Tim's English Language Clinic

This clinic is really only for problems with the English language. It is mainly for dealing with questions that need long, and possibly boring, answers. These are answers that I prefer not to give during a lesson because you will probaby go to sleep.

Please limit your questions to one problem at a time and be patient, the reply may take a day or two to arrive.

Interesting questions and their answers will be shown here from time to time. Click on the question to go to the response.

'-ise' or '-ize'

This can sometimes be a tricky problem because there are two different reasons why you may use one or the other of these suffixes.

First, the suffix depends on the origin of the word. If the word comes to English from Greek, then it will probably use the Greek ending -ize (from -izein). If the word does not come from Greek then -ise is probably going to be the correct choice. Secondly, this situation is confused by differences in British and American English. However, there are two groups of words which should not be confused.

The first group consists of words which are always spelled with -ise in all varieties of English. The most frequent verbs in this group are:

To which we may add the nouns:

some of which are occasionally used as verbs.

The following should be spelt -yse in British English, and -yze in American English:

The second, and much larger, group consists of verbs containing the Greek suffix -ize. Among these are:

These are the most common, in fact there are far too many to list here, and new ones are created almost daily, like:

These words above must be spelt with -ize in American English. In British English, the spelling with -ize is traditional, and is still preferred by many publishers, for example at the Oxford University Press. But the newer spelling of -ise is now widespread in Britain. British writers may use whichever spelling they prefer, unless they are writing for a publishing house which insists upon one or the other.

Whichever spelling you prefer, you must, of course, be consistent and use it exclusively, not only with the verbs but with their derived nouns like realization and civilization.

Note also the unusual word capsize, which not Greek in origin, yet is spelt -ize.

are / are there

Both these sentences are commonly used, but (2) is the correct one.

'There is/there are' is used to indicate that something exists, or the question structure 'is there/are there' is used for questions about something existing. So if we are talking about your family, which exists, 'are there' is correct.

In sentence (1) I would expect 'are' to be followed by a present participle (verb + ing). For example: "How many people are watching television in your family." Or, I would expect 'are' to be followed by a 'quality'. For example, "How many people are able to speak Japanese in your family."

To improve your writing

There are several ways to improve your English writing ability. But they are all essentially the same - practice and more practice. So the next question is "What is the best practice?"
There are three things which are particularly useful: speaking, listening and reading.
Speaking is only really of any value if you are speaking to a native-level speaker, who will correct you.
Listening is good, but passive; unless you are reading and listening at the same time, and then speaking while you are listening. Which will drive your room-mates crazy. However there is a very good place on the internet for this type of practice, the BBC. For example, go here and then choose something from the centre column of the page, e.g. 2007 archive and then choose a news story to listen to and read at the same time.
There is also a lot of interesting and useful stuff about English skills here.

Reading is also a great way to improve your writing because you will see perfect English, and become used to seeing perfect English, so that when you are writing, if you make a mistake, you will easily recognize it.
Next time you are in Caves book shop, have a look at the English language section. You will see many well-known English language story books. Some are written in very easy language, some are more difficult. Find something that is easy, then choose the next level, so it is a little more difficult. Read the book for fun/enjoyment. Then analyze it, look at the grammar and structure the author uses. Look at their choice of words.
For something more challenging, read an English language newspaper, such as Taipei Times. Here also you will see good use of the language. Choose an article, a short article, read it, several times if necessary until you understand it. Then re-write it in your own words, as if you were explaining the article to a child. This is good practice at communicating well by writing.

Have a look at a practical grammar book, such as the Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy and Martin Hewings. This book has lots of examples and exercises, with explanations in Chinese. A Pratical English Grammar by Michael Swann, and Practical English Usage by A.J. Thomson and A.V. Marinet (both Oxford University Press) are also very good books. All these are available from Caves Books.

words to show what comes next

The words I mentioned are know as indicators, indicator clues, sign post words, or transtional tags. They are used to tell the reader what to expect next, and so make the reading a smoother experience. As you develop more complex writing, you will (I hope) use indicator words as clues to help the reader to identify the various parts of your writing. Transitional tags are important when you are describing a sequence, or a process (your daily routine, how to make a rice and egg salad). A problem with these words is choosing the correct one, and not using too many of them, or repeating the same one too many times. A common problem is over-using the word 'besides' and using it wrongly!

Here is a table of the transitional tags (also called conjunctive adverbs or adverbial conjunctions) accompanied with a simplified definition of function (note that some words appear with more than one definition).

how to use the gerund, or the verb

The '-ing' form of a verb is sometimes called the present participle and sometimes the gerund, depending on whether the word is used more like a verb or adjective (present participle) or more like a noun (gerund). E.g.

I sat eating fruit and watching the river. (present participle)

Eating fruit is good for you (gerund).

The gerund can be used as:

the subject of a sentence: Dancing bored him.

a complement of a verb: Her hoby is painting.

after prepositions: He was accused of stealing the watch.

in compound nouns: diving board, dining room, bird watching, waiting list.

The gerund is also used after certain verbs: admit, anticipate, appreciate, avoid, consider, defer, delay, deny, detest, dislike, dread, enjoy, escape, excuse, fancy (= imagine), forgive, imagine, keep, mean (=intend), mind (object to), miss, pardon, postpone, practise, prevent, recollect, remember, resist, risk, stop, suggest, understand. There are others, but these are the most common. (= all I can think of at the moment).

Some examples: (gerund underlined)

He admitted taking the car

I appreciate you waiting for me.

If I were you I would avoid shopping there.

Fancy meeting you here!

I remember sleeping next to a camp fire on the beach.

He risks losing his job by arriving late so often.

THE DEFINITE ARTICLE

The correct use of articles (a/an and the) is one of the most difficult parts of English. Even native speakers get these words wrong sometimes. Fortunately, most mistakes are not too serious. Articles belong to a group of words known as 'determiners', that are used before nouns. Other determiners are the possessives (my, your, etc.) the demonstratives (this, that, these, those), some, any, and so on. Two determiners can not be usually used together.

So here are some examples of where to use 'the', and where not to use 'the'.

'The' is used:

1.           To refer to something which has already been mentioned.

              An elephant and a mouse fell in love. The mouse loved the elephant’s long trunk, and the elephant loved the mouse’s tiny nose.

2.           When both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about, even if it has not been mentioned before.

              ‘Where’s the bathroom?’  ‘It’s on the first floor.’

3.           In sentences or clauses where we define or identify a particular person or object:

              The man who wrote this book is famous.

              ‘Which car did you scratch?’ ‘The red one.

              My house is the one with a blue door.’

4.           To refer to objects we regard as unique:

              the sun, the moon, the world

5.           Before superlatives and ordinal numbers:

              The highest building, the first page, the last chapter.

6.           With adjectives, to refer to a whole group of people:

              The Japanese, the old.

7.           With names of geographical areas and oceans:

              the Caribbean, the Sahara, the Atlantic

8.           With decades, or groups of years:

              She grew up in the seventies

EXCEPTIONS TO USING THE DEFINITE ARTICLE

There is no article:

• With names of countries (if singular): Germany is an important economic power. He’s just returned from Zimbabwe. (But: I’m visiting the United States next week.)

• With the names of languages: French is spoken in Tahiti. English uses many words of Latin origin. Indonesian is a relatively new language.

• With the names of meals: Lunch is at midday. Dinner is in the evening. Breakfast is the first meal of the day.

• With people’s names (if singular): John’s coming to the party. George King is my uncle. (But: we’re having lunch with the Morgans tomorrow.)

• With titles and names: Prince Charles is Queen Elizabeth’s son. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Dr. Watson was Sherlock Holmes’ friend. (But: the Queen of England, the Pope.)

• After the  ’s  possessive case: His brother’s car.  Peter’s house.

• With professions: Engineering is a useful career. He’ll probably go into medicine.

• With names of shops: I’ll get the card at Smith’s. Can you go to Wellcome for me?

• With years: 1948 was a wonderful year. Do you remember 1995?

• With uncountable nouns: Rice is the main food in Asia. Milk is often added to tea in England.

• With the names of individual mountains, lakes and islands: Mount McKinley is the highest mountain in Alaska. She lives near Lake Windermere. Have you visited Long Island?

• With most names of towns, streets, stations and airports: Victoria Station is in the centre of London. Can you direct me to Bond Street? She lives in Florence. They’re flying from Heathrow.

• In some fixed expressions, for example: by car, by train, by air, on foot, on holiday, on air (in broadcasting), at school, at work, at University, in church, in prison, in bed.

"It's hard to picture Peter speaking to an American."   Gerund or present participle?

Let’s break the sentence down a little. It is hard to picture Peter …

If you are going to picture (imagine) something happening then the action of picturing (imagining) is happening as you speak; it is happening in real time. And, as you know, events that happen in real time (as we are speaking) are usually described using the present continuous tense, and so use the present participle.

Even in the past, you were still doing something as you were speaking, so a past continuous would be used:

(It was hard to picture Peter speaking …) and in fact in any tense, the same structure would be used with the initial verb making the tense.

E.g.:

It will be hard to picture Peter speaking.

It would have been hard to picture Peter speaking.

and so on.

So, in your sentence “speaking” is a present participle.A gerund is a verb used in the place of a noun. Have a look here.

"I have a wonderful family. I love ____ very much. (A) one (B) it (C) ones (D) them."

I love THEM very much.

What you are saying is: “I have a wonderful family and I love the wonderful family I have very much”. But of course we would never say that, we would use a referential pronoun to refer back to the previous subject (noun, or noun phrase). The previous subject is ‘family’, and refers to a group of people; the word is singular but the idea is plural (a family is always more than one person). So we need a plural referential pronoun – ‘them’.

You could also consider ‘them’ to be an object pronoun. In the phrase   I love them very much. ‘I’= subject, ‘love’= verb’, ‘them’ = object pronoun.

Let’s break the sentence down an little. “I have a family” ‘I’ = subject, ‘love’ = verb, ‘family’ = object. The object ‘receives' the action of the subject (a better example may be: “I eat cake”, the cake ‘receives’ the action of ‘eat’ by ‘I’). Or maybe you could think of the cake as ‘experiencing’ the action of the subject.

So, ‘them’ is used to refer to the object of a clause. In other words, it usually represents the group of people or things that have ‘experienced’ the action described by the verb, and refers back to two or more people or things that were mentioned earlier.

E.g. 1:

“I’ve bought some apples. I’ll put them on the table.”

In this example ‘them’ is used as a direct object pronoun – it refers directly to the apples; the object of the previous clause.

E.g. 2:

The kids were really excited. Jack gave them presents.

In example 2, ‘them’ is an indirect object pronoun. An indirect object refers to a third participant in the action described by the verb, often someone who receives something as a result of it. Presents is the direct object.

Like other indirect objects, them can be introduced by a preposition and placed after a direct object, e.g.:

Jack gave presents to them.

Them is also sometimes used instead of the object pronouns him or her to refer to an individual whose sex is not known or mentioned:

If someone phones, tell them I’m not here.

health, healthy, healthful, healthfully?

B. Healthy. “Healthy” is an adjective describing the noun (food). Meaning = having or indicating good health. For example: a healthy diet, a healthy baby, a healthy economy. This adjective is far more commonly used than “healthful” Furthermore, the adverb derived from “healthy”, i.e. “healthily” is also far more commonly used than “healthfully” even though it does not really mean the same thing. Healthily really has the meaning of ‘sensible, even-tempered, reliable, levelheaded’.

Health – is a noun and indicates a state of well-being free from disease; "doctors should be held responsible for the health of their patients". Also, the general condition of body and mind; "his delicate health"; "in poor health". Although you will see shops called “Health Food Shops”. But here “Health Food, or Healthfood,  is a compound noun, not an adjective-noun phrase.

Healthful – is  an adjective: meaning favorable to good health of body or mind; "a healthful climate"; "a healthful environment"; "healthful nutrition"; "healthful sleep".
Although it is not commonly used. “Healthy” is much more commonly used.

Healthfully - is an adverb, describing how we do something. But is not commonly used. In fact I can’t easily think of a situation where I would use it. I would probably use “Healthily.”

and sent her it

It’s not ok to write this way. If you “sent her” then it is “her” that is being sent, and if “her” is being sent, then there is some place “her” must go. This is the idea behind the word “send” It is movement in a direction to somewhere or someone particular.
E.g. She was feeling ill, so I sent her home. (particular place).

She wanted to speak to me on Skype, so I sent my Skype address to her. (particular person)
It was sent to me by special delivery. (“to me” particular person).

However: although the above is correct, there is American English (which comes from English being used by people whose native language was originally another European language and thus they apply their native grammar rules to English – there are many examples of this).

E.g.:  She wanted to speak to me on Skype, so I sent her my Skype address. This is more-or-less ok because there is a phrase after “her”, and so it doesn’t sound too bad. Just having “it” after “her” sounds really bad. It sounds unfinished, and sounds as if you didn’t quite know what you were going to say.

So, in answer to your student’s question, I would suggest that: understand that this structure exists and may be used, but it is wrong and should be avoided. But it is not a serious error and many native speakers will use it.

far and faraway

'Far' is used for statements or questions implying movement, or for statements that have a measure of distance or questions that can have a measure of distance as an answer.

E.g.      How far is it to Taipei? 20 km.

            Is it far to Taipei? No, not far. (Implying distance)

            We walked far today (implying movement)

            We come from a far country. (Implying distance)

            The far corners of the earth. (Implying great distance)

            The far side of the road. (Implying distance)

            A lie is far from the truth. (Implying philosophical distance)

            I will be rich far in the future. (Implying time distance)

            He is a young man who will go very far. (Implying distance in development of career/life)

            and other examples.

            We saw our teacher standing at the far end of the hallway. (Implying distance)

'Faraway' has an idea of romantic unreality.

E.g.        She had a faraway look in her eyes. Dreaming about something/someplace. Not ‘here’ mentally.

            Jimmy is always dreaming of going to some faraway country for adventure. A country that may not exist, or if it does exist, it thought of in romantic terms rather than realistic terms.

            The faraway mountains. Mountains so far from here that we do not really know much about them, therefore we think of them in romantic or idealistic terms.

'Faraway' is also used to express an extreme idea.

E.g.       This is faraway the best apple pie I have ever tasted.

Lay or lying?

In front of the fireplace lay a dog is correct. Lying = a present participle and so is either going to be part of a continuous tense, or a gerund (a verb used as a noun). In this case, lying would be part of a continuous tense and thus needs the verb be in one of its forms. But the sentence would also have to change a little to get the correct subject-verb order. E.g.:
a)  A dog was lying in front of the fireplace.
b)  In front of the fireplace a dog was lying.

One difference between (a) and (b) is that in the first sentence a dog is more important than the fireplace, and so it comes first in the sentence. In the second sentence the fireplace is more important than a dog. Another difference is just writing style.

In the sentence In front of the fireplace lay a dog, the fireplace is the subject, lay is a transitive verb and the dog is the object (a transitive verb is one that must have an object).

  that,  which,  with that,  with which

It is for the beautiful sunrise _____ so many people get up early to climb to the top of Alishan.
(A) that  (B) which  (C) with that   (D) with which  

'That' is correct.

In your example, that is correct because it is used as a demonstrative pronoun to refer to, or point out, something previously mentioned (beautiful sunrise).

Which and that are the same if they are used to define something, i.e. introduce a defining clause. E.g. The homework that I gave to you. The homework which I gave to you. In these examples that/which defines the homework as the homework I gave to you and not any other homework.

with that/with which are quite different. With that can be used in a variety of ways, but is commonly used to identify some object I am going to use to do something or to refer to some past action.

E.g.  I shall paint the ceiling with that large paint brush.

‘I hope I never see you again!’ he screamed, and with that he slammed the door. Here with that refers to the action of screaming and the words used.

With which refers to something I use/have used/will use to do something. E.g. This is the pen with which the president signed the agreement. I could also say: This is the pen the president signed the agreement with. But this is not strictly correct because we shouldn’t end a sentence (or phrase) with a preposition, but in common language we do.

So, the correct form (with which) becomes the formal form.