The Way The English Ask Questions

I asked my Tamil pupil to bring a dictionary and she brought Danish-English because she lived in Denmark. Most disconcerting. Like the Japanese living in Wales speaking with Welsh accents.

Yesterday had an interesting conversation about language with other friends.
The Tamil language pre-dates Sanskrit and Tamils say it is the oldest language (at least in India). The Tamils speaking in English say, What I can do for you?

QUESTIONS
In English, we reverse the subject and verb to indicate a question. My Tamil speaker thought that was superfluous and asked why it was necessary if you already have a question word at the start of the sentence.

I admit it is easier in any language, for children and foreigners, just to stick the question word in front of a sentence. I think the Malaysian language does the same.

I tried to justify English. I maintained, "Using two ways of expressing the negative makes the sentence clearer, especially if you only switch on and start listening mid-sentence and miss the first word."

The extra way of showing the sentence is a question is also helpful to listeners when the speaker is on radio or TV with a large audience or when you have an audience of one speaking to foreigners or those hard of hearing.

Why English Teachers Are Important

A friend sent me this, copied from the Internet.

I read a longer version of something similar, if I remember rightly, in a New Zealand newspaper, which took the letters, originally written in the previous century, from a recently published book.

The New Zealand version showed two letters from a girl whose parents had told her to write a letter breaking off with her sweatheart. Before she posted the letter she added a last comment - Read every other line - which reversed the meaning. The young women eloped with her sweetheart and they settled in Australia.


Why English Teachers Are Important:

The Words are the same. Only the punctuation changes...

Dear Thomas, I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men.I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours? Maria <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Dear
Thomas,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men,I  yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours,

Maria

An amusing letter, illustrating the use of commas, paragraphs, spacing, changes the meaning. Apparently it was a real letter. 

Start with a capital letter

   I teach English. I receive a lot of emails from strangers. Many are sales letters. I live with an invisible hat on my head labelled 'English teacher'.

   If I can't see any other way of identifying one sex-mad writer from another, I have a marginal preference for people who start a sentence with a capital letter.

   Most people grasp this around the age of nine. At least the ones I teach do.

   Obviously some of the people on the Internet have different skills and talents. I looked at some profiles on the Internet earlier. Many of them admit: 'Don't know what to write.' 'Can't be bothered to write.'

   In recent years the UK education system went for the philosophy that spelling and grammar are not important. Now teachers, employers and government policy-makers find that there is a rocketing percentage of people who cannot read or write at all.

When I employ a plumber or electrician, I want a quotation (money, not words) in writing. 

A sentence starts with a capital letter. Sentences were not born with capital letters. Capital letters to start and full stops to end were for the benefit of printers and readers. In the early days of literacy, when not everybody could read, before universal free education,storytellers would read aloud. Even Dickens was reading aloud to audiences. 

Nowadays reading aloud is a novelty. 

Early writing, still in Arabic and Hebrew, starts on the right. Your right hand would naturally start on the writer. If you are writing in slate or wax that is fine. But if you are writing in pen and ink your hand smudges what you have just written. So the direction of writing was changed.

   Universities are complaining that graduates are turning in theses which are not fit to print. You have to start with the basics. Construct a sentence well and you can focus on your meaning and aim in life and convey it to the reader.

   In my opinion if you want to convey that you are a reliable person, then a sentence starting with a capital letter is a good start.


Angela Lansbury, author and English tutor

Irishisms, Americanisms, Essexisms

IRISH, AMERICAN & ESSEX (TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH) by Angela Lansbury 

 As I sat at the Toastmasters International convention at the Marriott Hotel in Plymouth, I wrote down some of the puzzling things said by speakers from Ireland, America and Essex in England. I understood what they said, but on a time lapse, as if a translator was sitting inside my head. 

 IRISH 

OO and EW

The noose letter (the newsletter) 

CONFUSING PAUSES

Art tickles (articles) 

Real eyes (realize)

S and Z 

All of Oz (Nothing to do with Australia. All of us.) 

Summer temps (some attempts) 

U AND O

Motch effort (much effort) A good whale (a good while) 

Don (done) 

Be for us (before us) 

Fur gutton (forgotten) 

T and TH
Using boat (using both) 

Shame us (Seamus) 

Lauren (learn) 

E AND I

Tin projects (ten projects) 

OMITTED PAUSES

Forrit (for it) 

S and SH

Shoes (choose)

T and TH

I have two tank (I have to thank) 

Resolts are start in two cummin (results are starting to come in) 

Dis strict governor (not this strict governor but District Governor) 

No vem burr (November) 

O and U

Shore victory (sure victory - the British would say shoe-err) 

UNNECESSARY PAUSE

You nanny mouse lee (unanimously) 

I’d just like two tank (I’d just like to thank) 

T and TH

Tree cold governors (three gold governors?) 

O and U

En-shored (ensured / insured?) 

Americanisms (translated into English) 

Opper – tune – itty (opportunity) 

Essex / cockney (translated into English) 

MISSING G

Work in hard at market in (working hard at marketing) 

Up and run in (up and running)

EXTRA PAUSE
Work in up (working up) 

MISSING T

Extremely sure (extremely short) 

-ends- copyright Angela Lansbury

Why English Teachers Are Important - Punctuation in Letters

Somebody sent me this picked up from the Internet.

The Importance of P

unctuation
Dear Thomas,

 I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men.I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart. I can be forever happy--will you let me be yours?
Maria <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

 Dear Thomas, I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men,I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we're apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours,

Maria

It sounds to me like part of or a variation on a letter sent by a New Zealand girl to her lover a century or two ago.

Her parents told her to write a letter to her suitor to tell him never to see her again. She did. But before posting it she added the postscript: Read every other line.
The letter said that she could not live without him and would join him.
She did and they were married.
This proves that punctuation and the use of English can change the meaning of one sentence or a whole page, and it can change your life for the better.

CONTENTS A to Z of English made Easy Grammar, Pronunciation and Spelling

CONTENTS

Books by Angela Lansbury

a  Adjectives and adverbs Avoid and prevent Americanisms A and The Anaphora anyway Australian words Aesop encyclopedia

b Silent B comb

c Can and may Capitalization Chinese intonation Commas Colons Comparatives Conditional CE pronounced S palace 

d ed past did, said, walked, talked

e ed, past eraser every day and everyday

f First floor fortnight French accents and intonation French words Full stops Future

G German words and names German sentence structure Grammar Greek silent g gnome

h silent h night homophones He, she and it

i I before E Indian Intonation Irish accents I in the middle of a word sailor

j Japanese intonation

k silent k know King's English kids

l Latin singular and plural medium media Single l in American spelling looking forward, looking forwards lay and lie

m May and can Many and few metaphor Me and mine More or less Momentarily Might and may My one

n silent n damn

o one, done clone Oxford English

p Pants, underpants Past and present Past participle Positive words Prevent and avoid pants Pronunciation success tortoise Proper Names The USA

q Queens English Questions QU

r Rhetoric rubber

s Self  Sentence structure SVO SOV She Shells Silent letters Simile Singlish Slang Spelling Spoonerisms She sells s in 3rd person singular 

t The and A The office, pen, president, queen Thongs Toastmaster toastmaster's Toastmasters twice

u Us and we underpants

v Berbs v in plurals (scarf, scarves)

w We and us Who What When Where Why Welcome

x X-ray Xmas

y You and me and you and I End of a word honey

z Zed and zoo Z and s in spelling

1 Avoid and prevent grammar errors
2 I did it myself.
3 You, me, him, and us
4 Me and me, His, hers and theirs, him and them
5 Mine and yours
6 If I were you, I'd check the grammar.
7 Owing to a lot of mistakes, which are due to ...
8 Numbers of errors have been counted
9 You might have made an error. You may improve.
10 You can leave but you may not.

1 Avoid and Prevent
Avoid people who make mistakes and try to prevent them doing so.
You avoid physical things which are already there such as obstacles in the road by driving around them. Pre means before. To prevent is to go before, to stop something happening.
A policeman who avoids the accident when somebody is trying to wave him down will not be popular. A policeman who prevents accidents will be very popular and might get a medal.

2 I and Myself
Myself is used when the word I has already been used. I did it myself. I did it to myself. I wanted him to give it to me.

You should not need to say I, personally, or I myself. That just sounds clumsy and longwinded. I  myself is used for emphasis. However, you are using words unnecessarily, to delay.

3 You and I
I is the subject. Me is the object (usually ending the sentence).
A sentence will start with I or you, or you and I.
Sentences start with the subject I you (singular) he she it we you (plural) they.
A sentence can end with me.
Sentences end with the object which starts or ends with the letter m - him, them, me - or us.
I give a book to them. He will do it for you and me, but not for them.
Strictly speaking, you should say, he is better than I am at running, not he is better than me.
US
They give a book to us. You never start a sentence with the word us.
The queen starts a speech with the words My husband and I. She never starts me and my husband.

4 I shall tell you about Me and My Book
Me refers to a person. My means the possession of something. Give my book to me. (You would not say give me book to me.)
Objects of sentences: him, them. Give it to him. Give it to them. Start a sentence with Those girls (not them girls). These are here near me and those are over there.

5 Mine
Mine, not my one. Yours not your one. Why waste words? Don't use two when one will do.

6 If I were you ...
If I were rich. 'I was' is past tense. If I were is future possible.

7 Owing starts a sentence. It means because of.
Due to means caused by and always appears in the middle of a sentence linking two phrases or sentences. Event a is caused by event b. You cannot started a sentence with caused by.

8 The bible says many are called but few are chosen. Many and few apply to countable numbers.
Amounts are piles of uncountable things such as sugar and sand. Amounts have to be weighed.
You have many books. But a large amount of sugar.

9 Might implies lower chance than may (I might go), or past uncertainty (he might have done it), or no chance at all (Pigs might fly).

Might is also the past tense of may. I may go if it’s sunny, I might have gone but it rained.

Some good sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv162.shtml
http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/may.html
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=19873

Google will give you many more of interest.

For authoritative answers try the main dictionaries. Some dictionaries give uses of words under the entry for that word. Others have a grammar section at the front or back of the book.

10 Can and may
You can leave but you may not.
Can means it is physically possible. May grants you permission.
Please may I leave the table.
In legal documents such as contracts and by-laws on notice boards you will see may used correctly.