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...