost unbelievable.

e.g. "Did you hear that he passed the exam with flying colors?" "It blows my mind."

I can live with that: I'm okay with that; I'll get used to it.

e.g. "That one may cost more." "I can live with that." 

Make heads or tails of: Do not understand.

Keep one's shirt on: Calm down; don't get too excited.

e.g. "Cool off! Keep your shirt on. This is not the end of the world can't make heads or tails of what you're saying.  You're totally beyond me."

Snap it up: be quick.

e.g. "Snap it up! We need to finish it before noon."

No sweat: it's ok; no problem.

e.g. "I'm sorry I'm late." "No sweat! We've all the time in the world."

Over my dead body: absolutely not!

e.g. "Can I come with you? " "Over my dead body!"

Yesterday wouldn't be too soon: as soon as possible.

e.g. "When do you want me to give this to you?" "Yesterday wouldn't be too soon!"

What would you say if: asking for an opinion; what about?

e.g. "I heard you were recently offered a job." "What would you say if I decline the offer?"

Speak out of turn: speak at the wrong time.

e.g. "Beware of what you're going to say at the meeting. Don't speak out of turn by talking about your divorce."

What gives?: what's wrong? what's the problem?

e.g. "You were screaming at each other. What gives?"

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The English Sentence Patterns

In English, the number of sentences is infinite. However, within this infinity, there are FIVE patterns:

Subject + verb

e.g. An accident happened.

            (subject) (verb)

Subject + verb + object (direct)

e.g. The man took the money.

              (s)     (v)         (o)

Subject + verb + object (indirect) + object (direct)

e.g. The man give me the money.

               (s)   (v)   (o)       (o)

Subject + verb + complement (of the subject)

e.g. She is pretty.

       (s) (v) (c)

Subject + verb + object + complement (of the object) 

e.g. They elected him President.

       (s)     (v)       (o)   (c)

e.g. They made her unhappy.

       (s)     (v)     (o)  (c)

Sir Winston Churchill once said that the English sentence is a "noble thing." As such, in order to write an effective sentence, one must know what an English sentence is.

A sentence is for communicating a complete thought, a command, a question, or an exclamation.

    e.g. I love you.

    e.g. Take it.

    e.g. Is it right?

    e.g. How wonderful!

In most cases, a sentence requires at least one subject-verb combination (e.g. I came.); in some cases, a sentence can be a single word (e.g. Help!).

The basic sentence pattern or sentence structure is made up of a subject and a verb:

           Subject                 Verb

           Birds                     sing

But you can add single descriptive words (modifiers) to add more meaning to the basic sentence pattern. These words can be: an article (a, an, the); an adjective (a word to describe the noun or subject); an adverb (a word to describe the verb).

e.g. The (specify which birds) yellow birds (the color of the birds) sing beautifully. (how they sing)

You can add a phrase (made up of two or more words with no subject-verb combination) to make the sentence longer. There are different types of phrases:

an infinitive phrase: to + verb e.g. to do the work, to play the piano

a participle phrase: present participle/past participle + noun, e.g. playing the piano, the broken window

a prepositional phrase: under the table, in the beginning

You can add a clause (made up of words with a subject-verb combination) to make the sentence longer. There are two different types of clauses:

an independent clause: communicating a complete thought, e.g. The man was singing.

a dependent clause: describing another clause, and not communicating a complete thought, e.g. When the man was singing (what happened?)

You can change sentences into different types by adding different clauses:

The simple sentence: one independent clause making one complete thought, e.g. The man was singing.

The compound sentence: more than one complete thought, with two or more independent clauses, e.g. The man was singing and the children were dancing.

The complex sentence: one independent clause with one or more dependent clauses, e.g. The man was singing (independent clause), when the children were dancing (dependent clause).

The compound complex sentence: two independent clauses with one or more dependent clauses, e.g. The man was singing (independent clause) and the children were dancing (independent clause) when the light suddenly went out.

Effective writing is the use of different types of sentences (simple, compound, complex, compound complex) to give variety. In addition, vary the sentence length to avoid monotony in writing.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

       

The Use of Italics

In English, sometimes words and phrases are slanted to the right--the use of italics. Effective writing requires the use of italics appropriately. The following  shows how to use italics effectively:

(1) Use italics for titles.

e.g. The film The Interview has caused much controversy.

e.g. Have you read Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace?

(2) Use italics for foreign words. The English language has acquired many foreign words, such as chef from France, and spaghetti from Italy, that have become part of the English language and they do not require to be put in italics.  However, many foreign words still require to be out in italics.

e.g. Gato is a Spanish word for cat.

e.g. Balance is expressed in the concept of yin and yang.

(3) Use italics for names of aircraft, ships, and trains.

e.g. Titanic  hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage.

(4) Use italics for emphasis, but avoid its overuse:

e.g. It is easy to find out how you can avoid credit card debt, but it is difficult to actually do it.

(5) Use italics for words, phrases, letters, and numbers used as words.

e.g. The alphabet b and d are easily confused by young children.

e.g. Do you know the difference between allude and delude?

e.g. Many people consider 13 an unlucky number.

EFFECTIVE WRITING MADE SIMPLE

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Learn Some Slang

Language is forever changing. What is currently acceptable or popular may be replaced by something else in years to come, and the use of slang is a strong testament to that. Slang is just an alternative way of saying something. It is sometimes hard to identify what is slang and what is not. Slang and colloquial expressions are often acceptable in informal writing because they are used in communication in movies, newspapers, radio, television, and the media.

Easy on the eye: good looking.

e.g. I say, your girlfriend is easy on the eye.

Beefcake: a muscular man.

e.g. She has been dating a beefcake.

e.g. He goes to the gym regularly because he wants to be a beefcake.

Caught short: caught at a disadvantage.

e.g. The market plunged, and we were caught short just as thought we were on the road to recovery..

Killer: a very funny joke.

e.g. That last one was really a killer;  everybody laughed.

Kick back: relax and enjoy.

e.g I really want to kick back and enjoy the music.

Daylight robbery: too costly.

e.g. That’s daylight robbery; to pay $300 just to fix this!

Not in the same street: of a different quality (usually inferior).

e.g. These two dresses may look similar, but they are not in the same street. This one looks much more elegant than that one.

Alive and kicking: in good health.

e.g. "How is your grandmother doing?" "Very much alive and kicking."

Bad shot: wrong guess.

e.g. “He came with his wife, didn’t he?” “Bad shot: he came all by himself.”

In a jiffy: soon.

e.g. The manager will see you in a jiffy.

Next to nothing: hardly anything.

e.g. “Did she leave you anything at all?” “Well, next to nothing.”

Not so dusty: quite good.

e.g. Well the performance was not so dusty; much better than I expected.

Whistle for: wish in vain.

e.g. The stock market has fallen sharply. You can whistle for your money invested.

Head above water: out of debt.

e.g. Nowadays, it is not easy to keep your head above water.

Mean-green: money.

e.g. Can I borrow a little mean-green from you?

Break a leg: good luck!

e.g. "I'll have my first piano competition tomorrow." "Break a leg!"

English Slang and Colloquial Expressions

Stephen Lau

Writing Before Reading

Teaching your child to read requires patience, perseverance, and much effort. But it is very rewarding if your child can read at a much earlier stage than other kids. I began teaching my daughter to read when she was only a few months old, and she could read at the age of three (an average child in the United States begins to read at the age of five or six).

Teaching a child to read comes in many stages, and the last stage prior to reading is the writing stage.

Writing, involving the use of voluntary muscles, is a physical skill that improves with more practice and encouragement from parents. At the end of the second year or the beginning of the third year, wrist and finger movement develops, and by the middle or the end of the third year, your child may have mastered the skill of holding a pencil between finger and thumb. Some children can draw crude pictures of human figures; others may begin to copy their own names.

To help your child achieve a satisfactory running hand is a more realistic goal than to train him or her to become  calligrapher. Good handwriting, however, should be duly encouraged: after all, attractive handwriting is often a joy to behold as well as a pleasure to produce. Moreover, an efficient mastery of handwriting would enable subsequent fluent written communication. It is important that there should be a sensible and consistent policy for the teaching of handwriting.

Teach and encourage your child to do the following to improve his or her motor skills:

Adjectives OR Adverbs

Knowing grammatical terms is essential for effective writing because these grammatical terms provide a common language for discussing and talking about what is good and effective writing.

ADJECTIVES

An adjective describes a noun. Adjectives often give precision and meaning to sentences; in other words, they add color to your writing.

Beware: some words are both adjectives (describing nouns) and adverbs (modifying verbs).

e.g. This is hard work. (an adjective)

e.g. He works hard. (an adverb)

Linking verbs, such as be, become, look, seem, smell, taste, require the use of adjectives rather than adverbs.

e.g. He became angry. (NOT angrily)

e.g. He looked angrily at me. (it was the action expressed in the look)

e.g. He looked angry. (it was the expression, not the action)

e.g. She looks happy. (NOT happily)

e.g. The food smells wonderful. (NOT wonderfully)

e.g. The baby was smiling wonderfully.

e.g. The wine tastes good. (NOT well)

Adverbs

An adverb modifies an action or an adjective.

Most adverbs take the comparative and superlative forms with more and most.

e.g. My father walks more slowly than my mother (does).

e.g. He is the most talented student in the class.

Exceptions to the rule are: 

fast, faster, fastest; hard, harder, hardest; soon, sooner, soonest.

          e.g. I can run faster than you (run).

         

Certain adjectives do not require adverbs to modify them.