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Placing “is” (or other form of BE) directly before a verb with “to” can express various meanings

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THE IMPORTANCE OF “to” VERBS IN ENGLISH

Verbs with “to” – usually called “infinitives” – have such a wide variety of uses in English that a reader of this blog once asked me to survey them all. However, I have not been willing to do this because it is common in mainstream grammar descriptions, and hence is not the sort of less-commonly analysed topic that the blog seeks to be about.

More interesting to me are specific uses of the infinitive that I have noticed to be troublesome for at least some users of English who do not speak it as their mother tongue. Other parts of this blog have indeed focussed on some of these, in particular 35. “To Do” versus “To Doing”,  60. Purpose Sentences with “For”,  78. Infinitive versus Preposition after Nouns,  83. Active Verbs with Non-Active Meanings 2 and 103. Sentences Starting with “it”.

The use of an infinitive after the verb BE is a similarly interesting aspect of infinitive usage. There seem to be at least eight different meanings that this combination can create, and it is these that the present post is about. Some are possible with any form of BE, while others require very specific forms.

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INFINITIVES THAT MAY FOLLOW ANY FORM OF be

Most of the infinitive meanings are in this category. Each seems recognizable mainly from the words used before BE.

1. Purpose-Naming

Examples of this use are:

(a) The purpose of speed cameras is to prevent road accidents.

(b) The prize is to attract more people.

In the first of these, the subject of BE includes the word purpose, thus leaving no doubt that the infinitive also has that meaning. Synonyms like aim, intention, objective, plan and target are also possible. Sentence (b), on the other hand, shows that such a word is not always necessary. The idea of purpose can seemingly still be understood purely on the basis of world knowledge – in this case the common observation that attracting more people is a frequent purpose of a prize. The importance of world knowledge for recognising meanings is indicated elsewhere within this blog in posts like 18. Relations Between Sentences and 107. The Language of Opinions.

Nevertheless, the absence of any specific language to indicate the meaning of purpose can, given the existence of other possible meanings of BE + infinitive, create double meanings. Sentence (b) could, for example, be understood as saying that attracting more people was the prize itself rather than its purpose (see category 6 below).

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2. Function-Naming

Functions are not the same as purposes but they are very like them. They are behaviours that particular people or things are expected by definition to perform, but they do not have to be desired by living creatures as purposes do (see 60. Purpose Sentences with “For”). A typical function sentence might be:

(c) The function of a volcano is to release pressure within the earth’s crust.

The behaviour here is not related to the desire of any living creatures at all. Contrast this with sentence (a), where the subject speed cameras is also non-living, but the associated behaviour is very much a human desire.

Function statements do not always have to have a non-living subject. Consider this:

(d) The function of doctors is to cure or alleviate human sickness.

The meaning here is different from what it would be with purpose instead of function: information is given about what doctors are expected to do but not about what doctors themselves are trying to achieve – their purpose. This might be the same as the function, but it could also be completely different – to have a comfortable life, for example, or to be popular.

Function statements with BE + infinitive seem to need a word like function or role near the start to assist their recognition.

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3. Method-Naming

A method is an action undertaken in order to achieve a purpose. It is the usual meaning of by combined with an -ing verb (see 73. Saying How with “By” and “With” and 101. Add-On Participles). An infinitive becomes an alternative to this combination in sentences like the following:

(e) The best way to learn a language is to live amongst its speakers.

It would also be correct here to say by living. The key requirement for BE + infinitive to be method-naming seems to be having the word way (or, rarely, a synonym such as method) as subject.

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4. Arrangement-Stating

This use of BE + infinitive may be illustrated as follows:

(f) A meeting of finance ministers is to be held in Brussels.

(g) The armies were to converge on the plain at midday.

The meaning here seems to involve two elements: futurity and the influence of other people. The first may be relative to now – shown by a present tense of BE, as in (f) – or relative to a different time – the past in (g). The influence of other people in an arrangement is that they must either agree to its happening or command it. It is the infinitive verb after BE that indicates the agreed or commanded future action: holding a meeting in (f) and converging on a plain in (g). When an action has been commanded, the use of BE + to closely resembles HAVE + to. The difference is that HAVE leaves the influence of other people unconfirmed.

The main clues to the existence of this meaning seem to be (I) the absence of a word like purpose, function or way in the subject of the sentence, (II) capability of the subject regarding the infinitive verb’s action, and (III) ease of arranging the infinitive verb’s action. Sentences (f) and (g) meet all of these conditions. Sentences (b) above and (k) below fail on (III) (attracting people and becoming an emperor are not easily arranged), while (i) below fails on (II) (a prize cannot usually perform a visit).

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5. Equivalence-Showing

Sentences of this kind have an infinitive verb before BE as well as after:

(h) To think is to exist.

The two infinitive meanings here are exactly equal: either one implies the other. The meaning of the subject of the sentence (to think) is not being identified or clarified by the later infinitive in the way discussed in the post 117. Identifying after a Description.

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6. Clarifying

In this use, subject-clarification does exist. It is similar to what happens in sentences (a), (c) and (e) above, but there is no special subject noun like purpose, function or way: the subject needs only to indicate action of a very general kind, like this:

(i) The prize is to meet a world-famous researcher.

Prizes do not have to be actions, but they very often are. The infinitive and its object here tell us what the prize is. Other very general action-indicating nouns that an infinitive could clarify include challenge, effect, next step, outcome, possibility, procedure and task. In contrast, meeting in (f) is a less general action, and armies in (g) is not an action at all.

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INFINITIVES THAT FOLLOW A SPECIFIC FORM OF be

Two common meanings in this category are what I call unlikely future and destiny in the past.

1. Unlikely Future

This is the use of were to after if (see 118. Problems with Conditional “if”), as in sentences like this:

(j) If aliens were to visit the earth, great excitement would prevail.

The suggestion here is that the future arrival of aliens is unlikely. Likely futures need the present simple tense after if, and will with the other verb. The word were is the only form of BE allowed in the unlikely future use, even when its subject is singular. The reason is that it is not the usual were but the special one known as the “subjunctive”, which never changes.

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2. Destiny in the Past

This kind of sentence also needs a past tense form of BE, e.g.:

(k) Augustus was to become Roman Emperor six years later.

The infinitive here indicates a future life event – destiny – of a person or thing in the past (the subject of the sentence). There is a resemblance to sentences like (g), where the future event is an arranged plan. As mentioned above, however, this latter meaning is unlikely in (k) because arranging to become an emperor is not easily done by common people, especially six years beforehand.

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Adverbs express typical kinds of meaning, occupy various sentence positions and combine with particular sentence parts

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REASONS FOR EXAMINING ADVERBS

A general post on adverbs seems a good idea in view of the enthusiasm readers of this blog have shown for an equivalent post on prepositions (see 84. Seven Things to Know About Prepositions). The aim here is similar: to present some key facts about a troublesome class of words in the hope of helping readers to avoid errors. Posts featuring specific adverbs can be found by clicking on “adverbs” in the CATEGORIES menu on the right. Two that are particularly rich in detail are 26. One Word or Two? and 85. Preposition Phrases and Corresponding Adverbs.

In traditional grammar, the class of adverbs was very varied, with numerous subclasses. Most of these subclasses are included below, but one important one that is not is words showing links between sentences – what I have elsewhere called “connectors”. These can be read about in the post 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors.

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LIST OF GENERAL ADVERB CHARACTERISTICS

1. Communication of Particular Basic Meanings

Traditional grammar mostly defined word classes (“parts of speech”) in terms of fundamental meanings that they expressed – an approach that tended to create confusion. Meaning-based definitions of adverbs can certainly be confusing, but as a starting point they might help the concept of an adverb to be better appreciated.

A meaning-based description of adverbs that first helped me was that they “answer questions”. I later learned that they do not answer all types of question (for example, they do not tell us “who” or “what” – nouns and pronouns do that – nor what something “is like” – mostly the job of adjectives). However, information about how, when, where, how much, how often, how likely and how long is given by most adverbs, respective examples being carefully, already, there, quite, often, perhaps and forever. Some of these categories are more likely than others to have the familiar adverb suffix -ly.

Many newer grammar descriptions refer to these categories as adverbs of manner, time, place, degree, frequency, probability and duration. They also recognize “sentence” adverbs, which refer to the whole of their sentence rather than any part, e.g. fortunately. There is more about the concept of “manner” in the Guinlist post 101. Add-On Participles, more about probability adverbs in the post 107. The Language of Opinions, and more about degree adverbs in the post 108. Formal & Informal Words.

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2. Partnership with Particular Other Sentence Parts

Adverbs add detail to other meanings in their sentence, just as adjectives do. However, whereas adjectives generally add to the meaning of a noun or pronoun (see 6. Adjectives with No Noun 1), adverbs mostly link with verbs, adjectives, whole statements or other adverbs. Not all adverbs have all of these uses, though. Many manner adverbs, such as hard, link only with verbs (work hard). Some degree adverbs, such as very, quite and too (= “excessively”), go mostly with adjectives or adverbs (see 98. “Very”, “Much” and “Very Much”). Many other adverbs, however, are quite flexible. Clearly can add to a whole statement or a verb or an adjective, like this:

(a) (+ STATEMENT) Clearly, people trafficking is a serious problem.

(b) (+ VERB) Write your name clearly in the box.

(c) (+ ADJECTIVE) Driving fast near schools is a clearly dangerous behaviour.

Most adverbs that can describe a whole statement can be used in at least one other way. Those that quite commonly combine with adjectives or other adverbs include apparently, incredibly, obviously, rather, seriously, surprisingly, truly and undoubtedly. Those that easily combine with a verb include certainly, frankly, happily, hopefully, personally, sadly, seriously and unfortunately.

Many adverbs that easily combine with adjectives or other adverbs can also be combined with a verb. Examples are a little, appreciably, completely, considerably, enough, fairly, moderately, noticeably, slightly, surprisingly, truly and visibly.

Knowing about adverb partners can make it easier to decide whether or not a word of variable grammatical class is being used as an adverb. Consider this:

(d) The bus company operates daily excursions.

The word daily is sometimes an adverb, sometimes an adjective. Which is it here? The fact that the word it describes (excursions) is a noun establishes it as an adjective. It would become an adverb if excursions was absent, since it would then describe the verb operates.

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3. Occupation of Various Sentence Positions

Unlike most other word classes, adverbs can be found practically anywhere in a sentence: at the start, before the verb, after the verb or at the end. However, some kinds of adverb cannot go in some of these positions, and no kind can go between a verb and its following object. The unlikelihood of an adverb between a verb and its object is quite specific to English – many other languages easily allow it. As a result, English speakers with a different mother tongue often place their adverbs incorrectly in this position.

In sentence (b) above, the manner adverb clearly could easily be moved to the beginning or the end. However, it could not be placed directly after the verb write because there is a following object your name. In sentence (a), on the other hand, where clearly is giving information about the whole of the sentence, it rarely occupies other positions than the start. Similarly, clearly in (c) cannot move from its position before the adjective it is describing, dangerous. It can move with the adjective to other adjective positions in a sentence, but it cannot occupy other adverb positions without changing the meaning.

One possible adverb position not illustrated above is what some coursebooks call the “never” position, as in this example:

(e) Adverbs are hardly ever found between a verb and its object in English.

The adverb here is between a verb found and its auxiliary are. This is a particularly common position for frequency adverbs (never, always, sometimes, usually etc) and many manner adverbs. It is the only possible position for the adverb not accompanying a verb.

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4. Relatedness to Preposition Phrases

Various other Guinlist posts have shown how adverb roles can also be performed by a preposition and its noun (see, for example, 56. Comparing with “Like” and “Unlike” and 72. Causal Prepositions). The proof of this correspondence is the possibility of substitution. Consider this

:(f) Powders can be sterilized effectively.

The grammar here remains correct and similar (though with different meaning) if the adverb effectively is replaced by the preposition phrase with dry heat. It is even possible to find preposition phrases that mean practically the same as particular adverbs, e.g. in general = generally. A detailed analysis of this area is in the post 85. Preposition Phrases & Corresponding Adverbs.

One potential source of confusion is the ability of preposition phrases to act like adjectives as well as adverbs. Details of this phenomenon are in the post 84. Seven Things to Know About Prepositions.

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5. Formation of Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs comprise at least two words, one an adverb resembling a preposition. Examples are TAKE AWAY, PICK UP, SWITCH ON and MAKE OUT (for more see 108. Formal and Informal Words). The main proof that the adverbs are not prepositions (like in “prepositional” verbs such as DEPEND ON) is their ability to be placed after a following noun or pronoun (an object), like this:

(g) Young children pick grammar up completely.

The object here is grammar. The adverb up is placed after it, just as most adverbs can be (it could also go before – unlike most other adverbs). Prepositions cannot follow their partner noun like this: if the verb here had been depend on, on would have had to precede grammar. More about prepositional verbs is in the post 44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs.

Another difference between phrasal and prepositional verbs involves the use of an object. Some phrasal verbs lack one, e.g. GO AWAY, SET OUT, but no prepositional verbs do, since the need for an object is a defining feature of prepositions.Phrasal verbs cannot be made out of all prepositions. They most commonly seem to use up, down, in, out, on and off. Other possibilities include away, through, back, along and over.

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6. Shared Spelling with Some Adjectives

The last section showed how the same spelling is sometimes possessed by both an adverb and a preposition. In fact, a single spelling can sometimes be shared by more than two words: near and round, for example, can be an adjective or verb as well as a preposition or adverb. However, it is adjectives that most commonly share the spelling of adverbs.

One especially confusing adjective/adverb spelling has the familiar adverb ending -ly. For example daily is an adverb in the phrase delivers eggs daily, but an adjective in daily egg deliveries. Similar words are early, only and poorly.  These are not the same as the equally confusing -ly words that are only adjectives, such as comely, curly, deathly, earthly, elderly, heavenly, hilly, holy, jolly, lively, lovely, lowly, (gentle)manly, silly, slovenly, sprightly, stately, surly, timely, ugly and womanly. To use any of these in an adverb position, you have to say in a … way/fashion.

In spoken English, some adverbs that otherwise have -ly drop it so that they look the same as the adjectives they are related to, as in come here quick. To discover when such a spelling is an adverb, you need to check that it has the right kind of partner word – a verb (come) in the above example. Other adjective spellings commonly shared by informal adverbs include bad, easy, fast, good, proper, slow, true and wrong.

Finally, there are many ordinary spellings without -ly that could be either an adverb or an adjective. For example, hard is an adverb in works hard but an adjective in does hard work. Common other examples are clockwise, deep, enough, far, fast, high, just, late, low, much, right and well.

Adverbs that link with a whole sentence are of different kinds and are usually able to link with part of a sentence too

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THE NATURE OF SENTENCE ADVERBS

One of the adverb characteristics highlighted in the post before this (120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs) is that some can give information about a complete sentence rather than any particular part of one, their position in such cases usually being at the start. The difference between these so-called sentence adverbs and other adverb types is clearly illustrated in sentences like the following:

(a) Children will happily eat some healthy foods.

(b) Happily, children will eat some healthy foods.

The sentence adverb here is the underlined word in (b). It shows happiness felt by the speaker about the entire sentence message. In (a), on the other hand, happily is an ordinary manner adverb, giving information about the verb will eat, and expressing the feeling of the subject of the verb, children.

Sentence position is a major differentiator of these two adverb uses, but not a complete one. This is because sentence adverbs can occupy other positions than the start, including even that shown in (a). The punctuation can then be the main clue, since many sentence adverbs need to be inside bracket-like commas (see 50. Right & Wrong Comma Places). However, even special punctuation is not always present.

In this post I wish to further explore the characteristics of sentence adverbs, to indicate their importance in academic writing, and to illustrate a wide range of them.

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TYPES OF SENTENCE ADVERB

Sentence adverbs can be classified into various types according to the kind of meaning they express.

1. Connectors

Connectors are words or phrases that show how two neighbouring sentences are related to each other. They are a major topic elsewhere within this blog (see especially 18. Relations between Sentences and 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors), and are mentioned here only because it has been traditional to see them as a type of adverb. They may be illustrated with consequently in the following example:

(c) People are living longer. Consequently, more doctors are needed.

The connector here shows the information in the second sentence to be a result of that in the first.

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2. Communication-Describing Adverbs

Sentence adverbs in this quite small group mostly say something about the way in which the speaker is communicating. They include bluntly, briefly, frankly, generally, honestly, personally, practically, seriously and technically. They usually allow the word speaking to be added just before or after them. This word is indeed almost compulsory with some adverbs in this use, such as impartially, roughly, scientifically and strictly.

Another type of communication-describing adverb indicates a new topic that the communication is about. It is usually made by adding the suffix -wise to a noun (see 106. Word-Like Suffixes). Examples are costwise, workwise and weatherwise. They cannot be used with speaking.

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3. Judgement Adverbs

Sentence (b) above illustrates this very large category of sentence adverbs. They say something about the message of the sentence, rather than the way it is spoken. Thus, in (b) migrant workers’ possible acceptance of lower wages is being judged desirable.

Various subdivisions of judgement adverbs seem to exist. Happily is of a kind that indicates the speaker’s subjective reaction to the accompanying information, such as happiness, surprise or interest. They might, as a result, be labelled “reactive”. Other examples are alas, amazingly, annoyingly, confusingly, crucially, curiously, disappointingly, (un)fortunately, hopefully, intriguingly, (un)luckily, mercifully, regrettably, sadly, shockingly, (un)surprisingly and understandably.

A second group of judgement adverbs indicate the speaker’s belief about the truth of the accompanying message without making any other comment on it – a common need in professional writing. They could thus be called “truth-commenting”. Many show the speaker’s acceptance of the truth of the message, like this:

(d) Obviously, everything possible must be done to combat crime.

Similar adverbs include actually, admittedly, basically, certainly, clearly, definitely, effectively (when paraphrasable by in effect), evidently, importantly, indeed, naturally, of course, plainly, rightly, undeniably and undoubtedly. Care has to be taken with the underlined words in this list because they can be combined with a following but (or synonym) to add negativity about the message alongside the positivity (see 51. Showing Disagreement with “May”).

Sometimes the speaker’s acceptance of the truth of a statement is “hedged” – catering for possible error or exceptions (see 95. Hedging 1). Sentence adverbs that suggest a message could be false include apparently, nominally, possibly, presumably, reportedly, seemingly, supposedly and superficially.

Adverbs suggesting that exceptions may exist include generally, normally, mostly, often, ordinarily, typically and usually. An example is:

(e) Typically, younger children are looked after by their siblings.

Interestingly, there do not seem to be many truth-commenting adverbs that deny the truth of a message. Consider how a writer might want to do this with the statement that smoking is beneficial for health. Rather than use a special sentence adverb, the more likely strategy is probably to make the whole statement negative with a truth-affirming adverb, like this:

(f) Of course, smoking is not beneficial for health.

A third kind of judgement adverb comments on the subject of a statement rather than the statement itself, like this:

(g) Foolishly, the coach relied on talent without tactics.

This means the coach was foolish to do what s/he did. Other adverbs that can be used like this include blindly, famously, notoriously, rightly, stupidly, typically, wrongly and wisely. Some of these, it will be observed, are also found in earlier lists. This is because the adverbs can be used in different ways. Compare the following use of typically with that in (e):

(h) Typically, the villagers refused to provide any help.

This use does not mean “normally”, but rather indicates that the behaviour of the villagers was in character – they acted as expected.

More about how speakers express judgements about messages can be read in the posts 22. Multiple Speakers in a Text,  96. Hedging 2 and 107. The Language of Opinions.

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4. Adverbs of Time and Place

Not all grammarians consider adverbs like already, here, now, occasionally, regularly, there, today and tomorrow to be usable as sentence adverbs. However, when used at the start of a sentence they are very similar to sentence adverbs. Some, like afterwards, next and then, can be classified as connectors because they link with earlier information.

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CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ORDINARY ADVERBS AND SENTENCE ADVERBS

A major question posed by the existence of sentence adverbs is how one can learn and remember them. In particular, can any adverb be used as a sentence adverb, or only some, and how many sentence adverbs cannot be used in other adverb ways? Unfortunately, I am not able to give a definite answer to these questions – but perhaps I can make some useful observations.

Most sentence adverbs can, it seems, also be ordinary adverbs. This is even true of connectors, though not all of them. “Pure” connectors perhaps include therefore, consequently, alternatively and moreover. Those with an alternative use include anyway (non-connector meaning = “regardless”), equally, hence (= “from here), however (= “in whatever way”), otherwise (= “differently”), similarly and thus (= “in this way”). Here is otherwise used in the two different ways:

(i) (ORDINARY ADVERB) Scoring at least 60% is required. Those who perform otherwise will be rejected.

(j) (SENTENCE ADVERB) Scoring at least 60% is required. Otherwise, candidates will be rejected.

Communication-describing adverbs seem generally usable as ordinary adverbs, unless they have the -wise ending. Reactive sentence adverbs like happily also seem very flexible.

Ordinary adverbs, on the other hand, are not as likely to be usable as sentence adverbs. They generally need to be able to express one of the four meanings listed above. Moreover, although many emotion-expressing adjectives like happy can be made into reactive sentence adverbs by the addition of -ly, some cannot. For example, angrily, jealously, joyfully and speechlessly are only adverbs of manner, not sentence adverbs.

In addition, most adverbs with the same spelling as an adjective cannot be sentence adverbs, e.g. enough, far, fast, hard, just, late, much, right and well (interestingly, though, early can be a sentence adverb, but only in phrases like early on). Adverbs showing the strength of an accompanying adjective or other adverb – such as enough, fairly, quite, rather, so, too and very – similarly tend not to be used as sentence adverbs (rather, it is true, can be a sentence adverb – a connector – but only with the radically different meaning of “instead”).

List parts given in different sentences must follow a proper introductory sentence and be highlighted with special words

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THE VARIETY AND CHALLENGES OF LISTING

Lists are common in academic and professional writing, where there is a regular need to give such listable information as aims, reasons, results, similarities, differences, examples, problems, solutions, conclusions and recommendations. Unfortunately, grammar errors are also common in list-giving by writers whose mother tongue is not English. They are the topic of a whole chapter in my book Grammar Practice for Professional Writing.

Lists sometimes need to be given in one sentence, sometimes in two or more. In each case, the two main problem areas are introducing the list and composing the list itself. Advice on these areas in one-sentence listing is available within this blog in the posts 54. Listing 1: Incidental,  55. Listing 2: Full Sentences,  74. Listing 3: Bullet Points and 93. Good and Bad Lists. In this post I wish to analyse the introduction and composition of lists in multiple sentences, where each part of the list is in a sentence by itself. Listing in this way is sometimes called “enumeration”. The main language challenge that it presents is the “signpost” words needed by the different list parts.

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FIRST STEPS IN MULTI-SENTENCE LISTING

Before any part of a multi-sentence list is mentioned, there is usually a need for an introductory sentence giving notice of what is about to be listed. Its essential feature is the name of a general class to which all of the list parts belong. A general class name, for example, for the list walking, cycling, driving, taking a taxi, going by bus and travelling by train might be modes of transport and one for the list Mathematics, English, History, Science, Geography and Art might be school subjects. List generalizations like this are similar to the general class names that usually accompany example-giving (see 1. Simple Example-Giving).

The introductory sentence before a multi-sentence list tends to take one of two common forms, as shown in these examples:

(a) There are six major modes of transport.

(b) Six major modes of transport can be identified.

Sentence (a) has the typical beginning There are. These words are very common and appropriate for listing. Sentence (b), on the other hand, begins with the list generalization. Both sentences reflect the possible wording before a colon in single-sentence listing (see 55. Listing 2: Full-Sentences). Note, though, that a colon is not possible before a multi-sentence list – a full stop must be used instead.

Both of the above sentences, it will be noticed, also contain the number word six. There must always be such a word, either exact like six or vague like various, several, numerous, a number of etc. (see 55. Listing 2 and 96. Hedging 2: Lists and Predictions). If you wish to use an exact number word but are unsure about its truth (because you are unsure whether your list is all of the possibilities indicated by the list generalization), you can add a word like main, major or important.

Once the introductory sentence has been composed, there is a need in the next sentence to start the list with the help of a suitable signpost expression. There is a choice between adverb-like and adjective-like signpost expressions.

1. Adverb-Like Expressions for Starting a List

This kind of signpost expression includes firstly, in the first place and to begin with plus, when the first list part is somehow more special than the others, above all and superlative adverbs like most commonly, most importantly and most obviously. Note that firstly is not the same as the adverb first, which shows that something is earliest in time rather than in a list (e.g. First, the gas is lit).

A common error with adverbs before any part of a list is to follow them directly with the list part without any accompanying verb, like this:

(c) *There are six major modes of transport. Firstly, walking.

The underlined words here are an error because they are a sentence without a verb, something not normally allowed in written English. The easiest verb to use after expressions like firstly is there is. However, a problem with this in (c) is that the previous sentence already has there are, creating “bad” repetition (see 24. Good & Bad Repetition). To overcome this, one could either make the first sentence like (b), or use an adjective-like list starter in the second sentence instead of firstly.

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2. Adjective-Like Expressions for Starting a list

The use of adjective-like list starters, of which the simplest is the first, may be illustrated as follows:

(d) There are six major modes of transport. The first (major mode of transport) is walking.

The use here is adjective-like because the first gives more information about a noun (mode in the sentence above). The reason for the brackets is that often the noun after adjectives like first is left out because it is obvious from the previous sentence (see 102. Adjectives with no Noun 2). Happily, first and other adjective-like signpost expressions rarely seem to cause the error of verbless sentences.

Unlike firstly, the first tends to imply that all of the possibilities indicated by the list generalization are about to be listed. If this implication needs to be avoided, a useful substitute for the first is the single word one. Alternatively, if the first list part is somehow special, there is a choice of either the main one or a superlative adjective (without one). Many superlative adjectives are possible, including the best known, the commonest, the easiest, the most important, the most obvious, the most typical and the most usual.

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SIGNPOST EXPRESSIONS WITH LATER LIST ITEMS

After the first part of a multi-sentence list, each new part needs to have its own signpost expression. Once again there is a choice between adverb-like and adjective-like expressions. The former fall into the category of connectors (for more about the link between adverbs and connectors, see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs).

Very often connectors will be number words like secondly, thirdly, fourthly etc. or, for the last part of the list, finally or lastly. One could also end with a longer expression like last of all or last but not least, but these ought only to be used in special circumstances. One expression that is not possible is at last, which means “after a long wait” (see 20. Problem Connectors). In using any of the expressions listed here, care is again needed to avoid verbless sentences.

Number connectors like those just mentioned are especially useful when you have used an exact number word like six in the opening sentence. Otherwise, when you are uncertain whether the list parts are all of the possibilities indicated by the list generalization, various other connectors are useful. The main ones seem to be moreover, furthermore, additionally and in addition. Before the last part of the list, one could use finally or lastly combined with it is necessary to mention.

Turning to adjective-like expressions with the later parts of a list, those normally used after an exact number word at the start are the second, the third, etc. At the end of such lists, there is a choice between the last, the final and the other. On the other hand, when there is vagueness about the full extent of the list, useful adjectives are (an)other, (an) additional and (a) final.

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Some combinations of a verb + preposition need a noun or pronoun in between

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ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF PREPOSITIONAL VERBS

English verbs that are regularly used with a particular preposition after them are given much attention elsewhere in this blog (see especially 44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs and 111. Words with their Own Preposition). However, the kind that also need a noun or pronoun before the preposition have hardly been mentioned – the focus has been almost exclusively on verbs with an immediately-following preposition, such as DEPEND ON, COPE WITH and ATTEND TO.

Common examples of prepositional verbs containing a noun or pronoun before their preposition are PROVIDE …WITH, SUSPECT … OF and BLAME … FOR. Of course, the presence of the preposition also necessitates a noun or pronoun after it (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions), which means there are two nouns and/or pronouns altogether after the verb, like this:

(a) Some theorists BLAME population growth FOR the world’s poverty.

Some grammarians suggest that two nouns after verbs like BLAME are two different grammatical objects (for details of objects, see 8. Object-Dropping Errors). However, it is interesting to note that the one after the preposition, along with the preposition itself – for the world’s poverty in (a) – can be left unmentioned if their meaning is clear from the context. This is not usually a possibility with ordinary prepositional verbs like DEPEND ON.

Verbs like BLAME often lead learners of English into preposition errors. Perhaps the reason is that the noun between the verb and its preposition somehow prevents the two from being learned together in the way combinations like DEPEND ON are. The aim of the present post is to present a list of common verbs like BLAME, along with their prepositions, to indicate some subclasses, and to warn of possible confusions.

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VERBS WITH A VARIABLE OBJECT

Some verbs with a following object and preposition nearly always have the same noun for their object, while others allow more variation. Where variation exists, the object may be a person or a thing, but is more commonly a person. Here are some important verbs of this kind. The abbreviation SB means “somebody” while STH means “something”. What should each preposition be? (Answers below).

Answers

1. OF;  2. FOR;  3. WITH;  4 = FOR;  5. WITH;  6. WITH;  7. WITH/TO;  8. TO;  9. ON;  10. ABOUT/OVER;  11. OF;  12. OF;  13. INTO;  14. TO;  15. IN;  16. WITH;  17. WITH;  18. OF;  19. TO;  20. IN;  21. FOR;  22. FROM;  23. WITH;  24. FOR;  25. TO;  26. OF;  27. FROM;  28. FOR;  29. WITH/FOR;  30. OF;  31. FROM;  32. TO;  33. FROM;  34. WITH;  35. OF;  36. FOR;  37. FOR;  38. WITH;  39. FOR/WITH;  40. OF/ABOUT

The variability of some of these prepositions is notable. The choice between about and over after CONSULT seems a free one – either is correct. However, with REWARD, the meaning changes: with indicates the reward, for the action that won it, like this:

(b) Parents can reward their children with small presents.

(c) Parents should reward their children for good behaviour.

It is even possible for both of these preposition phrase types to appear together in the same sentence. Similarly, after TREAT, with shows the treatment, for the problem necessitating it. After WARN, of shows a potential or future problem, about an already-existing problem. TAKE can go not just with for but also with to or from, though these latter two are arguably not such a true combination; TAKE … FOR … means “believe … to be …”.

The way of putting verbs like the above into the passive voice is fairly consistent: the subject becomes the first noun/pronoun after the verb – the one with no preposition in front. This is children in (b) and (c). One verb to be careful with is EXPLAIN. Consider this:

(d) Teachers must sometimes explain grammar to students.

The passive equivalent is:

(e) Grammar must sometimes be explained (by teachers) to students.

It is not possible to say *Students must sometimes be explained …! One way to start with students is by using HAVE: … must sometimes have grammar explained to them (see 116. Rarer Uses of HAVE).

Three of the verbs in the list above, BLAME, PROVIDE and SUPPLY, can reverse the positions of the two nouns after them, changing the preposition in the process. Compare:

BLAME SB FOR STH = BLAME STH ON SB

PROVIDE SB WITH STH = PROVIDE STH FOR SB

SUPPLY SB WITH STH = SUPPLY STH FOR/TO SB

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VERBS WITH AN UNVARYING OBJECT

Combinations of a particular verb with a particular object and a particular preposition fall into the category of collocations – non-grammatical word partnerships. An example is MAKE USE OF. More about collocation can be read in the post 111. Words with their Own Preposition and in a worksheet downloadable from this blog’s Learning Materials page.

Other combinations of a verb with a particular object and a particular preposition include the following:

ATTACH IMPORTANCE TO

CATCH SIGHT/A GLIMPSE OF

DECLARE WAR ON

GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF

GIVE/PAY ATTENTION TO

GIVE WAY TO

HAVE AN EFFECT ON

HAVE TROUBLE WITH (for more with HAVE, see 116. Rarer Uses of HAVE)

KEEP PACE WITH

KEEP TRACK OF

LOSE TOUCH WITH

LOSE TRACK OF

MAKE ALLOWANCE(S) FOR

MAKE AMENDS FOR

MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF

MAKE FUN OF

MAKE MUCH OF

PUT AN END/A STOP TO

PUT/PLACE EMPHASIS ON

PUT THE BLAME ON

SET FIRE TO

SET ONE’S HEART ON

TAKE ACCOUNT OF

TAKE CARE OF

TAKE NOTE OF

Note that GIVE ATTENTION and PAY ATTENTION mean different things. Consider this:

(f) Einstein gave (his) attention to this new problem.

Here the suggestion is that Einstein’s attention was previously on some legitimate other matter. You could also use turned, usually with his. Using paid instead of gave, however, would suggest that the other matter was not legitimate – Einstein had perhaps been daydreaming. Paid does not allow his.

Also noteworthy is TAKE CARE OF. Its common meaning is not “supervise” or “give caring attention to” (English uses LOOK AFTER for that), but rather “resolve” or “deal with”, as in take care of complaints.

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Some grammar structures are able to be understood in more than one way, just like some words

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THE FREQUENCY AND IMPORTANCE OF DOUBLE-MEANING STRUCTURES

Structures are here considered to be word combinations based on grammar rules, and hence exclude single words and collocations. Single words with double meanings are considered elsewhere within this blog in the posts 3. Multi-Use Words,  7. Metaphorical Meanings and 11. Homonyms and Homographs.

The logical question to ask about any linguistic form with different possible meanings is how these can exist when they must on some occasions cause misunderstandings. There are numerous reasons why a particular form might develop different meanings, but the reason why it is rarely a problem is that the context or situation where the form is used normally indicates so clearly which meaning is intended that we do not even think of the alternative one. This phenomenon is, indeed, the basis of many jokes in English (for an example, see 36. Words Left Out to Avoid Repetition).

In this post, I wish to present some important English structures that can be used with different meanings. Sometimes I will be repeating points made in other posts, and sometimes the points will be new. The aim is to bring readers to a much fuller appreciation of the structures, and hence to a stronger command of English usage.

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LIST OF DOUBLE-MEANING STRUCTURES

1. “-ing” Verbs before a Noun

This area is examined in depth in the post 71. Gerund and Participle Uses of “-ing”. As that title implies, the -ing ending signifies either a gerund or a participle. We normally recognise a gerund usage if the word is being used in a typical noun position, for example as the subject of a verb, and a participle one with usage in a typical adjective position. The potential for double meanings arises in sentence positions where both a noun and an adjective are possible, such as just before a noun, like this:

(a) Gardens can be improved by growing plants.

It is not clear here whether growing plants means “plants that are growing” (participle usage) or “making plants grow” (gerund usage).

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2. Preposition Phrases after Verb Objects

What is the double meaning in the following sentence from the post 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions?

(b) The robbers attacked the old man with a stick.

The verb here is attacked. It has the object the old man and, immediately after, the underlined preposition phrase. One interpretation is that the stick belonged to the robbers, the other that it was the old man’s.

The reason why both meanings are possible is that preposition phrases like with a stick can add information about either verbs or nouns, being adverb-like in the first case and adjective-like in the second (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions). We understand the adverb-like use if there is no noun immediately in front, and, in many cases, the adjective-like use otherwise. However, when a preceding noun is also the object of a verb, as in (b), both interpretations are possible. In that case, interpreting with a stick as adverb-like links it with the hitting by the robbers, meaning they had it, whereas seeing it as adjective-like links it with the old man, meaning he had it.

More on the adjective and adverb uses of preposition phrases is in the post 72. Causal Prepositions.

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3. “If” + Past-Tense Verb

This double meaning is illustrated by the following sentence from the post 118. Problems with Conditional “If”:

(c) If Athens was threatened, the citizens would call an Assembly.

Without a context to help us, we cannot tell whether this sentence is about Athens today or in the past. If it is the former, the past-tense verb after if expresses an unreal present event – indicating that Athens is not being threatened today. However, in a past context, the verb expresses repeated real historical events, each leading the citizens of Athens to call an Assembly.

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4. “was/were to” + Verb

The double-meaning potential of this structure is observed in the post 119. BE Before a “to” Verb. Consider this:

(d) Scott was to return to camp three days later.

One possible interpretation is that the verb expresses an arrangement made by Scott with his colleagues, without confirming whether or not it was actually fulfilled. The other is that the verb indicates Scott’s destiny – something that actually happened, but had not yet happened at the time for Scott – regardless of whether or not it was an arrangement.

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5. Action Noun + “of”

Action nouns are spelt similarly to verbs and can paraphrase them. Examples are reversal, storage, creation and movement (see 14. Action Outcomes). However, not all can create a double meaning with of. The kind that can is illustrated in the following sentence from the post 49. Subject-Showing Prepositions:

(e) The movement of animals presents problems.

Here the action of the noun movement could be understood as being caused by either people (for example using trucks) or animals themselves (walking where they choose). In the first case, the noun after of (animals) is like the object of a verb; in the second it is like the subject. The reason for the double meaning is that the related verb MOVE also has these two meanings – it is a verb of the kind discussed in the post 4. Verbs that Don’t Have to be Passive. Other nouns like movement that come from this kind of verb include beginning, development, change and increase.

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6. Adjective + Two Paired Nouns

Paired nouns are analysed within this blog in the post 38. Nouns Used Like Adjectives. They comprise two nouns together, the first describing the second in an adjective-like way. Examples are a coffee cup, the Washington climate and fuel prices. We know that the first noun in such pairs is a noun and not an adjective because it cannot be manipulated in the same way as adjectives. Adjectives can make sense if placed after the noun they describe with which is/are in between (e.g. an empty cup easily becomes a cup which is empty). However, doing the same with a noun describing another noun will probably make nonsense – we cannot say *a cup which is coffee.

Two paired nouns can easily have an adjective before them, e.g. a hot coffee cup. The problem is that this adjective can be linked with either of the nouns: the meaning could be either “a hot cup for coffee” or “a cup for hot coffee”. In most cases, common sense or context makes the intended meaning clear. For example, few people would interpret unnecessary police warnings as “warnings about unnecessary police”. By contrast, less certain cases like desirable customer accounts are perhaps best avoided by changing the nouns into either a possessive construction (desirable customers’ accounts – see 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings), or a preposition one (desirable accounts of customers).

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7. “Too/Enough …” + “to” VERB

Verbs with to (infinitives) can express various meanings, two of which are purpose and result. The purpose meaning is usually a possibility when the subject of the sentence is a living creature and the verb expresses an action rather than a state (see 60. Purpose Sentences with “For”). For the result meaning, there must often be enough or too earlier in the sentence (see 32. Expressing Consequences). Double meanings exist when both the purpose and the result requirements are met, as in this example:

(f) Some children study too hard to succeed.

The two possible meanings of to succeed here are “in order to succeed” (purpose) and “so that they do not succeed” (result). With the purpose meaning, there is still a negative result implied by too, but it is not mentioned (it is not necessarily missed success!).

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8. “a/the” + NOUN

Alternative meanings of the articles a(n) and the are considered in the Guinlist posts 89. Using “the” with General Meaning and 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”. Both articles can express either a general or a specific meaning. Normally, the intended meaning can be discovered from a grammar clue in the rest of the sentence, especially the tense of the verb: present continuous, for example, indicating specificness. This help is neutralised, however, with verbs that cannot be used in the continuous tenses, such as KNOW. What are the two possible meanings of the following?

(g) The/A cheetah knows when to give up the chase.

Without a context, we do not know whether this sentence is about all cheetahs at all times (general) or a particular one on a particular occasion (specific). If we wish to ensure that the general meaning is understood, we have to make the underlined words plural without the (cheetahs) or add an adverb like generally.

Stress in language is a property of most words but emphasis is an add-on with a specific message

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CONFUSIONS REGARDING THE WORDS “STRESS” AND “EMPHASIS

In everyday English, the words stress and emphasis often mean the same: extra force that a speaker or writer might give to a message. In technical language descriptions, however, the words refer to different types of extra force. Quite often, these more technical meanings are also used in English coursebooks for learners who speak a different mother tongue. The result can be a very understandable confusion, whether of the technical with the everyday meanings, or of the two different technical meanings.

A further problem is that the ways stress and emphasis are achieved in English can be very different from their equivalents in other languages, leading to many English errors and consequent misunderstandings. The aim of the present post is to clarify the difference between these two sometimes-confused technical concepts, and to survey some of the ways in which English is able to make statements more emphatic.

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THE LINGUISTIC MEANING OF “STRESS”

To understand stress, it is first necessary to understand what syllables are. In simple terms, they are natural subdivisions of a word. For example, the syllables of compose are com- and -pose, not compo- and -se. A useful guideline is that each new syllable is built around a new spoken vowel: com– and -pose both have a central “o” (ignore the final “e” because it is not pronounced). If there is only one vowel sound in a word, as in trip, there is only one syllable. The centrality of vowels in syllables resembles the centrality of verbs in sentences (see 30. When to Write a Full Stop).

Stress in descriptions of English is associated with syllables. It is a kind of extra force that is given to the pronunciation of one syllable in almost every word. Most single-syllable words have stress, but some very common ones, such as and, must, than and was, usually do not (and are called “weak forms” as a result). In multi-syllable words, the location of the stressed syllable is rarely predictable, so that learning which syllable to stress is a necessary part of learning the word. In this blog, a list of words that are commonly stressed incorrectly by learners of English is in the post 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud.

The stressed syllable in a particular word is always the same, with the result that it is usually shown in dictionaries. Most dictionaries do this by placing the symbol ‘ just in front. For example, com‘pose shows that -pose has stress.

In speech, the extra force of a stressed syllable is achieved primarily through changing its pitch (sound vibration frequency) as it is spoken. Its loudness may also be increased. A common consequence of a syllable being stressed is that its vowel is likely to be pronounced according to its spelling (though there are many exceptions – see 29. Illogical Vowel Spellings). Unstressed vowels, by contrast, such as the first “o” in compose, are often pronounced /Ə/ or /i/ regardless of their spelling (see 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud).

One final point about stress is its relation to “accent”. The two words often have the same meaning, but not always. “Stress” seems more preferred in linguistic analysis, “accent” in literary contexts, particularly the appreciation of verse. Both words are uncountable, but “accent” can also be used countably as an abstract “substance location” (see 43. Substance Locations): an accent is either a symbol above a letter showing how it should be pronounced, or a particular way of pronouncing all the sounds of a language, as when we speak of a BBC accent or a Chinese accent.

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THE LINGUISTIC MEANING OF “EMPHASIS”

Emphasis is also an extra force that may be found in a word. However, it is different from stress in the following ways:

(i)  It is optional: it may be absent from a sentence altogether, or be added to any number of the words in one.

(ii) It has some meaning.

(iii) It can be shown by means of grammar and vocabulary as well as by pitch and loudness. Grammar and vocabulary are the main possibility in writing, whereas pitch and loudness are often preferred in speech.

(iv) Although it mostly applies pitch and loudness to the same syllables that stress does, it does so more strongly.

(v) It can apply pitch and loudness to weak forms (unstressed single-syllable words).

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To illustrate these various points, consider the following sentence:

(a) To STAY THIN it IS adVISable to EAT MOderately, AND to EXercise.

Each of the underlined words may or may not be emphasized, independently of others. The single-syllable ones (stay, thin, is, eat, and) need a strong pitch change across all of them; the others need it on their stressed syllable (shown in capitals). The vowel of the weak form and changes when emphasised, so that /Ənd/ becomes /ænd/.

In many cases the emphasis will suggest a contrast with an opposing idea. For example, emphasis on stay in (a) suggests a contrast with become (thin) and on is a contrast with is not. In other cases, the emphasis means simple importance, suggesting that the listener takes particular note of the emphasised word. This is the case with advisable and and.

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HOW GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY CAN SHOW EMPHASIS

English has various ways of showing emphasis in writing, although it does not use them always – it sometimes leaves the reader to recognise emphasis without them. One widely-used writing technique is putting the emphasised word(s) in italic letters. The following situations are noteworthy ones that are likely to involve special grammar and/or vocabulary instead.

1. Emphasising the Subject of a Sentence

Many speakers whose mother tongue is not English incorrectly try to emphasise a noun or pronoun at the start of a sentence by placing for in front of it and repeating it with a pronoun. The following example was attributed by the Guardian newspaper (11 Jan 2016) to Arsène Wenger, the French manager of Arsenal Football Club:

(b) *I believe that for the Germans they are maybe more surprised (by English football custom) as they have a good winter break.

Many English speakers would, I am sure, simply say the Germans are instead of the underlined words, leaving the listener to recognise the contrast from the following comparative adjective more surprised. However, if additional wording is considered necessary, one could add after the Germans for their part or in particular or on the other hand or themselves.

A similar solution can be used with the following further example

(c) *For scientists, they think that the climate is changing.

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2. Emphasising a Verb

Two different types of emphasis are possible with verbs. One contrasts the verb with other verbs. Added to a verb like think in (c), the emphasis would make a contrast with a verb like say or know. The other type of verb emphasis contrasts the positive use of the verb with its negative, or vice versa. Giving this kind of emphasis to think in (c) would make a contrast with do not think.

The first kind of verb emphasis is achieved in speech by a pitch change on the verb, the second by a pitch change on a word next to the verb. Next to a positive verb, the emphasised word will be an “auxiliary” verb like will or has or a specially-introduced form of DO (do think). Next to a negative verb, the emphasised word will be the one showing the negativity (not, never or whatever).

The main written equivalent of the first kind of verb emphasis seems to be italicisation. To use grammar or vocabulary instead, one would have to be very wordy, saying something like think rather than say/know.

The second kind of emphasis, however, is much more easily shown in writing with grammar or vocabulary. To contrast a positive verb with its negative opposite in writing, merely adding DO is enough, since it is always emphatic without not. Here is an example:

(d) Constructing new roads does solve traffic problems.

This suggests the writer is disagreeing with somebody who thinks the opposite. To make the emphasis even clearer, a writer can add an adverb like certainly, definitely, emphatically, indeed or undoubtedly (e.g. does indeed solve).

To contrast a negative verb in writing with its positive opposite, using one of these adverbs is the only option (e.g. certainly does not solve).

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3. Highlighting the New Information in a Sentence

Sentences usually seek to convey information. However, this information does not always take up the whole of the sentence: in many cases it is combined with information that the speaker is not trying to convey because the listener is expected to know it already. The two types of information are often called “new” and “given” (see 37. Subordination: Grammar for Good Repetition).

In many cases the new information is obvious, but sometimes a speaker may feel that it is not and needs highlighting. Two expressions that can help to do this very effectively are it or what at the start of a sentence, like this:

(d) It is economic development that causes population growth to fall.

(e) What causes population growth to fall is economic development.

Sentences like this will be analyzed more fully in a future post.

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4. Emphasizing a Conjunction

This can be done by placing a connector immediately after, e.g. also or additionally after and in (a). Other common combinations are but nevertheless, and then, and consequently and or in other words. For the difference between conjunctions and connectors, see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors.

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Some English verbs can be used with two nouns after them, one an “indirect object”

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THE CONCEPT OF INDIRECT OBJECTS

English grammars often talk of indirect objects: nouns or their equivalents (pronouns, gerunds, noun phrases, etc.) that sometimes follow a verb along with its “object”. Objects can be read about in this blog in the post 8. Object-Dropping Errors. Here are some sentences with an indirect object:

(a) The Government need to build more homes for the poor.

(b) Einstein gave his full attention to the problem of gravity.

At first sight, indirect objects seem to be no different from other nouns or noun equivalents that are placed after a preposition to make an adverb-like phrase (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions), and hence not worth treating separately. This remains the case even if we recognise that particular prepositions are involved (nearly always to or for), and a particular meaning is conveyed (that of “beneficiary” or “recipient”: the poor above are the envisaged beneficiaries of more homes being built, and the problem of gravity was the recipient of Einstein’s increased attention).

Most other prepositions, after all, can also partner a verb and express particular meanings in the same way that indirect object ones can– times, places and reasons, for example – and they are not associated with special terms like “indirect object”. See how the preposition expressing “direction” in the following example resembles the indirect object ones above:

(c) The River Nile empties its waters into the Mediterranean Sea.

The particular question that I wish to address in this post is the usefulness of the term “indirect object” for understanding English grammar. This places the post in the same category as various others that deal with the major divisions of a sentence – subject, verb, object, complement and adverbial – for example 8. Object-Dropping Errors,  12. Singular and Plural Verb Choices,  92. Complement-Showing “As” and 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs.

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JUSTIFICATION OF THE TERM “INDIRECT OBJECT”

One major reason why English grammars talk of indirect objects is the influence of other languages, particularly Latin, the language that dominated Europe 2000 years ago (see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling). In Latin, although prepositions are used for most meanings that also need a preposition in English, they are not used to show the meaning of an indirect object – special noun endings are used instead. It therefore makes sense in Latin grammars to separately recognize indirect objects. This approach has influenced the description of English grammar because English grammar was originally analyzed using concepts developed for Latin.

Moreover, many other modern European languages act more or less similarly to Latin, particularly in respect of personal pronouns. French and German, for example, have special forms of pronouns like “me”, “you” and “him/her” to show when they are indirect objects.

Of course, the mere fact that other languages have a good reason for using a particular grammatical concept does not mean that that concept should be used in English. So is there anything about English that might justify talk of indirect objects? I think there actually is. It is the fact that this kind of noun can be written without a preposition as well as with one. Here is sentence (b) rewritten in this other way:

(d) Einstein gave the problem of gravity his full attention.

Here, it will be seen, the noun that was originally after to has lost this preposition and has changed places with the other noun. Having these alternative word orders allows either of the two nouns to be placed at the end of the sentence, where English typically likes to place the most important information. One of the two nouns is the object of the verb. What name should be given to the other?

One side matter to address before considering this is the fact that not all sentences with two preposition-less nouns after the verb are like (d). Consider this example from the Guinlist post 92. Complement-Showing “As”:

(e) Some football injuries can leave the victims invalids for life.

This sentence cannot be changed so that the victims follows a preposition. As the parent post points out, these words are the direct object of the verb can leave, while the second noun invalids is an “object complement” – a description or identification of the object. Part of the key to telling the difference is the meaning or nature of the verb: LEAVE is of the kind that allows object complements, GIVE that allows “indirect objects”.

Some grammars say simply that sentences like (d) have two objects. This recognizes the fact that in many cases either of the two “objects” can be the subject of the verb in the passive form, as in these examples based on (d):

(f) The problem of gravity was given full attention by Einstein.

(g) Full attention was given by Einstein to the problem of gravity.

The argument is then made that if both nouns in sentences like (d) can be called “objects”, then the term “indirect object” can again be dropped altogether, since every way of using one can be described with another term.

Other grammars, however, prefer to call the first of the two nouns in (d) an indirect object. The main advantage seems to be a highlighting of the fact that the two nouns in such sentences are not wholly equal. One difference between them is the way the indirect object follows a passive verb in sentences like (g) – there must again be a preposition (… to the problem of gravity).

Another difference is that the indirect object can usually be omitted from sentences like (d) without creating incorrect grammar, whereas the direct object cannot (though this is not always true: either noun can be omitted after the verbs ASK, OWE, PAY, TEACH, TELL and SHOW). Clearly, once these differences are recognized by means of calling the first noun an indirect object, it makes sense also to call the words after to in sentences like (b) an indirect object too, in order to highlight the link with their equivalent in (d).

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GRAMMAR ERRORS INVOLVING INDIRECT OBJECTS

The main problem that the above-described grammar of English indirect objects seems to give to speakers of a different mother tongue is recognising when it applies. Everything depends on the verb being used. There is value in recognising that verbs with a similar meaning to GIVE often have similar grammar – but unfortunately some such verbs do not and must always have a preposition before one of the following nouns. Those that are fully like GIVE include ALLOT, ASK, ASSIGN, AWARD, BEQUEATH, BUILD, GRANT, HAND, LEAVE (= “place in waiting”), LEND, MAKE, OWE, PASS, PAY, POST, PREPARE, RELAY, SHOW, SEND, SET, TEACH, TELL and WRITE.

Verbs like GIVE that always need to before a recipient noun include COMMUNICATE, DELIVER, DEMONSTRATE, DISCLOSE, DONATE, EXPLAIN, REVEAL, SAY, SUGGEST and TRANSFER. Perhaps the most problematic of these is EXPLAIN. More can be read about it in the posts 123. Prepositional Verbs Containing a Noun and 10. Words with Unexpected Grammar. Verbs like GIVE that generally need for before a recipient noun include CLARIFY, DEFINE and DESCRIBE.

Problematic in a different way are FURNISH, INFORM and REWARD. Consider this:

(h) Claimants must inform this office OF any changes in their situation.

Again there is a preposition that is often incorrectly omitted (of here – with after FURNISH and REWARD), but this time it is needed by the noun that does not resemble an indirect object (changes). This makes the other noun, this office, an ordinary object, not an indirect one, despite it representing a recipient. Hardly surprisingly, the positions of the two nouns cannot be reversed as they can when an indirect object is present. Verbs like INFORM are, in fact, further examples of the kind considered in the post 123. Prepositional Verbs Containing a Noun.

Three verbs that almost have a normal indirect object are PRESENT, PROVIDE and SUPPLY. They can all accompany a recipient noun, and this noun can be used with or without to/for according to its position. However, when to/for is absent, the other noun needs with. Compare:

(i) Exceptions present a challenge TO grammarians.

(j) Exceptions present grammarians WITH a challenge.

When to/for is needed, as in (i), PRESENT and SUPPLY need to, but PROVIDE needs for.

English uses indirect speech more than direct speech for reporting other people’s words but has other uses for it too

WHY INDIRECT SPEECH CAN BE A CONFUSING TOPIC

Speech in English can be represented in both a “direct” and an “indirect” way. A good command of indirect speech requires knowing not just how to construct it, but also when it is preferable to direct speech. Many English users who have been brought up speaking another language find these two needs quite familiar and manage them well. However, many others find them very different from what is normal in their mother tongue, where direct speech is likely to be much more common, so that they need a very clear description of the construction and the uses of indirect speech in English.

Unfortunately, the clarity of indirect speech explanation in many descriptions of English grammar is less than complete. Although its construction is usually handled quite well, its use tends to be mentioned in only the briefest and vaguest terms – often, for example, simply as “reporting” (indeed, some descriptions prefer the term “reported” to “indirect”). Because of this, the primary aim of the present post is to comprehensively describe the different uses that indirect speech can have.

Some advice on indirect speech use is also offered elsewhere in this blog (see 22. Multiple Speakers in a Text,  57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing,  80. How to Paraphrase and 105. Questions with a “to” Verb). Some of it is repeated below, but numerous new points will also be found.

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PROBLEMS IN DEFINING INDIRECT SPEECH

A typical way of defining indirect speech is as a named speaker’s message expressed in changed words. The named speaker is usually different from the creator of the indirect speech, but could be the same too. Here are some examples:

(a) Sim (2015, p.14) states that globalization is unstoppable.

(b) Columbus promised to reward his crew richly.

(c) I tell clients that the quality of the product is unmatched.

In all of these, the named speakers are at the start (Sim, Columbus and I) and the indirect speech is underlined. In (a) and (b), the named speaker and the speaker of the sentence are different, but in (c) they are not.

A problem with this definition is that indirect speech is not always changed wording. Consider these:

(d) Could you tell me what your name is?

(e) I think that sport is essential for world peace.

The indirect speech in (d) is a question asked by the speaker of the sentence (who is the same as the named speaker me). It cannot be described as changed wording because there is is no other wording that could be called “original” – this is the original wording. The same is true of the indirect statement in (e).

As with so much in grammar, probably the most reliable way to describe indirect speech is in terms of its physical construction. One tempting possibility is to say that indirect speech is speech without quotation marks (“…”), since in the examples above their absence is a highly visible indicator of the indirectness of the speech. However, this is a very incomplete way of visualising indirect speech. It might allow recognition of indirect speech in reading, but in writing it would give no guidance on what else was needed. Indirect speech is perhaps best defined on the basis of well-known syntactic features that it has.

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SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF INDIRECT SPEECH

The common syntactic features of indirect speech are described in most mainstream grammars, so are only listed briefly here. Outside of the actual indirect speech there is usually information about the identity of the “speaker” (the originator of the message – not necessarily the wording – of the indirect speech), plus an expression (usually a verb) of saying or thinking. Within the indirect speech, pronouns, tenses and adverbs show the point of view of the creator of the indirect speech rather than that of the named speaker. In addition, there are features that vary according to whether the speech is a statement, question or command.

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Specific Statement Features

1. Optional that between the statement and any words introducing it (alternatives are possible, especially in academic writing – see (b) above and also 22. Multiple Speakers in a Text and 107. The Language of Opinions).

2. No comma between the statement and any words introducing it (see 50. Right and Wrong Comma Places).

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Specific Question Features

1. An introductory expression of saying or thinking that suggests asking or explaining, e.g. ASK, DETERMINE, ENQUIRE, INVESTIGATE or WONDER.

2. Different word order from direct questions (no verb before the subject of the question).

3. An initial question word (or equivalent noun – see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing).

4. A full stop instead of a question mark at the end.

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Specific Command Features

1. An introductory expression of saying or thinking that suggests commanding, inviting or advising, e.g. ADVISE, ASK, COMMAND, INSTRUCT, ORDER, REQUEST, TELL or URGE. It is usually followed by the commanded person (e.g. told everyone …), though an exception is GIVE AN ORDER … .

2. A verb with to for the commanded action. Some verbs, e.g. ORDER and REQUEST, allow an “action” noun like departure instead, without mention of the commanded person (see 65. Verbs that Mean “Must” or “Can”).

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USES OF INDIRECT SPEECH

The main reason why “reporting” is not a helpful name for the use of indirect speech is that it is also a major use of direct speech. To report is to tell somebody what somebody else said, and that is certainly also a function of direct speech. The real need is to understand the use of indirect as opposed to direct reporting. A further problem with characterizing indirect speech as a means of reporting is that sometimes it is not.

Direct versus Indirect Reporting

To understand the use of indirect reporting, it is more helpful to think first about uses of direct reporting, since indirect reporting is actually the default in English: it is done automatically when none of the reasons for direct reporting apply. The uses of direct reporting seem to include the following:

1. DRAMATIC EFFECT

This is primarily a literary use, common in novels. It makes reported speech vivid and lifelike.

2. PRESERVATION OF VALUE

Sometimes the speech that we wish to report has some noteworthy feature – cleverness, conciseness, beauty, originality – that we do not wish to change or suggest is our own.

3. FEAR OF MISINTERPRETATION

Original messages are not always easy to understand: they may be ambiguous or conceptually difficult or just poorly written. In these cases, quoting the exact original words allows readers to make their own judgement about what is being said.

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Indirect reporting is usually required if none of these reasons apply. However, it has some particular advantages of its own that are worth highlighting.

1. SUMMARISING AND TRANSLATING

These are by definition ways of changing words, and hence cannot logically be done with direct speech (a notable exception is in storytelling, for dramatic effect – see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing). Summarising is particularly necessary in academic literature reviews, where brevity is paramount.

2. AVOIDANCE OF OFFENCE

There are various kinds of wording, such as swearing and racist language, that writers might want to change in order to avoid offence (though they might also keep them in order to shame the author!).

3. AVOIDANCE OF AMBIGUITY.

This spoken English use of indirect speech may be illustrated with the following sentence:

(f) The Principal said, “I am performing well”.

When the words are spoken, so that punctuation is absent, there can be uncertainty whether I is the named speaker (The Principal) or the sentence speaker. English pronunciation can actually clarify this – by means of a pause after said – but sometimes this may be considered insufficient. Switching to indirect speech (… said he was performing well) can solve such problems.

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Non-Reporting Uses of Indirect Speech

Outside of reporting, indirect speech is not the default and needs a special reason to be used. The main reasons seem to be the following:

1. POLITENESS

This often seems to be the sole purpose of making a question indirect in spoken English. Sentence (d) above is an example. See 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing for more details.

2. FORMAL TOPIC INTRODUCTION.

This is another use specific to indirect questions, and features heavily in the post on that topic (see also 105. Questions with a “to” Verb). Direct questions can introduce a topic as well, but they are rather informal in professional writing.

3. SPEECH CHARACTERISATION.

Sentence (e) above illustrates this use. The verb before the indirect speech, think, characterises it as an opinion. The same understanding might be possible without the indirect-speech words I think that, but these words leave the listener in no doubt (see 107. The Language of Opinions).

Opinion-indicating is only one of many types of speech characterisation. I understand that … shows a statement to be somebody else’s, in other words reported. I know/realise that … suggests it may not be obvious. I agree that equates it with somebody else’s opinion, while I would like to say signals gratitude. Other subjects than I are possible too.

Questions too can be characterised by being made indirect. Here is a question characterised in this way as “mystifying”.

(g) It is mystifying (A mystifying question is) why nobody spoke up.

The imperative form of English verbs has a wide range of special uses in formal writing

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THE NEED TO CONSIDER IMPERATIVE VERBS

Imperative verbs, the simplest of all verb forms in English, may seem an elementary topic in a blog about the more advanced uses of English grammar. There is indeed no need to highlight much about their form, since it is rarely written incorrectly or misunderstood. However, grammar is not just about the construction of forms; it also involves knowing when and when not to use them.

The problem with the use of imperative verbs is that the full range of possibilities is not always appreciated. Many people, if asked, will associate the imperative form more with commanding than anything else, when in fact this is not necessarily its main use at all. Part of the reason for such a reaction may be the misleading nature of the name “imperative”, which, being derived from a word in the Latin language meaning “command”, is strongly suggestive of that idea (for more on the influence of Latin on English, see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling).

Here is an example of an imperative verb usage that is not for commanding. It is taken from the Guinlist post 33. Complex Example-Giving:

(a) Air pollutants cause many problems. Consider sulphur dioxide.

The main purpose of the underlined imperative here is to signal the start of a multi-sentence example. This post is about the variety of such non-commanding uses that imperative verbs can have in English. First, though, it is as well to be reminded of the various physical features of imperative verbs.

Most often an imperative verb is just the verb by itself without any endings or auxiliaries – the so-called “base” or “stem” form, e.g. see, describe, take. Some additions, however, are possible, such as do not (to show negativity), do (for emphasis), let us/me (to shift the focus from “you” doing something to “me”) and let us (or me) not. The subject of an imperative verb is not usually mentioned, but is mostly understood to be “you”.

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USES OF IMPERATIVE VERBS IN FORMAL WRITING

The main formal writing uses of imperative verbs seem to be instructing, cautioning, commenting, referring, illustrating, hypothesising and signposting.

1. Instructing

Instructions tell addressees how to achieve something they desire. They are not commands because ignoring them brings only failure, not punishment.

Academia has numerous well-known uses for instructions. Scientific and technological subjects employ them to specify laboratory procedures, Mathematics spells out steps in calculations with them, and all subjects use them in rubrics for exercises and tests (see 94. Essay Instruction Words). Professional writing too has various uses. Consumers often need instructions for understanding the use of a newly-purchased product. Teachers may base lesson plans on them. Cooks construct recipes with them.

Verbs are central in instructions. They are not always imperative; they can be in the ordinary form instead (usually in the passive voice in order to avoid you – see 46. How to Avoid “I”, “We” and “You”), but the imperative form is common, especially outside academia. In writing, instructional imperatives do not need to be made more polite-sounding with extra words. This is only a possible need in speech (which allows softening by the addition of you or you have to). A particular inappropriacy that I encountered recently in written instructions for a new satnav was the use of please before every imperative.

Another verb form that instructions sometimes use instead of the imperative has the “modal” verb should (or more emphatically must). However, modals are found mainly when other verbs in the same instructions are in the imperative form – it would sound strange to use modal verbs exclusively. Consider this real-life exam question:

(b) Discuss the ethics of the two approaches described above, coming to a reasoned conclusion about which one you would use. You must also discuss the reasoning behind your final choice.

The underlined use of must is acceptable as an instruction because it follows an imperative form discuss at the start. Switching to must might just be for variety (see 24. Good and Bad Repetition), but it could also be emphasising the particular importance of the associated instruction.

Note the use of coming in (b). It too is an instructional verb. The -ing ending is just an alternative to and, enabling the COME instruction to be in the same sentence as discuss (see 30. When to Write a Full Stop and 101. Add-On Participles).

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2. Cautioning

This function highlights potential traps and pitfalls: if the action of the imperative verb is not carried out, something particularly nasty will happen. The verb is usually located within a set of instructions, but is not always a new step in the procedure being described. Consider this:

(c) Fill the tube with the liquid. Make sure that no bubbles are present.

Here, ensuring the absence of bubbles is not a step after filling the tube, but must take place during it. If it does not take place, the entire procedure will fail.

The verb make sure is common in this use, but not unique. Alternatives are ensure, be sure, be careful and see. If the mentioned pitfall lacks a verb (e.g. the presence of bubbles) a suitable imperative is beware of or (less formally) watch out for. Negative warnings – highlighting behaviours to avoid – combine a simple imperative with do not or strong expressions like never or under no circumstances.

Should and must can also be used for cautioning. The second sentence in (c) could be rephrased No bubbles should/must be present.

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3. Characterising

Characterising is a common purpose of indirect speech (see 127. When to Use Indirect Speech). Imperative verbs can work with an indirect statement in order to characterise it, like this:

(d) Note that an instruction verb can end in -ing.

This imperative characterises the information after it as important (it corresponds to the Latin-derived abbreviation NB). Keep in mind and remember can do the same, but the latter can alternatively show that the statement is a repetition of something previously said, i.e. a reminder. Notice and observe suggest that the information is not immediately obvious. See is similar, but needs a following how instead of that. A comma is an alternative to that if the imperative is placed later in the sentence with another comma before it.

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4. Referring

Professional documents often inform the reader about relevant external information sources simply by naming them, whether through citations (see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs) or other types of data reference (see 104. Referring to Data with “As”).

Imperative verbs allow an external information source to be given in a very direct way by actually inviting the reader to view it. A favourite verb with this use in this blog is see, as at the end of the previous paragraph. Other possibilities are compare, go to, refer to and the Latin abbreviations cf. and qv. Please is a possibility before imperative verbs employed in this way.

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5. Illustrating

The imperative verb consider in example (a) above has this use – it is the beginning of a multi-sentence example. Full details of when and how it is appropriate are in the post 33. Complex Example-Giving. Other verbs with a similar function are take and imagine. Consider and take are usually followed by a simple noun or pronoun, whereas imagine generally needs a following statement introduced by that.

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6. Hypothesising

An imperative verb can replace if and an ordinary verb in sentences like this:

(e) If you break the speed limit, a fine will have to be paid.

The underlined words can become break alone, accompanied by and after the comma. Not every use of if can be paraphrased like this: the accompanying verb must be in the present simple tense. For more details, see 88. Some Exotic Grammar Structures.

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7. Signposting

Signposting clarifies the organization of a text by showing how particular points are related to others. Some signposting gives warning of information to follow, some shows whether or not a point is new, and some signals endings. All of these uses are illustrated in the post 122. Signpost Words in Multi-Sentence Lists, and the introducing one is also in the post 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing. Imperatives with let are another way to introduce, like this:

(f) Let us consider the importance of engineers.

The underlined words mean “I will now talk about …”. In spoken English, me might replace us. Other verbs usable like this include ANALYSE, CHARACTERISE, CLARIFY, COMPARE, CONTRAST, DEDUCE, DIFFERENTIATE, ELUCIDATE, ENUMERATE, EXAMINE, EXPOSE, IDENTIFY, ILLUSTRATE, INVESTIGATE, LIST, LOOK AT (informal), SPECIFY and RETURN TO.

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The above uses of imperative verbs seem the most important. Keep in mind, though, that they are not the only ones. There could be many more, such as advising with verbs like consider.

Different shades of necessity meaning are expressed by different English modal verbs

THE PROBLEM OF NECESSITY VERBS

Necessity verbs suggest a pressure to carry out the action of another verb placed straight after. Unless the second verb is passive, the person or thing under pressure is likely to be the subject of the sentence, like this:

(a) Vehicle owners MUST HAVE insurance.

Necessity verbs are quite numerous in English, reflecting a wide variety of subtypes of necessity. Many of the verbs are listed elsewhere within this blog in the post 65. Verbs that Mean “Must” or “Can”. Here I wish to examine those of a more grammatical nature that are sometimes called “modal”, such as BE TO, HAVE TO, MUST, NEED, OUGHT TO, SHALL and SHOULD, which seem to differ from each other in particularly subtle and confusing ways.

The meanings of these verbs are all commonly explained in mainstream grammar descriptions. What I hope to offer is a number of novel interpretations that might make the meaning differences slightly easier to understand. Other posts within this blog that deal with modal verbs include 51. Showing Disagreement with “May”,  60. Purpose Sentences with “For” and 119. BE Before a “to” Verb.

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ANALYSIS OF NECESSITY VERBS

The necessity verbs listed above can be divided into two groups according to the cause of the necessity they express. In one group, the cause occurs before the moment when the necessity verb is spoken, so that the sentence as a whole is just reporting it, while in the other it is created at that moment. Here is a summary of the possibilities:

The details of this classification are as follows.

1. BE TO

This verb is extensively analysed in a previous post (119. BE Before a “to” Verb). Necessity is only one of its many meanings. Mostly it is necessity established before the moment of utterance. The commonest type is arrangements, as in this example:

(b) A meeting of finance ministers is to be held in Brussels.

This would normally mean that the necessity of the meeting came from a previous arrangement, which is being reported, rather than from the actual utterance of the sentence.

Another previously-established necessity that BE TO can report is that resulting from formal regulations, which MUST also commonly expresses (see below). The following sentence might suggest this if spoken to the staff of an organization:

(c) Visitors are to report to Reception.

Using are to here instead of must makes the necessity sound less dictatorial, perhaps by suggesting it is based on communal agreement.

BE TO can also create necessity at the moment of its use, mainly of the command type. Sentence (c) could be a command – again more gentle than with MUST – if addressed to the public.

To make the negative of BE TO, simply add not; for the past tense, use past forms of BE.

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2. HAVE TO

This verb nearly always expresses necessity. The primary use is to report a previously-established necessity without saying how it may have come about.  Consider this:

(d) The children cannot attend because they have to do homework.

It is not clear here what previously caused the necessity (it may have been a school command or regulation, or a parental command). A common error is to try and say this with MUST. With must instead of have to, the speaker of the sentence would be either giving their own homework command or suggesting that it is a legal requirement (see below) – neither very likely.

The other main use of HAVE TO establishes rather than reports a necessity. The particular kind seems to be exhortation – urging the subject of the verb to behave in a way that the speaker believes to be necessary. The following sentence could be understood to have this meaning, although it could also be taken to report an established necessity:

(e) People showing these symptoms have to visit their doctor.

NEED TO and MUST can also exhort (see below), but add extra meaning (danger-avoidance and urgency respectively). Interestingly, if (e) is not reporting and not addressed to anybody, it becomes more wish-like.

A less formal equivalent of HAVE TO in all its uses is HAVE GOT TO. The past tense of HAVE TO is had to. The negative form is a little tricky. If the meaning is “compelled not to”, one can use HAVE TO NOT, but it is rare, the preference being for mustn’t or shouldn’t or a paraphrase like BE NOT ALLOWED TO. Using DO NOT HAVE TO expresses the absence, not the presence of necessity (= “allowed to”).

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3. NEED TO

This verb nearly always suggests that the necessity results from threatened danger. The threat can be a previously-established fact or just the speaker’s opinion conveyed at the time of speaking. An example of the first might be:

(f) Plants need to be watered daily.

The danger implied here to be the cause of the necessity is easily recognized, of course, as dehydration and possible death. Have to could also be used. Although it would be vaguer about the reason for the necessity, this would not greatly affect understanding because the reader’s general knowledge would compensate. Must is possible too. It would suggest some kind of law – natural law perhaps.

The opinion-based uses of NEED include exhorting and advising. Both recommend a particular danger-avoiding behaviour, but the former perhaps pushes people to adopt it while the latter allows them more choice. Using need instead of have to in (e) above could thus also be exhorting, with the added explicit warning of possible danger.

The past tense form of NEED is needed. The negative is tricky like that of HAVE TO: DO NOT NEED TO removes the necessity, NEED TO NOT keeps it.

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4. MUST (1)

This verb is common for both reporting and creating necessity. The reporting use normally involves commands, rules, regulations, laws or moral beliefs. Examples are:

(g) You must have a ticket to travel.

(h) You must be kind to your neighbour.

Here, (g) implies that a company regulation is being stated, (h) a moral law. Using must in (f) would perhaps imply natural law.

MUST has various uses in establishing a necessity at the time of speaking. One is commands – to oneself as well as to others. Commands tend to imply possible punishment for disobeying them (see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing). They may or may not be directly addressed to the people who are expected to obey them. Sentence (c) above, replacing are to with must, could be the former, as could (g).

The less direct type of commands tends to be found in formal written documents. An example is:

(i) The claimant must notify the company within three days.

Alternatively, MUST can establish necessity in the form of very strong exhortation or advice, like this:

(j) I/You must try harder.

The past tense form of MUST with all these meanings is had to. The negative uses not.

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5. MUST (2)

This is the logical reasoning use, as in sentences like the following:

(k) x squared is 9 so x must be 3.

The necessity here is the absence of any other possibility. It can be a previously- established fact or created at the moment of speaking. The past tense form is again had to. The negative, however, is CANNOT.

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6. SHALL

This verb will not usually express necessity after I or we, and quite often will not after other subjects. In particular, it is not the right verb if the speaker is naming the behaviours of other people that s/he has fixed as a manager, for example in sport, like this:

(l) Jones will play at right back.

The necessity use of SHALL mostly establishes regulations in legal documents in the way that MUST can, though perhaps with slightly weaker force. It would hence be possible instead of MUST in (i) above.

Sometimes SHALL reports rather than creates regulations, as in this possible public notice:

(m) Bins shall be emptied every Friday.

The use of shall instead of must is perhaps because the regulation, unlike that in (g), does not have to be obeyed by the people being addressed.

There is no past tense equivalent of necessity-showing SHALL. One might instead say had to or was/were to. The negative uses not.

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7. SHOULD & OUGHT TO

The necessity expressed by these synonymous verbs is usually of a reduced kind, implying more choice. In other words, the meaning is advice-giving. The advice is always that of the speaker – it cannot be reported. To report another person’s advice, you can use BE ADVISED TO.

There is no past tense of should or ought to; one must use needed or BE + advisable. Beware of using should have: it suggests that an advisable behaviour failed to happen. The negative uses not.

Abbreviations are of different kinds, some more likely in formal writing than others

THE PROBLEM OF ABBREVIATIONS IN FORMAL WRITING

Abbreviations can be a problem in both reading and writing formal English. Readers may find some of them hard to understand, while writers have to know not just how to abbreviate, but also when and when not to do it. This post aims to help out in all of these areas. It does not offer a comprehensive list of abbreviations in English, since those can be found in most good dictionaries and on many websites. Instead, it indicates which kinds of abbreviations are most possible in formal writing, and focuses on one kind – Latin abbreviations – which is particularly used there but can be quite difficult to understand or remember.

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TYPES OF ABBREVIATION IN ENGLISH

Abbreviation is shortening a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph or more by removing some of its parts. The countable form an abbreviation, however, usually means just a word or phrase shortened by the removal of letters (it expresses an “action outcome” – see 14. Countable Noun Meanings 1). An example is pg., one way of abbreviating the word page.

The idea of “parts removal” makes it easy to distinguish abbreviations from symbols. Symbols can also be shortened written forms of words, but they are created by replacement of letters rather than their simple removal, and they do not have a following full stop. Examples are $, @ and &. Symbols are found quite often in formal writing but are not the focus of this post.

Some abbreviations are of multi-word names of people, organizations or countries, made with just the first letter of each word in the name. Capital letters are normally preferred and there are no full stops. Examples are FDR (the 1940s American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt), BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and UAR (United Arab Emirates). Such abbreviations are quite common and easy to handle in formal writing. They are not the focus of this post.

Another type of abbreviation is made by removing one or more syllables from a word, especially its end (syllables are defined in the post 125. Stress & Emphasis). Examples are admin(istration), advert(isement), exam(ination), (re)fridge(rator) and uni(versity). However, this kind of abbreviation is not often found in formal writing because it is usually very informal (though it may appear within graphics – see abbrev. in the table below). It becomes more acceptable only if, after time, it becomes the normal way of saying the word, in which case it ceases even to be thought of as an abbreviation. Words that have evolved like this include cab(riolet), lunch(eon), (omni)bus, rail(way) and perhaps (aero)plane.

Other abbreviations are made by removing most of a word or phrase, especially the vowels, and representing the rest in lower case letters with a full stop at the end. These are not common in formal writing, but there are some notable exceptions, including cm. and other measurements (“centimetre”), cp. (“compare”), ed. or eds. (“editor/s”), Mt. (“Mount”), pg. or p. (“page”), pto (“please turn over”) and re. (“reference”). We find ed. or eds. in bibliographies after editor names (see 81. Tricky Word Contrasts 2), pg. or p. before page numbers in citations and bibliographies (see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs), pto at the bottom of pages in important documents like forms and exam papers, and re. at the start of some formal letters.

The other main type of abbreviation – the one that the rest of this post is about – is derived from words and phrases taken from another language, Latin.

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ABBREVIATIONS DERIVED FROM LATIN

The Latin language is no longer spoken today, but it has had a major impact on English (see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling and 108. Formal and Informal Words). English as a whole is full of words derived from Latin, while some special fields like law and philosophy sometimes use actual Latin expressions (e.g. de facto, a priori, inter alia). All types of academic writing use special abbreviations of Latin words. Here are the most common ones:

Common Latin Abbreviations

One common Latin abbreviation that is not greatly used in formal writing is NB (= Nota Bene = “This is important”). It is especially useful in note-making.

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USING LATIN ABBREVIATIONS

The following are noteworthy points regarding the use of the the above-listed Latin abbreviations.

AD – commonly used after dates – is now rejected by some writers because they feel it could cause offence to readers who are not Christians. The problem is the fact that D stands for Domini, meaning “Lord”, a name for Christ that implies belief in him. The proposed alternative is CE (Christian Era).

ca is especially common before numbers. It is a useful device for “hedging” (see 95. Hedging 1: Numbers & Generalizations).

e.g. and i.e. (or viz.) are both used, with a comma before and no comma after, to introduce detail. The former says that what follows is some of a previously-mentioned general class, while the latter say it is all. For example, after the general class main South American languages, one might say say e.g. Portuguese but i.e. (or viz.) Spanish & Portuguese. For more, see 48. Tricky Word Contrasts 1 and 54. Listing 1: Incidental.

etc. is similar to e.g. but must come after an incomplete list rather than before. It is especially useful when the list is introduced by a colon (see 1. Simple Example-Giving).

et al. is occasionally found in academic texts after the name of an author whose words are being quoted or paraphrased nearby. It can, in other words, be a part of abbreviated “references” (see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs). However, it will not usually be repeated in the corresponding fuller reference in the bibliography at the end of the text. Its message is that at least two other authors collaborated with the one mentioned, the names of whom can be found in the bibliography.

ff. is sometimes written after a page number to show that the page in question is only the first of a sequence to consult.

ibid. and op cit. can both replace a standard abbreviated reference when it is the same as one mentioned earlier. The difference between them is perhaps one of distance from the earlier mention: ibid. when it is short with no other sources mentioned in between, op. cit. otherwise.

q.v. resembles cf.: both invite the reader to view an alternative text (see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing). However, q.v. follows the name of the text or its topic, while cf. precedes it. Moreover, the text or topic mentioned before q.v. is not likely to be in a different document.

(sic) is found inside quoted words. It emphasizes that the word before it is what the source text says, and not quoted inaccurately. In doing so, it suggests that the quoting writer thinks a different spelling or word would have been more appropriate. It aims, in effect, to shield the quoting writer from any criticism that the wording in question might incur.

There are various reasons why a writer might prefer to express an action with a noun instead of a verb

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THE EXISTENCE OF “ACTION” NOUNS IN ENGLISH

Various posts within this blog highlight the fact that in English an action can sometimes be expressed as easily by a noun as by a verb (see especially 14. Action Outcomes and 31. Objects of Noun Actions). A noun with this ability (such as movement) usually looks like its related verb (move), the difference typically being specific suffixes like -ment, -tion, -al, -ure and -ence (though some nouns, like increase and change, have no spelling change at all). In most cases, the action meaning will not always exist in the noun, but will be recognisable when the noun follows the grammar rules of “uncountable” rather than “countable” nouns (see 14. Action Outcomes and 19. Activity Locations).

The properties of action nouns make them very similar to gerunds – verbs given noun-like properties by the addition of -ing (see 70. Gerunds); the two forms are indeed often interchangeable, as in the following example:

(a) Success (= Succeeding) in an examination results from hard work (= working hard).

This post is mainly about the special value of action nouns. Some of the points are also made in other Guinlist posts, but the aim here is to give a more complete overview. Much of what is suggested should be understood as applicable to gerunds as well (though perhaps with slightly less formality), unless there is a statement to the contrary.

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LIST OF ACTION NOUN USES

Action nouns seem to have the following major uses.

1. Saying Something about an Action

To appreciate this use, compare the following:

(b) Penicillin was discovered by Fleming.

(c) The discovery of penicillin (by Fleming) has saved many lives.

Sentence (b) is focussed on naming something that happened, and does so with a verb. Sentence (c) names the same action but is more focussed on adding something extra about it. To facilitate this, the action is made into a noun that is the subject of another verb (normal-form verbs cannot ever be the subject of other verbs). In other cases, the action might be the object of a verb or follow a preposition, like this:

(d) Doctors CELEBRATE the discovery of penicillin.

(e) Many lives have been saved SINCE the discovery of penicillin.

Gerunds do not seem the same as action nouns in this use. For example, replacing discovery in (c) above with discovering feels a little strange. I think the reason might be that gerunds, like other -ing words, give more focus to the time during an action, and hence in (c) would suggest that the saving of lives happened while the discovering was taking place, rather than after it. A gerund would be more suitable than an action noun in a statement like seeing is believing (= belief develops during seeing). The two different ways of viewing actions are often called “aspect” in grammar. More examples are in the posts 52. Participles Placed Just after their Noun,  103. Sentences Starting with “It” and 116. Rarer Uses of HAVE.

One kind of information that professional writers seem especially fond of providing about actions is their relation to other actions – a function more typically associated with conjunctions, e.g.

(f) If alcohol is consumed to a certain level, consciousness is lost.

The conjunction if here expresses the relation of cause-effect between the two underlined verbs (see 118. Problems with Conditional “If”). For other conjunction meanings, see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors.

Sentence (f) can be paraphrased using action nouns like this:

(g) Consumption of alcohol to a certain level causes loss of consciousness.

Here, the two verbs in (f) have become action nouns, and the meaning of if is expressed by the verb causes. Relation-showing verbs like this are just as important as the action nouns. Other common examples (with any corresponding preposition in brackets) are LEAD TO (if, as, since, because), RESULT IN (if, as since, because), CONTRIBUTE TO, ALLOW, ENABLE, PERMIT, ENSURE, FACILITATE, DEPEND ON, RESULT FROM (because, since), REQUIRE, NECESSITATE, INVOLVE, PREVENT (so that … not), MINIMISE, MAXIMISE, PRECEDE (before), FOLLOW (after) and ACCOMPANY (while, when).

It will be observed that verbs of cause-effect are particularly common. More about them is in the posts 32. Expressing Consequences and 65. Verbs that Mean “Must” or “Can”.

A major question when a conjunction is possible is why action nouns might be preferable, since they are unwieldy and very formal-sounding. Sometimes I think that professional writers do overuse action nouns at the expense of simplicity. However, one possible advantage is that, like connectors, they – or rather the verb accompanying them – allow the relation to be expressed more precisely, since conjunctions can be quite vague (see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors).

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2. Showing Links in a Text

One reason why a writer might want to say something about an action rather than just name it is that the naming has already been done in a previous sentence, like this:

(h) The heat of the sun causes moisture on the ground to evaporate. This evaporation enables clouds to form.

In such cases, the action noun is performing the secondary role of linking text parts together. More on linking by means of repetition is in the post 37. Subordination: Grammar for Good Repetition. Quite often, the repetition is helping to create a “connector synonym” (see 112. Synonyms of Connectors), showing a sentence relation like “result”. Note that this is a common partner of noun-form repetition at the start of a sentence (see 28. Pronoun Errors).

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3. Avoiding Undesirable Words

Word avoidance is a familiar concept in explanations of passive verbs, thanks to their ability to leave the subject of their active equivalent unmentioned. Verb subjects might need to be avoided for any of various reasons, such as being too informal (an especial problem with I/we/you – see 46. How to Avoid “I”, “We” and “You”), or too obvious to mention (e.g. the police arrested the culprit), or unknown (e.g. someone broke the window), or a secret.

Action nouns facilitate avoidance of undesirable subjects in the same way as passive verbs. They are particularly useful when the subject is of a verb that cannot go into the passive voice because it is either intransitive (see 113. Verbs that cannot be Passive) or already passive, as in these examples:

(i) The river flows northwards.

(j) I was interviewed in the summer.

The subject in (i) can be avoided by changing the underlined words to The flow is …, while informal I in (j) disappears with The interview took place … . In both cases, the verb is changed into its corresponding action noun (flow, interview) along with an appropriate “dummy” verb (is, took place) to keep the sentence grammatical.

At first sight, action nouns seem useful for avoiding unwanted objects as well as subjects. Consider this:

(k) The committee decided the matter (= made a decision) after three hours.

In fact, the countable noun a decision here is not strictly an “action” one, but rather an “action outcome” (see 14. Action Outcomes). Such nouns seem the norm when an object needs to be omitted. For more examples, see 39. “Decide” or “Make a Decision”?

One final point here is that subjects and objects of verbs do not have to be dropped when the verb becomes an action noun. For advice on how to keep them, see 49. Subjects of Noun Actions.

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4. Avoiding Gerund/Infinitive Choices

This benefit is illustrated in detail in the post 65. Verbs that Mean “Must” or “Can”. Verbs like FACILITATE, REQUIRE and STOP are usually followed by another verb in the to or -ing form, like this:

(l) Advanced language learners should not stop using (= use of) a dictionary.

It is not always easy to remember whether the second verb should have to or -ing. Action nouns – use in (l) – allow this decision to be avoided. Obviously, gerunds do not do the same.

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5. Expressing an Action after a Preposition

Prepositions need a noun-like expression after them – they cannot be followed by a subject and verb (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions). This means that to place an action after a preposition the only option is either an action noun or a gerund.

A preposition that actually requires an action after it is means-showing by (see 73. Saying How with “By” and “With”), as in this example:

(m) The optimum price for a commodity can be found by construction of a demand curve.

The gerund form constructing seems smoother here (it needs no following of – see 70. Gerunds), but sometimes an action noun will fit better. Action nouns are also common after for in contexts where it can express a purpose (see 60. Purpose Sentences with “for”).

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6. Avoiding a Passive Verb

The Guinlist post 27. How to Avoid Passive Verbs defends the use of passive verbs but recommends, if one really must be avoided, changing not just the passsive form, but the entire verb. One kind of alternative verb that is suggested is TAKE PLACE, the original verb becoming an action noun, as in this example:

(n) The celebration of the festival took place annually (= was celebrated annually).

Alternatives to TAKE PLACE are HAPPEN or OCCUR.

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7. Asking “How” Questions Indirectly

Indirect questions can begin with either a noun or a question word (see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing). In “how” questions, a starting noun is likely to be an action one, like this:

(o) This chapter explains demand measurement (= how to measure demand).

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PRACTICE EXERCISE (ACTION NOUNS)

Interested readers are invited to try and reword each of the following with an action noun (Answers below).

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1. When temperatures rise, clouds form (Showing a relation).

2. It is necessary to analyse how colds are spread (Asking a “how” question).

3. Forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate (Avoiding a passive).

4. Nobody likes it when they lose vital data (Talking about an action).

5. Herds of wildebeest periodically migrate across Tanzania seeking food. An amazing spectacle is created (Showing text links).

6. Workers can reduce malaria if they minimise mosquito bites (Action after by).

7. To alleviate poverty, the Government must act (Showing a relation).

8. Visual aids will help an audience to enjoy a presentation (Avoiding a gerund- infinitive choice).

9. You must not take photographs (Avoiding an unwanted subject).

10. It is important to observe changes (Talking about an action).

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Suggested Answers (Action Nouns Underlined)

1. A rise in temperatures causes the formation of clouds.

2. It is necessary to analyse the spread of colds.

3. The destruction of forests is happening at an alarming rate.

4. Nobody likes the loss of vital data.

5. Herds of wildebeest periodically migrate across Tanzania seeking food. This migration creates an amazing spectacle.

6. Workers can reduce malaria by minimisation of mosquito bites.

7. The alleviation of poverty requires Government action.

8. Visual aids will help audience enjoyment of a presentation.

9. Photography is prohibited/not allowed.

10. Observation of changes is important.

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Formal writing has numerous pairs of similar expressions that are easily confused

THE PROBLEM OF TRICKY WORD CONTRASTS

Most users of English are familiar with word pairs that are confusing because of closely similar meanings and/or spellings. A well-known example – often explained in English language coursebooks – is principle versus principal. However, many others are not found there and can remain unexplained and sometimes not even recognised.

It is these pairs of words, especially the ones that are likely to occur in professional writing, that are the focus of Guinlist posts with the above title. Other such posts besides the present one are 48. Tricky Word Contrasts 1,  81. Tricky Word Contrasts 2 and 114 Tricky Word Contrasts 3. There are also some similar posts with different titles, such as 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words,  44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs,  94. Essay Instruction Words and 129. Differences between Necessity Verbs.

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LIST OF CONTRASTS

1. TAKE PLACE versus EXIST

Consider these example sentences:

(a) Registration takes place every year in July.

(b) The Roman Empire existed for 1000 years.

The choice between the two verbs depends on the kind of noun (or noun equivalent) that is their subject. TAKE PLACE needs nouns expressing actions or events (e.g. registration, festival), while EXIST needs other subject kinds. TAKE PLACE is, in fact, similar in meaning to OCCUR and HAPPEN. Nouns expressing actions are extensively illustrated elsewhere within this blog in the posts 14. Action Outcomes and 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns.

The ability of some verbs to differ only in the kind of subject or object that they take is further discussed in the Guinlist post 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words.

Here is a confusion of the above two verbs that I once encountered:

(c) *An ethnic conflict area took place nearby.

The subject here is area, a clear candidate for EXIST. It is possible that the writer wrongly took conflict – a candidate for TAKE PLACE – as the subject instead (for advice on recognising subjects, see 12. Singular and Plural Verb Choices). It is also possible that the true subject area induced the wrong verb because it has a similar meaning to place.

One final point to note is that TAKE PLACE is not always the best choice with an action subject: the passive form of MAKE, GIVE or CARRY OUT is often preferred, e.g. a speech was given, a study is being carried out and haste must be made. For more, see 39. “Decide” or “Make a Decision”.

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2. REALISE versus EFFECT

The most usual meaning of REALISE is “appreciate” or “discover”, e.g.:

(d) New parents quickly realise the demands made by babies.

A common mistake is to think that the meaning is “make real”, or “cause to exist”. Sentence (d) does not mean that parents rush to satisfy the demands of babies! The mistake is an understandable interpretation of REAL + ISE, especially by speakers of a mother tongue where a similarly-spelt word actually has that meaning. In English, EFFECT is the verb that means “cause to exist”, like this:

(e) Change must be effected at the highest level.

Care must be taken not to confuse EFFECT with AFFECT (see 81. Tricky Word Contrasts 2).

A further cause of confusion is that REALISE can very occasionally mean the same as EFFECT, for example in the expressions realise an ambition and realise one’s assets. I suspect, however, that very few object nouns allow REALISE instead of EFFECT.

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3. GIVE ATTENTION versus PAY ATTENTION

This contrast is also mentioned in the post 123. Prepositional Verbs Containing a Noun. The example sentence given there is:

(f) Einstein gave/paid attention to the problem of gravity.

Both verbs say that Einstein’s attention was moved away from something else. GIVE suggests that this other thing was legitimate, e.g. an alternative problem in physics, while PAY suggests that it was not legitimate – Einstein was daydreaming for example.

A grammatical point to note is that GIVE allows his (or other possessive adjective) after it while PAY does not. Instead of GIVE you can also use TURN, but then you must also have his or equivalent.

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4. NOTE versus NOTICE

These verbs both need as their object something observed or perceived. However, NOTE additionally implies the communication of the observation or perception to other people (or to oneself as a note). Consider these:

(g) The author notes that the data is sparse.

(h) Astronomers noted a strange brightness in the sky.

The use in (g) says that the author explicitly mentions the point about the data; that in (h) that astronomers did not just observe the brightness – they put it on written record, or at least spoke to others about it.

In (g), notes is as much a verb of saying as of perceiving. In fact, it is a “citation” verb, introducing information from a source (see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs). NOTICE, on the other hand, is not a citation verb. If used instead of NOTE in (g), it would be communicating only an observation, not a statement from another source. There is often a suggestion of unintended observation. This helps to rule out NOTICE as a citation verb, since citations are of their nature intended.

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5. I LOOK/AM LOOKING FORWARD TO

This contrast between present simple and present continuous uses of the same verb involves rather more than the normal difference between these two “tenses”. The basic use of LOOK FORWARD TO is to characterise what is mentioned next as a desirable future. Any verb placed immediately after must have -ing (see 35. “To Do” versus “To Doing”).

I (or We) look forward to is usually addressed to a person whose cooperation is needed for the desirable future action to happen. It acknowledges this person’s power to make the action happen – in other words does not present the action as inevitable – and is hence very polite in tone. This feature makes it very useful at the end of formal letters, e.g.:

(i) We look forward to receiving the documents in due course.

Using we are looking in such situations is a common error among writers whose mother tongue is not English.

I am looking forward to takes it for granted that the desirable future action will occur. It may be chosen because the action is already arranged and depends only on the speaker:

(j) I am looking forward to my holiday next week.

With an action involving other people, I am looking forward is only possible, for the most part, in conversations with third parties who are not involved (… to hearing from our suppliers).  The only exception seems to be with an addressee who is involved in the action because they had the power to arrange it independently of the speaker, such as a politician (… to your visit).

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6. IN SEARCH OF versus IN A SEARCH FOR

While both of these involve the idea of chasing something lost, only the latter suggests a formal organised operation. Compare:

(k) The police are out in a search for the murder weapon.

(l) Socrates spent his whole life in search of Truth.

We understand here that Socrates’ search was not formally organised in the way the police one was.

The grammar of the two expressions is a good clue to their meaning. The presence of a before search in (k) marks it as countable, while its absence in (l) marks it as uncountable (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”). The difference that this makes to the meaning is the one examined in depth in the post 19. Activity Locations: uncountable search is the activity of searching, while a search is a typical context or location of such an activity. The action meaning of search is also suggested by of after it (see 31. Objects of Noun Actions).

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7. AN HOUR versus AN HOUR’S TIME

To say how long something takes, it is normally enough to use a time-period word like minute, hour, day etc. by itself, without adding the word time:

(m) The task will be completed in two days.

(n) Lectures normally take an hour.

The expression an hour’s/week’s (etc.) time means “an hour/week (etc.) from now”, and hence refers to the future (see 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings). It is normally found after in, like this:

(o) The task will be completed in two days’ time.

Sentence (m) does not necessarily say when the task will be completed, only how long it will take. However, (o) is naming the future moment of the task’s completion.

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8. TIRING versus TIRESOME

Only the first of these means “causing tiredness”. It could describe causes of either physical or mental tiredness, such as exercise or concentration. Tiresome, on the other hand, suggests diminishing patience, making it close in meaning to irritating. Typical words that it might describe include childishness, chores and complaints.

Beware of combining two similar grammatical structures into a single incorrect one

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HOW SIMILAR STRUCTURES CAN BE CONFUSED

This post is about a particular type of grammar mistake that English language learners sometimes make. It results from a confusion of two structures that are similar in their form (spelling and pronunciation) or meaning or both. The mistake will have features of the two structures, but will be an “impossible combination” (see 100. What is a Grammar Error?). As an example, in spite of and despite are spelt similarly and mean the same, but are confusing in that one needs of and the other does not. The error that many learners of English make is putting of in the wrong place, producing the incorrect combination*despite of (see 48. Tricky Word Contrasts 1).

The confusions in question here are of grammar, not meaning. Confusions of meaning are considered elsewhere within this blog in numerous posts, most notably those under the title Tricky Word Contrasts. Some of the grammar confusions presented here are also considered in other posts, but I hope that bringing them together now along with some new ones will make their general features more obvious.

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COMMON ERRORS CAUSED BY SIMILAR STRUCTURES

1.  “many” versus “many of the”

These two expressions are alternatives before a plural noun, respectively giving the noun either general or particular meaning, in the way also done by the “zero” article and the (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”). Thus, many words means a substantial number of all words, whereas many of the words means a substantial number of some specific words. The impossible combination that often arises here is *many of (e.g. *many of words). A rule warning against this might be that of after many must be followed by the.

It is not just many that this confusion can affect, but also various other quantity adjectives, including all, any, each, most, much, some and (a) few. However, and adding to the confusion, a notable exception is the majority of, a synonym of most, which always needs of, even without the.

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2. “others” versus “other people”

The plural use of other only sometimes has -s; it does not have it when the next word is a noun (like people, things, ideas or problems). The reason is that, when the next word is a noun, other is an adjective, a kind of word with no plural form in English, but by itself other is a pronoun, a kind of word that does usually have a plural form.

The ability to be used alone in a noun position without a following noun is a defining feature of pronouns. The ability to change into an adjective by being placed before a noun is a property of many but not all pronouns. It is possessed, for example, by this, her, enough and one, but not by it, theirs, who and none (see 28. Pronoun Errors). The impossible combination that the above contrast sometimes produces is *others + people (or other noun).

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3. Participle versus Relative Clause

This confusion is examined in detail in the post 52. Participles Placed Just after their Noun. Participles are verbs ending in -ing – e.g. going, including – or in -ed (or irregular equivalent) – e.g. named, known. They are often (but not always) equivalent to a longer phrase beginning with who, which or that. For example, including often equates to which include and known to who are known (-ing represents active verbs, -ed passive ones).

The intermediate form that sometimes results from these alternatives is a combination of a relative pronoun and a participle, such as *which going or *who known. The rule is that relative pronouns cannot combine with a participle. The verb after a relative pronoun must have an ordinary tense form like go(es) (present simple tense), is/are going (present continuous) or went (past simple). Note the difference between going, known (participles) and is going, are known (ordinary verbs).

To understand why a participle and a relative pronoun cannot go together, consider this:

(a) People living in glass houses should not throw stones.

The ending on a participle is a “joining device”, which means that the sentence needs another verb (30. When to Write a Full Stop). This other verb in (a), alongside living, is should not throw. The problem with adding a relative pronoun is that this kind of word is also a joining device, requiring its own extra verb, so that two extra verbs become necessary altogether. Since there is only one other verb in (a), the combination *who living would be ungrammatical.

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4. “as” + (Citation Verb) versus (Citation Verb) + “that”

Citation verbs express different kinds of saying and thinking, and link author names in a text with their reported words or ideas (see 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs).  Very often, they are accompanied by either as or that, e.g.:

(b) Jones (2013, p.78) argues THAT social benefits can assist an escape from poverty.

If as is used instead of that here, it must come before the author’s name, and it necessitates a comma after the citation verb – As Jones (2013, p.78) argues, … (see 104. Referring to Data with “as”).

The common error that these two alternatives can induce is the use of both as and that together (see 79. Grammar Problems in Quotation-Writing). This is an error for the same reason that combining a relative pronoun and a participle is (see above): it introduces too many joining devices.

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5. “keep up with” versus “cope with”

There is both a form and a meaning similarity here. Formwise, although keep and cope are not spelt so similarly, their pronunciations are the same except for one vowel (/ki:p/ versus /kəʊp/). The meaning similarity is that both involve the idea of struggle. Keep up with means struggle to do the same as another person or thing, while to cope with means struggle to control or manage someone or something. The incorrect (or non-standard) intermediate form that often results is *cope up with.

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6. “as regards” versus “with regard to”

Both of these similar-looking phrases can be used before a noun (or equivalent) to mark it as the topic of what follows. For example, instead of the word formwise near the start of the previous paragraph, one could write as regards (or with regard to) form.

The intermediate expression that one sometimes finds here is with regards to, placing -s after with instead of after as. What makes this confusion especially easy is the fact that with regards does also exist in English, but with a different meaning – conveying greetings rather than introducing a topic (see 48. Tricky Word Contrasts 1, item #9).

The reason for the variable use of -s is that as is a conjunction, so that REGARD has to be a verb, while with is a preposition, requiring a noun (see 84. Seven Things to Know About Prepositions). The verb use is singular and hence needs -s, and the noun is uncountable, and hence cannot have -s.

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7. “thanks” versus “thank you”

Familiar grammar rules determine whether or not thank needs -s. First you have to decide whether it is being used as a noun or a verb. It is a noun if we just say thanks (= I give my thanks) and in expressions like I want to say thanks. As a noun it always needs -s. This is because it is the same kind of noun as news and mathematics – a noun that is only used with -s.

Combined with you, however, thank is a verb. It does not have -s because its subject is I (or we). For -s to be necessary, its subject would have to be mentioned and be an ordinary singular like everyone (e.g. Everyone thanks you). Even in the informal expression a big thank you there is still the implied subject I or we, and hence no -s (see 12. Singular & Plural Verb Choices). The impossible combination that often seems to arise is *thanks you.

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8.“rises” versus “is rising”

More generally, this contrast is between present simple and present continuous tenses of verbs without an object (see 113. Verbs that Cannot be Passive). The intermediate form that is easily produced is *is rise (BE + base verb). To avoid it, there can be value in remembering that a verb after BE always needs an ending (unless it is irregular like PUT).

A complication is the fact that some verb spellings are also possessed by adjectives – words that can be used without an ending after BE. This is the case, for example, with CLEAR, which can equally well make clears, is clearing and is clear (though of course each has its own meaning and would be wrong if a different meaning was intended). Perhaps it is the existence of verbs like CLEAR that partly explains the problem with verbs like RISE, since there is a resultant need to remember which kind each particular verb belongs to. For a list of common verbs like CLEAR, see 66. Variable Meanings of Passive Verbs.

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Some words have alternative partner prepositions linked with different meanings

THE PROBLEM OF VARIABLE PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions that commonly accompany another word may or may not be the only possible partner of that word. In this post I wish to consider prepositions that are not the only possible partner of a word and are only chosen when that word has a particular meaning. Prepositions that are not variable in this way are discussed in an earlier Guinlist post (111. Words with their Own Preposition), which mentions such examples as devoid of, depend on and in the middle, and are further illustrated under 85: Preposition Phrases and Corresponding Adverbs. Examples from previous posts of words with a variable preposition are sorry (for/about – see 48. Tricky Word Contrasts 1) and concerned (for/about/with– see 81. Tricky Word Contrasts 2).

The main problem with partner prepositions, whether variable or not, is that they can rarely be predicted from the basic space-time meanings that prepositions have elsewhere. Most are likely to be mentioned, however, in the dictionary entry for their partner word.

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CLASSIFICATION OF WORDS WITH A VARIABLE PREPOSITION

Like words with a fixed preposition, words with a variable one can be grouped according to their grammatical class.

1. Adjectives

The two examples given above (sorry, concerned) fall into this category. The category as a whole tends, like them, to express emotions, e.g. happy, glad, pleased, delighted (all with about/for/with), angry, annoyed, furious, upset, disappointed (all with about/with) and anxious, embarrassed (both with about/for). However, there are also emotion adjectives with only one preposition: surprised, amazed and shocked (all at), interested (in), bored and satisfied (with) and worried (about) – though as passive participles these can also, when expressing an action instead of a state, have agent-showing by (see 73. Saying how with “By” and “With” and 66. Variable Meanings of Passive Verbs).

When the preposition is variable, about is usually needed with an existing situation. For example, one could be happy (or angry, concerned, embarrassed etc.) about the performance of a football team. Even the use of about before a person directs attention to a situation involving them rather than to them as people. A rare alternative to about is at.

With after positive adjectives like happy also introduces situations, but usually when the meaning is “having” rather than “seeing”. Thus one could be happy with one’s own job and happy about another person’s. However, after negative adjectives such as angry, with must instead be followed by a living cause of the emotion (e.g. angry with the government).

For usually goes with living things. After positive adjectives like happy, it shows the speaker’s satisfaction with the good fortune of whoever is being mentioned. For example, if one is happy for a newly-wed couple, one is happy that they have achieved something nice. Contrast this with happy about them, which merely shows approval of their situation, regardless of whether it is good or bad. On the other hand, after negative adjectives for seems to have a future reference: being concerned for refugees expresses a fear that something bad might happen to them, while concerned about suggests that something bad has already happened.

Other adjectives with alternative prepositions include good (at/to/for), disgusted (at/with) and responsible (to/for).

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2. Nouns

Some nouns have a partner preposition in front of them, e.g. on an occasion, while others have it after, e.g. a limit on … (see 111. Words with their Own Preposition). Variable prepositions, however, seem mainly to be of the kind that follow their noun. A few examples are mentioned elsewhere within this blog in the post 78. Infinitive versus Preposition after Nouns.

In some cases, the variability of a preposition makes a contrast between all and some of something. Consider the noun news. News of an event means that the event – all of it – is the news, whereas news about it means that the event is already known about, and the news is additional information, i.e. a part of it. Other nouns like this include ignorance, knowledge, a question, an idea, a report and a statement. Sometimes one finds on instead of about, especially after a report.

Slightly different is a theory of/about. Of suggests a much more intricate theory than about. Thus a theory of gravity is a proper scientific theory attempting to explain every aspect, whereas a theory about gravity is more like a single general belief about it.

The noun difficulty uses of before the name of the difficulty (the difficulty of curing cancer), but with before something possessing it, e.g.:

(a) The difficulty with children is that they need supervision.

The same is true of a problem. However, advantage, benefit, pleasure and value all allow only of (except after there is, which needs in), while trouble only has with.

A different type of noun with a variable preposition is of the kind derived from verbs (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns). The variability arises if the noun is able to express two different meanings, one an action and one not (see 14. Action Outcomes and 19. Activity Locations). For example, the noun receipt, which is derived from RECEIVE, can mean either “receiving” or “something written to acknowledge a purchase”. With such nouns, it is usually found that the action meaning is followed by of (receipt of visitors), the other meaning by another preposition (a receipt for goods). Full details are in the post 31. Objects of Noun Actions.

Slightly different is the action noun an increase, which shows what increases with a following of or in, regardless of whether or not an action is being expressed (see 49. Subjects of Noun Actions). The difference is in the cause of the increase: of indicates an external agent, in does not. Thus, an increase of taxes is something brought about by an agency such as a government, while an increase in taxes is vague about agency – taxes might even have increased by themselves. The former corresponds to taxes are/were increased, the latter to taxes increase(d).

The same contrast affects various synonyms and antonyms of increase, provided they have a related verb like INCREASE which can be used both with and without an object (see 4. Verbs that Don’t Have to be Passive 1). They include acceleration, expansion, improvement, intensification, cut, decrease, diminution and reduction (see 115. Interpreting Numerical Data).

A special use is found with cost and its opposite value. If we wish to say what the cost/value of something is, the preposition is of (e.g. the cost of inflation). On the other hand, the sufferer of the cost needs to (the cost to the government). This use of to is similar to that with indirect objects (see 126. Verbs with an Indirect Object).

Finally, a word has to be said about research, which can be followed by in, into or on. The first of these seems normally to show the broad subject area involved (e.g. research in biology). The other two often seem interchangeable, though perhaps into shows a more precise object of research (e.g. research on primates/into primate intelligence). It is important to remember that the related verb RESEARCH is not followed by any preposition at all (see 42. Unnecessary Prepositions).

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3. Verbs

Verbs with a partner preposition tend to be called “prepositional”. They are not to be confused with “phrasal” verbs (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs). Sometimes their meaning changes if the preposition is dropped (see 44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs). Sometimes, though, meaning changes are linked with different prepositions. The following are of interest:

AGREE with/on/to

APPLY for/to

ASK about/for

CARE for/about

FALL for/over

FEEL for/like

GET into/on/off/over

GO into/over/through/with

HEAR about/of

LEARN about/of

LISTEN for/to

LIVE for/in/through

LOOK at/after/for/round

REPORT on/to

PLAY with/at/for/on

SEE about/through

The meaning differences can be found with a dictionary (or by clicking on an indicated link). However, CARE and HEAR/LEARN deserve comment. CARE FOR means either “like” or “provide care for”. The latter does not mean “supervise” (= LOOK AFTER) but rather “cater for health needs of”. We might say, for example, that nurses care for patients. CARE ABOUT, by contrast, means “consider important”, as in care about politics.

The difference between of and about after HEAR and LEARN is the same as that after news (see above): HEAR/LEARN OF means “become aware of”, while HEAR/LEARN ABOUT means “be told something extra about a familiar matter”.

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Some English words borrowed from French are easily recognisable as such

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THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FRENCH INFLUENCE

As France is the closest non-English speaking country to Britain, the influence of the French language on English vocabulary is unsurprisingly great. The two languages do not belong to the same “family” – English is “Germanic” like other Northern European languages, while French is “Latinate” like Spanish and Italian – but their proximity to each other has ensured that inter-borrowing has been extensive. English had a particularly heavy borrowing period during approximately 300 years of rule by French-speaking kings from the year 1066 (see 45. Latin Clues to English Spelling).

In this post I am not aiming to survey the full French influence on English vocabulary, since that would be too long and much of it would probably not facilitate correct English usage. Rather, I wish to concentrate on words that give problems because they have kept some French feature instead of adjusting to accepted English practice – words like reservoir, which cannot be pronounced correctly if normal English rules are followed. Many of these words also feature in the post 29. Illogical Vowel Spellings.

One other kind of French influence that seems worth knowing about is discussed elsewhere in this blog in the post LINK: 108. Formal and Informal Words. Guinlist posts that deal with borrowings from other languages than French are 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary and 130. Formal Abbreviations.

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ENGLISH WORDS WITH NOTICEABLY FRENCH SPELLINGS

Many French spellings in English can be grouped together on the basis of a common feature that they possess. The following groups are notable:

1. Longer words ending in “-ee”

In French, the -ee ending is equivalent to English -ed on verbs after BE and HAVE – in other words it is the ending of “past” participles. As in English, when used alone or after BE it has passive meaning. Thus employee in French means “employed” or “used”. The French pronunciation of -ee sounds a little like “ay” in English. Also specific to French is the need to use -ee only with feminine nouns. The masculine equivalent has a single -e (usually with an accent: -é).

In English, the French -ee tends to be found in words of two or more syllables (it is not present in bee). It is usually pronounced /i:/. The words make no distinction between masculine and feminine, and they tend to be nouns rather than verbs. However, they still usually keep their passive meaning: an employee is “a person who has been employed”. Other examples are addressee, amputee (a person who has suffered amputation), divorcee, evacuee, examinee, internee, interviewee, nominee, payee, referee (“a person who is referred to”), returnee and refugee.

A few English words actually keep the “ay”-like French pronunciation, e.g. fiancee and negligee. The first of these also has a purely feminine meaning: its masculine equivalent is fiance (same pronunciation).

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2, Longer words ending in “-et”

This spelling is of French origin when it is pronounced /ei/ (with a silent “t”). Words that contain it usually have at least two syllables. Examples are ballet, bidet, (pronounced like bee day), bouquet (boo kay), buffet (= self-service food), cachet, chalet, ricochet, tourniquet and valet.

In a few other cases, the French ending has been anglicised so that it is pronounced in a more expected way. It is /Ət/ or /it/ in buffet (= blow sideways), casket, fillet, musket, sonnet and ticket, and /et/ (with stress) in cadet and minuet (see 86. The Pronunciation of “e” and “i”).

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3. Longer words ending in “-age”

The French pronunciation of this ending rhymes with English barge. In English, it is found in a few multi-syllable words like barrage, dressage, entourage, garage (American English only), massage, mirage and sabotage. Many more words, however, have anglicised the pronunciation so that it rhymes with bridge (not wage – apart from stage and engage). They include adage, advantage, average, bandage, bondage, cabbage, carnage, carriage, damage, dotage, forage, leverage, marriage, message, mileage, orphanage, passage, savage, stoppage, storage and village.

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4. Words ending in “-ette”

This ending means “small” in French, a meaning that is still present in English borrowings, despite not always being obvious. Relevant words include briquette, cigarette, courgette, etiquette, maisonette, palette, pipette, roulette, serviette and silhouette.

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5. Words containing “ois” or “oir”

The English pronunciation of “oi” usually rhymes with boy, as in join. In French, however, it is /w/ followed by either a short /ʌ/ vowel or a long /a:/ one. The former is used with “ois”, the latter with “oir”. English tends to follow suit (except with “oist” words like moist). Thus, bourgeois is pronounced “borzch-wuh” /bɔ: ‘žwʌ/ and reservoir is “re-zu-vwah” /’re zƏ vwa:/. Other English words like this are patois, abattoir, boudoir, memoire and repertoire.

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6. Words with “que” pronounced /k/

The already-mentioned words briquette, etiquette and tourniquet are in this category. Many others end in either -ique (with a long /i:/ vowel) or -esque. Examples of the former are antique, critique (see 114. Tricky Word Contrasts 3, point 10), mystique, oblique, physique, pique and unique. Examples of the latter are burlesque, picturesque and Romanesque. Also notable are baroque, liquor and plaque.

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7. Words beginning with “sur-”

In French, sur is a preposition meaning “on” or “over”. Most English words beginning with sur- seem to come from French and hence to have a hint of these meanings. Examples are surcharge, surface, surfeit, surmount, surname, surplus, surprise, surround, surtax, survey and survive. The underlining shows which syllable is stressed (see 125. Stress & Emphasis). In most cases, nouns stress sur- and verbs do not. Survey changes its stress according to whether it is a noun or a verb.

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8. Other spellings

The combination “eau” is found in plateau, tableau and beauty. In the first two its pronunciation (like “o” in home) is still French-like, but in the last it has changed to /ju:/. The underlined part of lieutenant is also pronounced differently in French and English – but it is still not as expected in English: /lef-/ in Britain and /lu:/ in America. The French ending -ine rhymes with seen, not mine. English words with it include aubergine, cuisine, magazine, margarine, marine and routine.

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FRENCH PHRASES IN ENGLISH

Phrases are much easier than individual words to identify as borrowings from French. English speakers quite easily associate the whole phrase with a single meaning without knowing the meanings of the individual words. The difficulty that French phrases give to learners of English is more likely to be in reading and listening than in writing and speaking.

The following are common phrases that I have been able to think of. Their pronunciations and meanings can be discovered with an English dictionary.

aide mémoire, amour propre, avant garde, bric-à-brac, cause célèbre, coup d’état, déjà vu, de rigueur, en passant, en route, fait accompli, hors d’œuvre, joie de vivre, laisser faire, nom de plume, nouveau riche, pas de deux, pièce de résistance, pot-pourri, raison d’être, tête-à-tête.

Many more examples of obviously French words and phrases can surely be found in English, but I hope that those above give a flavour of the huge impact that French has had, and will perhaps enable strange spellings like champagne to be approached with a little more understanding and confidence.

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A noun will describe another noun in at least one of numerous possible ways

HOW NOUN DESCRIPTIONS CAN VARY

It is quite common in English to find a noun placed just before another noun in order to “describe” it like an adjective. Such nouns differ from adjectives in also being able to go after the other noun with a preposition in between, without affecting the meaning. For example, police in the phrase a police notice can make the phrase a notice by (or from or even about) the police. Adjectives, by contrast, cannot be repositioned like this: the adjective-noun phrase an important notice can only be reordered by adding that is in between, rather than a preposition (see 38. Nouns Used like Adjectives).

The preposition in a paraphrase of an adjective-like noun identifies the particular type of description that is being given. It comes not from the meaning of either noun, but from the two nouns being placed together, rather as inter-sentence meaning is created by placing two full sentences together (see 18. Relations between Sentences). A surprisingly wide variety of prepositions is found in the paraphrases of different adjective-like nouns. In this post I wish to illustrate this variety, and to identify some major categories into which the examples seem to fall.

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THE NEED TO EXAMINE PREPOSITION MEANINGS

Numerous different prepositions are needed to paraphrase even a small sample of adjective-like nouns. Coffee cups becomes cups for coffee, whereas The Nile Delta means the Delta of the Nile. However, simply listing description types as different prepositions gives a problem: single prepositions do not always mean the same thing. For example, The Nile Delta and water management are both paraphrased with of (the Delta of the Nile and management of water), but of is understood very differently.

Much more helpful is to ask what exactly the preposition means in each case, making use where necessary of its dictionary entry. Thus, for in cups for coffee means “for the purpose of” – in other words, it signals a “function” (as defined in the Guinlist post 119. BE before a “to” Verb). Analysing of, we see that Delta is a part of The Nile, but water is the object of management.

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MAJOR TYPES OF DESCRIPTION BY NOUNS

A fairly comprehensive list of description types in terms of preposition meanings is similar to, but not the same as, the types of meaning expressible with possessive nouns (see 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings). This is hardly surprising given the frequency with which possessive nouns can be replaced by adjective-like ones without much change of meaning.

Readers might be interested, before seeing the description types listed below, to try and predict them from a random list of common paired nouns. Which preposition meanings are illustrated in the following?

a mathematics workshop, water management, the greenhouse effect, the London Underground, Pineapple Studios, customer accounts, rain drops, the flu virus, an ocean current, BBC programmes, electricity generation, a table leg, weekend work, a research method, a chocolate soufflé, sun rays, computing equipment, a 1000-word essay, criminal activity, a summer school, bank accounts, road works, market forces, an admissions policy, the Education Department, a Beatle haircut, weather conditions.

The meanings illustrated by this list are as follows. Others probably exist too.

1. Function

Besides coffee cups, examples are a research method, computing equipment, an admissions policy, citation verbs and a bicycle chain. This last could also go under “component holder” (see below) if the chain is actually on a bicycle.

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2. Location

The London Underground means “the Underground in London” – obviously a statement about “where” the Underground is located. This meaning is likely to exist in most phrases whose first noun is a place name with a capital letter, and in many other phrases too. Further examples are The New York Times, The Amazon Rain Forest, ocean currents, a university library and a street party. For advice in such cases on choosing the article – a(n), the or “zero” – see 47. Article Errors with Proper Nouns.

Sometimes a place adjective is preferred to a noun, for example when naming a country or continent (The French Riviera, Asian countries). Note also that place nouns without a capital letter can often be classified in a different way. For instance, if library books are not actually in a library, the classification might be “source” (see below). Other ambiguous examples are bank accounts, BBC programmes, market forces and road works.

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3. Time When

The first noun here will represent a point or period in time, e.g. a summer school and weekend work above. Relevant prepositions are in, at or on. Other examples are a day job, a December edition, twentieth-century wars, the midday sun and Sunday traffic.

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4. Measurement

A 1000-word essay illustrates this category. The paraphrasing preposition is usually of or with. A number before the first noun seems necessary. Other examples are a two-hour meeting, a 30-cm ruler, 100-degree temperatures, a five-litre flask and a four-door saloon.

If the first noun is a time expression without a number word, a possessive noun seems more likely (an hour’s delay, a moment’s hesitation).

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5. Source

The relevant preposition here is from (sometimes by – see 49. Subjects of Noun Actions). Illustrative phrases above are BBC programmes, sun rays and market forces; the first nouns all show where the things represented by the second nouns come from. There is a similarity to the meaning of “actor” (see below). The difference is that actors go with second nouns expressing actions, like movement and activity, rather than people or things (for more about “action” nouns, see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns).

Other examples with the “source” meaning include government policies, Tata Steel, Picasso paintings, media voices and (sometimes) library books. However, not all sources are expressed with an adjectival noun. Individual people’s names are often possessive (Down’s Syndrome, Halley’s Comet, Pythagoras’s Theorem), while elsewhere adjectives seem preferred if they exist (French wines, national sentiment).

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6. Actor

The paraphrasing preposition here is by. As mentioned above, the second noun must be of the “action” kind. If it was changed into the corresponding verb, the first noun would be its subject. This is the case above with criminal activity. Similar phrases are newspaper reaction, manufacturer advice, child development, consumer preferences and water outflows.

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7. Object

Sometimes, when the second noun is of the “action” kind, the first noun will be affected by the action rather than initiating it. In other words, if the second noun had been a verb, the adjective-like one would have been its grammatical object. Examples from the list above are water management, electricity generation and possibly road works.

Object-naming first nouns seem particularly to have “generic” meaning – not linked to a particular time (see 89. Using “the” with General Meaning). For example water management indicates water in general. With particular water, we might instead use of (see 31. Objects of Noun Actions) or an apostrophe ending (the water’s management – see 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings).

Object-naming first nouns can accompany not just action nouns but also people types who perform particular actions, as in car owners, cabinet maker, film director and football supporter. Again, generic meaning seems normal – though non-generic may be possible too (the car owner = the car’s owner).

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8. Component Holder

After a noun with this meaning, the relevant component is named. Examples above are The Nile Delta and a table leg. Ocean currents and a bicycle chain could be too, if not classified elsewhere. The associated preposition is usually of, sometimes in. Other examples are car parts, dictionary entries, grammar rules and team members.

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9. Component

Here the component precedes its owner, with no hint of function or focus. The example in the list above is chocolate soufflé. The associated preposition is with. Other examples are colour photographs, salt solutions and flatscreen TVs.

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10. Characteristic Holder

The second noun here is a situation or property of the first. It is illustrated above by weather conditions, the associated preposition being of. Further examples are sea temperature, adrenaline levels, brain disease and object size.

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11. Focus

This kind of first noun shows the focus of what follows it. Typical prepositions are on or about. Examples above are a mathematics workshop and the Education Department. Other examples are a sugar tax, usage statistics, water engineers, phrase books and a literature essay.

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12. Material

Before a second noun naming an object, the first says what it is made of, e.g. rain drops above. The preposition is of. Other examples are a plastic pipe, ice cubes and slate rooves.

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13. Cause/Effect

The first noun names a cause or effect of what the second represents. In the flu virus above, flu is an effect, but in the refugee problem, refugee is a cause. The associated preposition is of.

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14. Name

This category is illustrated above by Pineapple Studios. The first noun is nothing more than a name – its meaning does not define the other noun in any other way. If the two nouns are reversed, one might add named after (named for in American English). Other examples are The Apollo Theatre and The Eiffel Tower.

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15. Comparison

This meaning is illustrated above by the greenhouse effect (“the effect like that of greenhouses”) and a Beatle haircut (“a haircut like that of the Beatles”). The relevant preposition is like. Other examples are wrestler arms, butterfly stitches, boxer shorts, demon drivers and dagger looks.

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Some English words can only be understood fully by knowing how they fit into English culture

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HOW CULTURE CAN UNDERLIE ENGLISH WORDS

Sometimes the full meaning of a word cannot be clear unless you are familiar with the culture that gave rise to it.  By “culture” I mean the non-universal knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and practices of a particular group. The English language has numerous words that are linked to the culture of its originators. For example, the word stumped meaning “unable to find an answer” is actually borrowed from the game of cricket, where it refers to a situation that would need pages to explain here. You do not need to know cricket in order to use and understand the non-cricket meaning of stumped, but such knowledge does help a deeper understanding.

In this post I wish to present a wide range of words that strongly reflect English culture, explaining not just their meanings but also the cultural background. “English” should be understood as all of the cultures of so-called “core” English-speaking countries – Britain, Ireland, The USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – but quite often it will be British culture in particular that is the focus. Further information about specifically English writing practices is in the Guinlist post 59. Paragraph Length. For influences of other cultures on English, see The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary and 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary.

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CATEGORIES OF ENGLISH CULTURAL WORDS

Cultural words tend to fall into categories. The following seem to be particularly important.

1. Geographical

Many place names are cultural, since their users are normally thinking of special features of the places rather than just the places alone. For example, the home counties in Britain are more than just an area around London: counties are large local government areas, while home hints at the importance of London. In the USA, the Mid-West suggests a certain type of terrain, climate and people, while in New Zealand North Island probably suggests population and warm summers.

Geographical expressions can also represent types of places. A particularly cultural one is leafy suburbs: you have to understand that English speakers like trees, so that suburbs with them are considered desirable and hence tend to attract the rich. Green belts are similar: not just areas where building is restricted around a city, but leafy and wealthy. Very often they neighbour a stockbroker belt, an exclusive residential area popular with stockbrokers, who tend to be very rich.

Inner cities are the reverse: run-down places near a city centre where poorer people tend to be concentrated. Poorer people also often live on council estates, a British name for social housing (councils, which manage them, are the main British units of local government). Industrial areas are also viewed negatively: despite the benefits of industry, its environmental costs influence many people’s attitudes. More on positive- and negative-sounding words is in the Guinlist posts 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words and 106. Word-Like Suffixes.

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2. Political

Every English-speaking country tends to have some political terms that are unique to it. Unfamiliarity with them can easily hinder newspaper-reading. American Congress and British Parliament are parallel but not equivalent, while Britain and the USA have different understandings of counties and Attorney General.

Peculiarly British political terms that I have needed to explain to students include backbenchers, constituencies, party whips, white papers, council tax, safe seats, peers, Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Budget, Downing Street, The Speaker and The Queen’s Speech. In the USA, important terms include The White House, primaries, party conventions, running mates, federal laws, senators and governors.

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3. Educational

This area is full of the abbreviation type called acronyms (see 130: Formal Abbreviations). Although not all acronyms are cultural (cf. NATO), many in education are. In Britain, they include SATs, GCSEs, A’ Levels, EFL (AmE = ESL), IELTS (TOEFL), BA, MD, RE, FE, HE, OU and OFSTED. The opposition between FE (Further Education) and HE (Higher Education) can be particularly challenging.

Other interesting expressions are public schools (private and expensive in Britain, state-run and accessible in America), comprehensive schools, grammar schools (the most academic British type – the name, I am sure, part of the reason why many Britons are slightly intimidated by grammar), sixth form (the last two years – sixth and seventh – of British secondary education), year 7 (first year of secondary school), half-term, eleven-plus, form tutors and prefects. The Harry Potter novels by JK Rowling give useful insights into the workings of elite British schools.

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4. Sporting

Stumped, of course, falls into this category. Its sporting meaning is cultural because not every culture is familiar with cricket. Its second meaning, “unable to find an answer”, is metaphorical (see 7. Metaphorical Meanings). Many other sporting terms also have a metaphorical second meaning whose full understanding depends on familiarity with the sport. Readers are invited to decide the sport (or game) and the metaphorical meaning of each of the following (answers below): hit the bullseye, field questions, score an own goal, kick off, trumped, a pawn, a scrum, catch up, caught out, jockeying, a close call, a knockout blow.

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5. Religious

No major religion is exclusive to English-speaking countries. However, the main one found there, Christianity, has contributed some words to English that learners from non-Christian cultures can struggle with (for some other religious influences on English, see 62. Choices with Capital Letters). Like words from sport, most from Christianity have a metaphorical meaning as well as their basic religious one.

Take anoint. Literally it means “apply ointment to the skin”. In Christianity, this action is associated with desirable religious changes in the recipient, for example the change from non-Christian to Christian. In the metaphorical use, the idea of putting someone into a desirable new state remains. A common usage is in business, where a leader might “anoint” someone by naming them as their future successor.

Other fundamentally religious words, with their metaphorical meanings, include gospel (“unquestioned principle”), worship (“like very much”), sacrosanct (“not to be criticised or treated disrespectfully”), sanctimonious (“excessively self-assured”), sanctuary (“place of rest and solitude”), religiously (“conscientiously”), sins (“mistakes”), to bless (“sanction; approve”), a baptism of fire (“difficult beginning”), biblical (“like something in The Bible”), hierarchy (“group members ranked according to importance”), and sacrifice (“rejection of something desirable for a higher purpose”).

I was once asked to explain the meaning of sanctified in a text about product branding. It felt a strange use to me, but I quickly saw that it meant “given special or permanent status”. The strangeness, I discovered, came from the fact that the text was actually a literal translation from French (the writer Bourdieu). I guessed that the meaning of sanctified is a common religious metaphor in French, unlike in English.

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6. Zoological/Botanical

Animal and plant names can be associated with a particular culture either in themselves (the animal or plant originating where the culture is located), or through being used in a special metaphorical way by that culture. The former kind are often not a problem for learners of English: concepts like bear, kangaroo, kiwi, maple tree, rattlesnake and sheepdog tend to be known all over the world. Lesser-known ones might include shire horse, daisy, bluebottle and midge.

Metaphorical usages can involve creatures from outside the English-speaking world as well as within. Guinea pigs are South American, but they are also “people or things being tested experimentally”. Also notable are a can of worms (“rich source of potential problems”), cats’ eyes (headlamp reflectors on a road), to fox (someone) (“trick”), a hornets’ nest (“a potentially dangerous situation”), to squirrel (something) away (“hide for future use”), beavering away (“working hard”), to grasp the nettle (“initiate an unpleasant task”), weasel words (“evasive answers”), make hay (“maximally utilise an opportunity”), the lion’s share (= the majority) and eagle-eyed (“very observant”).

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Metaphorical Meanings of Sport Words

hit the bullseye (archery or darts) = achieve the best target, field questions (cricket) = deal with numerous questions from different sources, score an own goal (soccer) = hurt your own interests, kick off (soccer, rugby) = begin, trumped (cards) = defeated by a better move, a pawn (chess) = an unimportant person used by others, a scrum (rugby) = crowd members fighting each other for the same thing, catch up (running) = rejoin leaders after falling behind, caught out (baseball, cricket) = exposed as having acted dishonestly, jockeying (horse-racing) = competing for the best position, a close call (tennis) = a small distance from disaster, a knock-out blow (boxing) = a winning move.

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Take a short test to measure and increase command of common grammar difficulties

WHAT IS “COMMAND” OF GRAMMAR?

This post is based on a grammar test that I once composed for an end-of-year university exam – identifying and correcting deliberate grammar errors in a written paragraph. Readers are invited to try the test for themselves, and then read through the answers and their explanations. Most of the errors are also mentioned in other parts of this blog; they are repeated here in order to advertise those other parts or provide useful reminders of their content.

The word “command” in the title above has been preferred to “knowledge”. It covers not just knowledge of grammar rules but also skill in their use. Knowledge alone of foreign language grammar rules is known to be insufficient for avoiding grammar errors from the fact that most people who spend a lot of time and energy acquiring it through memorisation still often make mistakes when they get into real communication.

A paragraph full of grammar errors is not as effective as real communication for testing grammar command, but at least it is better than mere questions about rules. Guidance on recognising grammar errors can be found within this blog in the post 100. What is a Grammar Error?. More common errors are listed on the Common Errors page.

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THE TEST PARAGRAPH

The paragraph below has errors of grammar and punctuation. The latter are included because they are best explained with grammar rules. A corrected version of the paragraph is provided at the end of the post.

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CORRECTION AND ANALYSIS OF THE ERRORS

The paragraph contains 24 deliberate errors. I was amazed that my computer’s WORD program only underlined one of them in blue as potentially wrong (for more on this problem with computers, see 68. How Computers Get Grammar Wrong 1). Readers who manage to recognise and suitably correct at least 18 of the errors with very few unnecessary changes probably possess a good command of grammar.

1. why is coal

The verb is here needs to follow its subject coal. The reason is that the question is indirect: unlike direct ones, it does not allow any part of the verb to be before its subject (see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing).

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2. electricity source

Add an before these paired nouns. Three rules explain why it is needed: (a) the article before paired nouns is determined by the second of them (source), since the first is merely describing it like an adjective (see 38. Nouns Used Like Adjectives); (b) if the second noun is singular and countable (as source is), it must have either a(n) or the (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”); and (c) a(n) is the right choice if the meaning of the whole phrase is “generic” – lacking reference to a particular time (see 89. Using “the” with General Meaning).

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3. is easily

Change the adverb easily into the adjective easy. With is (or other form of BE) there must be an adjective, noun or time/place adverb. Manner adverbs like easily are only possible alongside an adjective or noun (e.g. is easily the best). For details of adverbs, see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs.

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4. several … advantage

Add -s to the countable noun advantage: the vague number word several can only accompany countable plural nouns.

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5. it’s cheapness

Remove the apostrophe. The required meaning is “of it”, but it’s means “it is”. This is an extremely common error even among speakers whose mother tongue is English.

The probable reason why the apostrophe is so often incorrectly added is that a common meaning of apostrophes – that of possession (see 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings) – is being expressed. The reason why no apostrophe is possible is that its is an adjective, not a noun; only nouns can have apostrophes. Other adjectives that carry the meaning of possession are my, his, her, their, your and our.

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6. it is readily available

Change to its ready availability – a noun phrase instead of a subject-verb statement. The reason is that it is linked by and to a preceding noun phrase (its cheapness), the rule being that expressions linked by and must all have the same grammatical form as the first (see 93. Good and Bad Lists).

Note how changing the adjective available into the noun availability also requires readily, an adverb, to become the adjective ready. This is because adverbs describe verbs or adjectives but not nouns (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs).

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7. etc.

Delete this and insert and after cheapness. An example-showing meaning has already been expressed by such as. Having etc. as well is an example of unnecessary repetition (see 24. Good and Bad Repetition).

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8. however

This should start a new sentence and have a comma after it. The reason is the following verb is, which cannot be in the same sentence as the previous one (also is) because new verbs need new sentences, unless they have a joining device (see 30. When to Write a Full Stop). However looks like a joining device but is not; it is a “connector” instead (see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors).

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9. to recommend

Change to of recommending. Although possible can be followed by a to verb, possibility cannot (see 78. Infinitive versus Preposition after Nouns).

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10. is that,

Remove the comma. The conjunction that cannot be followed by one except in special circumstances (see 50. Right and Wrong Comma Places).

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11. produce

Change to singular produces so as to agree with the singular subject coal (see 12. Singular and Plural Verb Choices).

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12. to heat

Delete to. A verb after MAKE has no to except when MAKE is passive (see 10. Words that Aren’t Used as Expected 1).

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13. in addition

This is a connector like however (see 7 above), and should be corrected in the same way.

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14. so difficult

Change so to very. It is normally used only when the strength of the adjective is expected to be already known by the hearer (see the footnote in 98. “Very”, “Much” and “Very Much”). Here, the writer is informing the reader of the strength of something difficult.

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15. because of

Remove of: it is possible only when the reason after it is expressed purely by a noun or noun equivalent (see 72. Causal Prepositions and 61. “Since” versus “Because”). Here the wording of the reason is a statement with a verb (is), necessitating the conjunction because.

An alternative correction is to keep of and reword the reason as a noun equivalent (because of its great bulk). However, this would necessitate similar rewording of the two other reasons in the list. Removing of is easier.

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16. is very bulky

Add it before is. Verbs need a subject after an English conjunction, except when the conjunction is of the “coordinating” kind (see 36. Words Left Out to Avoid Repetition). The conjunction present here (because) is not of this kind.

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17. harm

Change to singular harms so as to agree with the singular subject it (see 12. Singular and Plural Verb Choices).

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18. the workers,

Remove the comma. It precedes a relative pronoun (who) that defines which workers are meant. So-called “defining” relative pronouns cannot have a preceding comma (see 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas). Normally there would be no later comma either (after extracting it), but another reason for a comma – being just before and – exists here.

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19. extracting

Change to extract. Any verb linking with which needs an ordinary tense form, here either are extracting (present continuous) or extract (present simple). To understand why, see 133. Errors that Combine Similar Structures. Extracting is not an ordinary tense form, but a participle or gerund (see 52.Participles Placed Just after their Noun).

It is better to have extract than are extracting because the reference is to all times, not a particular one.

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20. limited

Add it is just before. As in 19, there is a need for an ordinary tense form (again present simple), this time in the passive voice. Limited by itself with passive meaning is a participle.

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21. the electricity’s generation

Remove the. It cannot go with either of the following nouns because they are both uncountable with generic meaning. Such nouns normally take the “zero” article” (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”).

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22. electricity’s generation

Remove –’s. Although it is often possible on the first of two paired nouns (see 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings), it is not here. The reason is the particular kind of noun pair: the second noun expressing an action of which the first is the object. In such cases, –’s is likely if the first noun has specific reference (meaning particular electricity at a particular time), and not likely otherwise (for electricity in general).  The meaning here is electricity in general. For more, see “object” in 136. Types of Description by Nouns).

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23. the others

Remove -s. Other here is an adjective (it “describes” the following noun energy source). Adjectives cannot have -s. Other can only have -s when it is not an adjective – when there is no following noun. In such cases it is a pronoun, and with plural meaning needs -s (see 133. Errors that Combine Similar Structures).

24. source

Add -s. To avoid this very common error, it may help to remember that a noun after one of must be plural. The reason is that one of is not the same as one. The singular noun implied by one is not the noun after of, but instead an unmentioned one before it, the meaning being “one (source) of the sources”.

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THE CORRECTED PARAGRAPH

If the above paragraph is corrected in the ways suggested above, it would read as follows. Alternative corrections may sometimes be possible.

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In considering why coal is still used as an electricity source, it is easy to recognise several major advantages, such as its cheapness and its ready availability. However, there is no possibility of recommending it. The most important reason is that coal produces harmful gases, especially carbon dioxide, that make the earth’s atmosphere heat up. In addition, it is very difficult to transport because it is very bulky, it harms the workers who extract it, and it is limited in supply. There would be much more benefit if electricity generation used one of the other energy sources, such as the sun.