Some Grammatical Problems : Answered by Fadzilah Amin

Grammatical problem

I would appreciate it if you could explain the following:

1. June informed that there was/were no reply from Maggie after she called/had called three times on yesterday/this morning/March 7. (May I know what tense is suitable for the above tense?)

2. The Loan Agreements has taken/has already taken by the ABC Bank’s dispatch boy.
3. The Loan Agreement was taken by the ABC Bank’s dispatched boy this afternoon. (May I know in questions 2 and 3, which tense is correct if I mention the date?)
4. All the necessary documents has been/have been executed. – MOE Chinese reader

1. The correct sentence should read: “June said that there had been no reply from Maggie after she called three times yesterday/this morning/on 7 March.” The original sentence had a past reporting verb “informed”. But this is a transitive verb that needs an object, and there was no object in the original sentence, so I changed the verb to “said”. Since the reporting verb is in the simple past tense, the verb after that must go one step backwards in time and be in the past perfect tense. Hence the first part of the sentence: “June said that there had been no reply from Maggie ...” (If there was an object after “informed”, you could say, for example: “June informed her manager that there had been no reply from Maggie ...”) In the second part of the sentence, there is no need to use another past perfect verb, since the word “after” makes clear that June’s three calls must have been made before she said they had not been answered. So the simple past tense is used. Also, we don’t use “on” before “yesterday” or “this morning”, only before a date; and there is no need to name the year of the calls, since it is clear that they were made recently.

2. You wanted to use a passive present perfect verb here, but you made two errors in your verb. The first error is to use a plural subject “the Loan Agreements” with a singular verb “has”. The second error is to leave out the “be” verb that should be added to make a passive verb. Also, it is better to say “the despatch boy from the ABC Bank” instead of using an apostrophe “s” after “the ABC Bank”, since the Bank here is not regarded as a group of people. As for “already”, you may leave it out or use it if you want to emphasise that the Loan Agreements have indeed been taken. The corrected sentence would then read: “The Loan Agreements have (already) been taken by the dispatch boy from ABC Bank.”

3. If you want to mention a specific time, like a date or a time of day, you should use the simple past tense, as you have done here. But you have made a mistake in the second half of the sentence in using “dispatched boy” instead of “dispatch boy”. The corrected sentence should read: “The Loan Agreement was taken by the dispatch boy from ABC Bank this afternoon.”

4. The correct sentence is: “All the necessary documents have been executed.” The noun in the subject (“documents”) is plural and must agree with the first auxiliary verb (“have”) in the passive present perfect verb “have been executed”.

Past tense 1. Please comment on these sentences. a. Thomas: Jane, have you had your breakfast? Jane: Yes, I have/had already. If the answer is had, is had the past tense of have?

b. Jane: Have you eaten? Thomas: Yes, I have/had eaten.

2. Is this sentence correct: “I send my brother to work and pick him after 5pm every day. – Lydia

1. Both questions are in the present perfect tense, using the verbs “have had” and “have eaten” respectively. The short answers to each of those would only use the auxiliary (helping) verb “have” with no “already”. The dialogues then would be as follows:

a. Thomas: Jane, have you had your breakfast? Jane: Yes, I have. b. Jane: Have you eaten?
Thomas: Yes, I have. If the question is in the simple past tense, the short answer would also use the auxiliary verb, in this case, “did”: Thomas: Did you eat breakfast this morning, Jane? Jane: Yes, I did.
2. You should say: “I take/drive my brother to work and fetch him after 5pm every day.” When you send something or someone somewhere, you don’t go with that thing or person. For example, you can send a parcel by post to a friend in another town, or you can send your son to study abroad. In these cases, only the parcel and the boy go somewhere: you don’t accompany them. Also, when you “pick somebody up”, it means you “go somewhere in your car and collect somebody who is waiting for you”, but you need not take him back to your home. He may just want a lift from you to go somewhere else. But when you “fetch” somebody, you go to where he is and take him back home. I presume that your brother lives in the same house as you.

Bad Pronunciation ! Effects and Ways To Overcome

Salam and Hello to all readers ! Today's posting is about pronunciation . Let's look at the way we pronounce English words. Sometimes we might come accross certain words that we are not sure on how to pronounce, we are also quite often confuse on which is the correct pronunciation on certain words, to use American English or British English !!! Or may be sometimes we are very embarrassed to have too many mother tongue interference in our English pronunciation... this very often happens to Kelantanese !!! Poor pronunciation commonly happens when the tongue not used to uttering the words. The words are very strange and new to the tongue which causes the tongue needs more practices to say out the words. That's why the key factor in sharpening and improving English pronunciation is practice,practice and practice. Through consistent practice and usage, the interference of mother tongue could be reduced and sooner we could be a good speaker of English. Another vital thing to know is, the pronunciation of American English and British English has a lot of differences. Lots of my students always address a question to me, whether to use A.E or Br.E. For me, the usage of pronunciation is rather flexible, either you are prone to AE or Br.E. Some people especially teenagers prefer AE due to widely exposure to American movies and songs. Some rather choose Br.E for its standard and formality. Well, for pronunciation you are free to choose your own choice, however for writing, it's solely compulsory to use Br.E as Br.E has been recognized as standard and formal English. So be careful in your writing... avoid these spellings : color, center, favorite, etc . The most important thing to do in improving our pronunciation is having the knowledge of phonetics . Phonetics is actually the study of symbols and sound. Each phonetic symbols carries sound which helps us to pronounce each word correctly. By right, it's not hard to learn phonetics as claims by many, but yet it's very fun and enjoyable. Now, it's very easy to learn phonetics as in most good dictionaries like Oxford , Longman- Dict. of Contemporary English and many others, the notes and brief lesson of phonetics are provided. What you need to do is try to study on your own first and then you need to get an expert to provide you with further guidance. I used to provide phonetics class before to a group of SPM leavers for 4 weeks and the outcome of the class was very magnificent as my students enjoyed and mostly benefited . They started to enjoy English dictionary, English phonetics and English pronunciation ! Now, I stiil provide the same class to those interested and also frequently getting offers from school to deliver talk on phonetics & pronunciation. I think students should get first and quick exposure about phonetics as the knowlegde will help them most in becoming a good speaker of English. Well, that's all for now till i write again. Good luck & Do improve your pronunciation.

The Meaning of LIFE - Quoted From Tessie Lim, NST Dec, 2011

To All Readers, Specially Dedicated To All of You : THIS IS YOUR LIFE . DO WHAT YOU LOVE AND DO IT OFTEN. IF YOU DON'T LIKE SOMETHING, CHANGE IT. IF YOU DON'T LIKE YOUR JOB, QUIT. IF YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME, STOP WATCHING TV. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE, STOP. THEY WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU WHEN YOU START DOING THINGS YOU LOVE. STOP OVER ANALYSING. ALL EMOTIONS ARE BEAUTIFUL. WHEN YOU EAT, APPRECIATE EVERY LAST BITE. LIFE IS SIMPLE. OPEN YOUR MIND, ARMS AND HEART TO NEW THINGS AND PEOPLE. WE ARE UNITED IN OUR DIFFERENCES. ASK THE NEXT PERSON YOU SEE WHAT THEIR PASSION IS, AND SHARE YOUR INSPIRING DREAM WITH THEM. TRAVEL OFTEN, GETTING LOST WILL HELP YOU FIND YOURSELF. SOME OPPORTUNITIES ONLY COME ONCE, SEIZE THEM. LIFE IS ABOUT THE PEOPLE YOU MEET, AND THE THINGS YOU CREATE WITH THEM. SO GO OUT AND START CREATING. LIFE IS SHORT. LIVE YOUR DREAM AND SHARE YOUR PASSION.

PLANNING FOR 2012 (2)

Hi there, nice to write to all of u again.

As mentioned previosly, i have a few other plans for the coming year. Now, let me reveal what are my other busy schedules for next year... Besides preparing for my first book , I also have promised myself to be more active updating new entries for my blog as I hope to get more visitors here. Furthermore, my soul purpose is for my writing will be benefited by more people for its informative knowledge and easy guidance for everyone especially in the teaching and learning of English language.

In addition, I do pray in the upcoming year i will be granted with time,good health and high spirit to available myself to prepare more talks on matters related to my English skills and then able to accept the requisition from schools to deliver talks to their students. I used to reject lots of school offers before due to the needs to attend to so many other works and the time constraint.

So, to any teachers out there, you are most welcome to call me if my service is needed for the betterment of students and school. I will try my best not to let your students despair !

Good luck to all of you in 2012 ! May all of us will be granted with lots of blesses and cheers ....

My Plan For Year 2012 (1)

Hello readers n salam maal hijrah to all muslim readers. It's been quite some times I do not post my new entries.i have been very busy with my planning for the coming year 2012.i have planned a few things to do in 2012 and hope GOD will give me strength and patience to make them a reality.
One of my plans is to publish my own book about my own experience in the teaching of english.However my book will focus more on the students' experience in learning english.I will share the fun and happy moments,their fear and resentment,their hesitation of learning grammar,their utmost scary of public speaking and many many more. I have been keeping all these memories safe in my mind for being an english educator for almost 20 years.it will be a great loss if all those meaningful moments which carried abundance of lessons to everyone just remain a memory of an individual.As quoted frm popular saying "Sharing Is Caring" ,to all my blog readers,please pray for my success.

As mentioned earlier,I have a few plans for 2012 but I will write about all those plans on my next entry.Hopefully all of us will stay healthy and cheerful till I see u again in my next writing. Remember,if u fail to plan,u plan to fail...

My Grateful Son : Dedicated To All Mothers

Hi there!

Today I'm not going to write matters related to English but just want to share a happy mother's feeling towards a grown up son. My son, Ashraff Sany has just registered in Foundation of Engineering Course at UiTM Puncak Alam . Being my eldest son, this gives me the first experience being away from him for quite a long time . Ya...he has been away from family for almost 2 months ! 2 months that I feel like 2 years ...and hardly describe how much the family and I miss him. Hardly believe to see my husband is much more "in blues' than I . Almost everynight he calls Ashraff to ask his condition and his new experience over there. Now, after I and a half months past, things are getting much better. We are more adaptable to the situation, so do my other children,Alya,Ilya,Ihsan and Isqhandar . No more everyday calls, no more night sobbing and no more blues .

2 days ago, I got a call f

rom Ashraff informed me that he had received the allowance from Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi amounted about RM1600.00. He said that he is going to pay the hostel fee of about 400 with the money . I advised him to spend wisely and be grateful for getting the money. He convinced me not too worry too much of him as he knew what's best for him and he said he had grown up and mature enough.

After isyak prayer last night I heard message beeping tone from my Nokia handset . I didn't get the phone straight away as I wanted to finish folding my 'telekung'(prayer attire)and need to put it back nicely at its place . Then, slowly I picked up my phone which was on my bed to check my inbox message . The message was from Ashraff . This is what he wrote : Salam Ummi, hope you are fine. I've just transfered RM200 into your account.Have you received? I was so shocked to see the message! Hardly describe my feeling at that time,unbelievable...elated...touched,everything mixed-up !

I didn't call him instantly,instead I replied his message asking what's the money for? Again what he answered,deeply touched my mother's feeling and at the same time I was very thankful to GOD for granting a grateful son like him. This is what he wrote to me : Umi, the money is for you.Sorry,not much.For you to use for daily spending and for 'adik2"(younger brothers & sisters)....

What makes me happy and thankful is not because of getting money but my son's attitude and his sense of responsibility. For me, his allowance is his pocket money to spend for studies and his daily food. In fact, with today's cost of living that amount would be not enough to spend for 3-4 months. Anyhow I really appreciate his gift and sincere thought to me. I will never stop praying for my son's success and hope to be a success mother too ! I do believe this is the same prayer of all other mothers too...

To all children,please be reminded : Once making your mother happy ,GOD grants you with full of blesses and success.

Essential Sharing : Correct Usage of English by Fadzilah Amin

Hi there !

This time i would like to share essential knowledge which i got from reading Mind Our English Column by Fadzilah Amin in The Star dated 30 June 2011. Since long this column has been my inspiration and guidance in my journey as English lecturer. These are for everyone to share :

Wrong : He drank two cupsful of water
Correct:He drank two cupfuls of water

Wrong : Two spoonsful of sugar
Correct:Two spoonfuls of sugar

Wrong : Your prompt attention on the above matter is much appreciated
Correct: Your immediate attention to the above matter would be much appreciated.

Explanation : The sentence should not be written in the present tense, since it is a request that has not been fullfilled yet.

Wrong : Kindly let us have your advise to the above matter in order for us to proceed accordingly.
Correct : Please let us have your advice on the above matter in order for us to proceed accordingly

Explanation : 'Kindly' is old-fashioned and was often used when someone was annoyed with someone else.'advise' is a verb,'advice' is a noun

That's all for this time. Hope this brief sharing may benefit many of you.

POPULAR ERRORS IN ENGLISH

Hello there,

In this entry i want to talk about errors! Ya...forming errors in speaking and writing english is very common to us. However, if the errors are too obvious which can easily spotted by others especially in speaking,it is very embarassing!

Amongst the popular errors made by many users/speakers are in the use of :

1. Question Tags

QT is not really a question.It is a way of making conversation by asking the listener to agree with us.

We didn't play very well today,did we?
Daddy went to work this morning,didn't he?
I've got ten fingers,haven't I?
It's a lovely day,isn't it?

These are a few correct form of QT that should be used in speaking. Unfortunately, I always come accross English users especially Malaysians who are very keen on using the QT "isn't it". In fact, 'isn't it' is used in all situation,but the usage is wrong. These are examples of mistakes done :

I think she's very pretty, isn't it?
This lecturer is so boring,isn't it?
She has lovely voice,isn't it?
Those kids are so cute, isn't it?

Ha..ha! Can you spot on the errors? They're very clear, right?

So,watch out! Get rid of making the same errors.It's very annoying and embarassing!

Bye-bye for now, till i write again on more errors in next entry.

LEARNING ENGLISH IS TOO EASY

Learning English is neither difficult nor too easy ! The most important thing to do in mastering the language is never give up and keep on trying... Of similar important is always aware of the rules and regulation of the language particularly grammatical rules. Let's give attention to the first rules here :

1. Forming Plural Nouns

Not all plural Nouns end with ' s '. ( pen - pens , book - books, animal - animals, etc )
There are Plural Nouns end with 'ies', 'ves', 'shes', 'ches', 'ses'. 'xes'. The changes depend on the last letter of the Nouns, for example ;

baby - babies
ferry - ferries
thief - thieves
wife - wives
bush - bushes
dish - dishes
glass - glasses
class - classes
box - boxes
tomato - tomatoes
potato - potatoes
radio - radios
zoo - zoos

Irregular Plural Nouns

The plural form is totally different from the root word. Learners are highly advisable to memorize this pattern of Irregular Form.

Child - Children
foot - Feet
Man - Men
fish - fish
ox - oxen

Remember this rule, till i write again the other important rules on my next entry. Bye-bye... see you again !

THE POSSESSIVE NOUNS

Hello There! The next important matter in learning Nouns is The Possessive Nouns. All know that PN refer to a person possesses something. The person who has the possession can be singular or plural. The rules to note the possessive form lies on Singular Noun or Plural Noun.

For Singular Noun, the Possessive Form must be written as follows :

My mother's friend is Jean.
My friend's house is not far from here.
The girl's shirt is wet.

For Plural Noun, Here are the Possessive Forms :

My friends' houses are far from here.
My parents' cars are not yet washed.
The students' assignments are on my table.

Possessive Form for Irregular Plural Nouns :

The children's toys are on the floor.
Books about people's lives are interesting to read.
This store sells women's clothing only.

Important Reminder :

Don't use apostrophe 's' ('s) to show PN of non-living things.

The book's cover is not attractive. ( Wrong )
The cover of the book is not attractive. ( Correct )

The bus's wheel . (Wrong)
The wheel of the bus. ( Correct )

I vs ME

Throughout years of teaching, the most common mistakes done by most students are wrong usage of pronouns I and Me. The rules for these two pronouns is very simple ; I refers to Subject, whereas Me is the Object. Hence, in constructing sentences which involve these two pronouns, the said rules must be applied.

Look at how I and Me is used in these sentences ;

My brother and I used to go to school by foot when we were young. ( I as Subject )
My brother used to teach me how to ride bicycle when I was young. (Me as Object )
He told Mariam and me to wait for him at the library. (Me as Object)

The usage of I and Me also confusing in comparison types of sentence. Remember ; In comparison sentence, I (Subject ) is used not Me. Look at these examples ;

He is older than I .
You are as tall as I.
Who did it? Not I.

FunnyCrazyStory (FCS) Technique In Improving Vocabs

Having and knowing vocabs is the most essential thing in learning English besides knowledge of English Grammar. Throughout my years of teaching, I find out those students who fail in English or not credit in English is due to having very lack of English vocabularies. They do not even know the meaning of simple English words like comfortable, intelligent, prepare, describe and lots of other easy words. This has caused them to face difficulties in understanding English and even worse they totally lose interest in studying English. No matter how good the teacher is and how hard the teacher tries to teach , it's not easy to gain interest and to motivate students with very limited vocabs

One of the most popular ways taken by teachers and students to improve and to increase the word power is through asking students to read books or magazines or articles and from the reading, students are told to list down the new vocabs that they get and write the meaning in English and also in their mother tongue.Students need to do this consistently and they may need to memorize the words too in order to remember.
It's undeniable that the above way able to help students to increase vocabs as they do lots of reading and writing up the words can help them to remember better and faster. However, this technique could be improvised to a better ,easier and funnier way in order to make it more effective and more joyful. A technique which i named as "FunnyCrazyStory" (FCS) technique is a much more interesting and faster technique in empowering vocabularies, especially amongst students at elementary and intermediate level. You can read the following tips on how to practice the technique.

FunnyCrazyStory (FCS) Technique

1. Get lists of new words either from books/articles/magazines or you can just get words from dictionary. Be consistent with the number of new words per day. You can set your target to learn 20 or 30 words per day or may be lesser. It's better to have less but consistent rather than many but inconsistent.

2. Same as the above way, you still need to list down the words together with the meaning either in English or in your mother tongue or much better to write the meaning in English and put the meaning in mother tongue in bracket. For example the word ; "marvellous - fantastic,great,incredible (hebat). After listed all the words, the next step is the most interesting,fun and challenging !!!

3. Use your creativity and imagination to form short and simple story from the listed words. It's far better if your story is funny and crazy as it stimulates your mind to remember more effectively. Here's one example on how you can work out this technique ;

fable - short story
fabled - famous
fabless - a company which design microchips
fabliau - a French tale
fablon - plastics for covering table tops
fabric - material for cloth
fabricate - invent, with deceitful intent
fabulate - tell invented stories
fabulist - a person who compose fables
fabulous - wonderful , extraordinary

(These are list of words taken from a dictionary)

Story
"A fabulist (a person who composes fables) fabulates(tell invented story) fabulous(wonderful) fabliau (French tale)fable(short story) which is about a fabless (a company which designs microchips)invents fabricated(invent with deceitful intent)fabric (material for cloth)that can be used as fablon (plastics for covering table tops)."

Look... how easy and catchy the story is and the most important thing is FCS technique is very fun and enjoyable to do for its effective and speedy way to empower new vocabularies. But remember, you have to practice this often and consistently.

Good luck & have a try ! You will see the result in a very short period!!!

Government Moves To Upgrade The English Mastery Among Students in Malaysia

New year 2011 has just stareted and now it's already end of January. It has been long time i do not write new post on my blog. Lots of new issues regarding education matters including English subject matters arises in the country especially pertaining the transformation of curriculum, teachers and other issues.

One thing that really attracted me is the serious move of our government to enhance and upgrade the language proficiency of Malaysia students by spending lots of money to ensure this intention is a success. By introducing the new curriculum for primary level which is KSSR , the government with full expectation to see the curriculum will be much more effective and benefited the students.

As an English educator at private sector, I am not fully involved in all the transformation initiated by the government but how much I wish I could contribute in line with the government moves to assist students in upgrading the language proficiency.

It's of everybody's hope to see the initiative done by government and all parties involve in the implementation will bloom with success and able to reach objectives.
Somehow rather I'm a bit awkward to see some private institutions do not take serious on the effort taken by government concerning english language matters. They hesitately give support and encouragement to any english language enriching activities done by students and lecturers. Worst of all, these private sectors just prioritize on business matters and money profit as they charge extremely high fees for English lesson but fail to provide condusive environment and relevant activities to help students to master better English. If there are efforts from lecturers or students to hold programmes and activities for this purpose , the efforts are not at all supported and appreciated for they think those are unimportant and irrelevant for not contributing anything in generating income.

This kind of mindset really sickening and torturing me as an English Educator who eagerly and ambitiously willing to offer a helping hand for the betterment of English language mastery among students in Malaysia.

I do pray all the initiaves taken by the government and all the parties who involve in the implementation will be blessed and will one day smile endlessly for the sweetness of the success.

Bravo and Good Luck To All of You...