Coming soon…

Sometimes, English words are just too confusing. For example, should you write ‘road’ or ‘rode’?

Just because you see something in print it does not automatically make it grammatically correct.

I like to read any publication I come across, for many reasons. One is because I like to observe and absorb as many different styles of writing as I can (there’s more on that subject in the tips you can receive exclusively as part of my nine-week mini-course. You can sign up today - it’s free!).

Another reason is so I can gather more than one angle on the big news stories of the day – to see who is saying what according to whom and then try to read between the lines to work out what I think happened.

I particularly like to read English newspapers of all descriptions: tabloid and broadsheet (for example, The Sun and The Observer) and of various political persuasions.

However, it was in The Sunday Times recently that I had to look again and again at a certain word.

This is what it said:

Ted Simon famously road around the world in 1973. Doing it again, he tells Cosmo Landesman, he found a packed planet growing charmless

Did the sub-editor who wrote that paragraph mean to say that? I don’t know, but perhaps Ted Simon famously rode around the world is what was intended.

So it just goes to show that you can easily and cheaply improve your English by reading a lot and trying to work out if what is written is actually grammatically correct. What you will find is that often it is not.

Conjunctions: words that join two parts of a sentence

Conjunctions are very useful in the English language. Put simply, they are words which are able to join two parts of a sentence together.

There are two main types of conjunction: co-ordinating (or coordinating) and subordinating.

And the parts of a sentence which they join together are known as clauses.

That’s the technical stuff out of the way, so now I’ll show you one or two examples which will hopefully make things a bit clearer.

Coordinating conjunctions, which include and and but, are set apart from most other conjunctions because the two clauses that they join together are of equal importance – they are both what are known as main clauses. Look at this example:

‘The boys played and went home happy.’

In this example, the first clause, ‘The boys played’ is just as important as the second clause – the bit that tells us that they ‘went home happy’.

Some people prefer not to start a sentence in English with and or but but I am quite happy to (although only if it is warranted).

Other coordinating conjunctions are:

• Or
• Nor
• For
• Yet
• So

Now consider this:

‘The boys played having enjoyed a good, hearty breakfast.’

In this sentence, ‘having’ is a subordinating conjunction. That is, it indicates the beginning of a clause which is of lesser importance compared to the main clause.

Main clause (more important): ‘The boys played’
Subordinate clause: ‘having enjoyed a good, hearty breakfast.’

Other subordinating conjunctions are given below, with an example of a subordinate clause which is underlined and the main clause in italics

• Subordinating conjunction: when
  ‘When we were young, we were so carefree.’
• Subordinating conjunction: after
  ‘After the war, they were able to return home.’
• Subordinating conjunction: once
  ‘Once he’d eaten, he soon fell asleep.’
• Subordinating conjunction: because
  ‘Because of the heavy rain, the game was postponed.’
• Subordinating conjunction: since
  ‘I’ve hardly slept since it happened.’

More subordinating conjunctions:

Correlative conjunctions

Some conjunctions combine with other words to form correlative conjunctions. They always work in pairs and join various sentence elements which are grammatically equal. Common examples are:

• Neither/nor
• Either/or
• Not only/but also
• Both/and
• Whether/or

You can find this tip in full, plus lots more about clauses which I have not had room to include here, in my ebook, ‘Improve Your English’, which you can download – FREE! – when you sign up to receive my 9-week English language tips mini course. The form is over to the right, on this and every page on this site.

Practise, practise, practise…and you will soon grasp the idea of clauses which vary in importance.

And then, breaking down even the longest and most complex sentences in English will become ever simpler for you.

Never waste a good thought: get the most out of life and boost your writing ability

When you are more confident with English, you tend to write more. And when you write more, you naturally become better at it. It’s obvious: practice makes perfect. It’s like working your muscles – the more you do it, the stronger they become.

So as you write more, you start to write for fun as much as (or more than) out of necessity. And that may well lead you into writing fiction, which allows you to be as creative as you wish.

You might find that allowing your imagination to roam freely in this way is a truly liberating experience, and a great way to use your time. So use the tip below, and get the most out of life and take your creative writing to a new high!

Ideas – use life itself to help you generate them

Now there’s a thought.

Wherever you are, wherever you go and whoever you’re with, you are never far from an idea. Trust me.

It could be an idea for something completely new, a character in the book you are writing, a joke, a scene or a line or two of dialogue.

The fact is we are all surrounded by so many idea-producing things that we tend not to do anything about them. We slip into our ‘default’ mode and simply ignore the new and concentrate on the familiar.

But what happens, for example, when we focus on a friend of a friend who we are meeting for the first time? Or we taste something completely new? We think differently – because we are forced to.

What I like to do is take a moment or two just to savour the novelty. What is it about that person that makes them different? Are they funny? Are they serious? Are they talking about something which bores, fascinates or informs you? What does that person make you think?

And that’s the key, the essence of this tip: “Never waste a good thought,” as my dear, late grandfather would say.

So do what you have to in order to enrich your writing. Savour the freshness, the newness, the surprise that life has to offer – and with that will come a flood of ideas. All you have to do then is the easy bit: write them down and use them.

Of course, not all your ideas will be great or have ‘legs’ (i.e. offer longevity and/or real substance). But the more variety you experience and record, the more ideas and thoughts you will get and the proportion of good ideas will be greater.

And this can only help you as you work to improve your English and your writing.

I wish you luck!

Prepositions: words that link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence

Prepositions cause lots of problems for lots of people, so do not worry if that includes you. It is hardly surprising these words create such havoc – after all, we might say, for example, that we are at the hospital, but we sometimes visit a friend who is in hospital.

Similarly, we lie in bed, but on a sofa. We might watch a play at a theatre or on television.

So, like I said, do not worry. Just pay attention to these little words and practise using them.

Prepositions fall into four categories:

• Time prepositions (for example, at, on, in, since, for, during, before)
• Location prepositions (at, on, in)
• Direction prepositions (at, on, in, towards, around, through, across)
• Position prepositions (beneath, under, over, on)

Here are some examples:

Time prepositions

• ‘Peter ate his sandwich during the morning’s train journey.’
• ‘Peter has lived in London since the mid-80s.’
• ‘Peter has lived in London for 20 years.’
• ‘Peter had his lunch at three o’clock.’
• ‘Peter’s birthday is on March 20th.’
• ‘Peter is going on holiday in three months…in the summer.’
• ‘Peter is quitting work before he travels.’

Location prepositions

• ‘Peter ate his sandwich on the train.’
• ‘Peter has lived in London since the mid-80s.’
• ‘Peter works at London Bridge.’

Direction prepositions

• ‘Peter’s bus travelled through the red traffic light towards its destination.’
• ‘That bus really did go around the houses.’
• ‘Peter’s bus travelled across the bridge.’

Position prepositions

• ‘Peter sat on the bus and read his newspaper.’
• ‘Peter’s bus waited at the red light.’
• ‘Peter sat beneath a crumbling bridge, over which rumbled a heavy lorry.’

The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition.

Prepositions, like over in the final example above, will always sit comfortably before the pronoun ‘which’ (as in, ‘…over which rumbled a heavy lorry.’).

And there has always been some debate about whether or not prepositions should be allowed to sit at the end of a sentence. My advice on this one is this: ask yourself – which version sounds better, clearer? Is it, for example, ‘The world we live in,’ or, ‘The world in which we live.’ That’s up to you, although it is always a good idea to tailor your style to suit your situation or intended reader.

What I would say is that wherever you place your preposition and however you structure your sentence around it, ensure that you don’t write the preposition twice, such as: ‘The world in which we live in,’ which is actually a Paul McCartney lyric, from the theme from ‘Live and Let Die’. (He’s allowed – it’s poetic licence and he was a Beatle!).

Prepositions with nouns, adjectives and verbs

Prepositions are sometimes so closely linked to other words that they almost act as one single word. This is the case when prepositions are used alongside certain nouns, adjectives and verbs.

Here are some examples:

Nouns and prepositions

• approval of
• belief in
• concern for
• love of
• reason for

Adjectives and prepositions

• afraid of
• married to
• happy about
• made of
• familiar with

Verbs and prepositions

• give up
• grow up
• look up
• pay for
• find out

Be careful not to fall into bad habits with prepositions: it can be quite easy to use one where it is simply not necessary or required. For example:

• Incorrect: ‘She met with her boss.’
• Correct: ‘She met her boss.’

• Incorrect: ‘I got it off of my brother.’
• Correct: ‘I got it from my brother.’

• Incorrect: ‘Where are you at?’
• Correct: ‘Where are you?’

• Incorrect: ‘He threw her stuff out of the window.’
• Correct: ‘He threw her stuff out the window.’

Unnecessary words: try not to waste valuable space by including unnecessary words. Instead, aim for clarity, brevity and impact. Always.

I want to address something which often confuses people. When you grasp the idea, it can make your writing more succinct and reduce ‘waste’ (i.e. unnecessary words).

A quick example:

‘If John should walk, he will be late.’

How about this…

‘Should John walk, he will be late.’

Most people don’t realise that sentences can be written in this form. But I think it reads far more succinctly and, like I say, does away with waste, which you should always strive for. Every word on a page should earn its right to be there.

Here’s another example:

‘If I had known that, I would not have gone.’

I prefer the same thing written like this:

‘Had I known that, I would not have gone.’

Of course, how you write should…

a) sit comfortably with you (after all, it’s your work and your name on it); and

b) express your message as clearly and succinctly as possible

Remember: clarity, brevity, impact. Always.

Good luck with your writing!

Choosing the word which actually says what you mean…

Whatever you write, be it blog, book or poetry, there might well be times when you are confused about which is the correct word to use.

Do you mean to write about an ‘inquiry’ or an ‘enquiry’? Could you mean ‘site’ or ‘sight’? Or are you, perhaps, talking ‘advice’ or ‘advise’?

Occasionally, you might well be intimidated by the sheer choice of words you are faced with. But do not fret. Simply work out what it is you want to say, then look up each option in a good dictionary and your choice will become simplified and clear.

And what I do if I am unsure of words (particularly some definitions) is write them down in a small notebook and keep referring to them until I remember them.

Remember: clarity, brevity, impact. Always.

Good luck with your writing!

Invasion and occupation by the Romans (AD43 – AD410), the Anglo-Saxons (from north-western Europe, AD410 – AD800), the Vikings (800 – 1066) and William the Conqueror’s Normans (1066) all left their mark on Britain and its languages.

In the northern and western extremes of Britain, where these immigrant tribes did not reach, local languages were able to develop relatively uninfluenced. Most notably, these were Cornish, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic.

But in the east and south of the country, the languages of all these invading peoples had a profound effect upon the native dialects.

Latin gave English some of its more complex, multi-syllable words – for example, ‘litigation’, ‘ultimatum’ and ‘agenda’.

Old Norse, brought by the Vikings, gave English words such as ‘window’ and ‘egg’ (as well as the ‘…by’ ending of place names often found in northern and eastern England – Wetherby, Selby and Grimsby, for example).

And English ‘borrowed’ many words from Old French. In fact, approximately 40% of all words in English – at least 30,000 – are derived from French.

Old English was made up of four main dialects: Mercian and Northumbrian, which were sometimes referred to as Anglian and were largely in use in the north of the country, while Kentish and West Saxon prevailed in the south.

Old English evolved into Middle English between the time of the Norman Conquest and the mid-to-late 15th century. This was influenced by the introduction of the printing press to England in the 1470s by William Caxton and also the literary work of Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), who is often credited as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of English as a native language in its own right.

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge provided two points of the most dominant triangular area of England at this time – the third point being London. And within this area, the south-east-midlands version of the Anglian dialect (the dialect of London) emerged to become the precursor of modern Standard English.

Today, among numerous local accents and dialects which still prevail across the country, Received Pronunciation (or ‘RP’) and Standard English are accepted as the dominant standards of spoken and written English (for example, these have at times become known as ‘BBC

English’).

It is worth noting that, as you can tell, the English language is continually changing and evolving. You need only refer to the latest technology to see the most recent linguistic changes (this subject is covered in greater depth in another article on this website) – mobile phones have brought text messaging which in turn has brought its own language (for example, ‘txt spk’ = text speak. You get the idea).

And as language changes, two schools of thought emerge: prescriptive and descriptive.

Prescriptive ideas suggest that language should have set rules which must be followed, regardless of the inevitable change.

Descriptivists, however, look at the way language is actually used by its speakers and then create rules accordingly. These people accept regional differences in language and also forms used in speech that prescriptivists would describe as errors (such as saying, “We was walking…” rather than “We were walking…”, which is merely a form of regularizing a verb, making “We was” the same as “I was” and “You was” and so on).

Who is right? Who knows. What I suggest is this: know the rules and maybe stick to them as best you can. But if you want to break them because something sounds better or looks better, then do so. Your ultimate aim must always be to communicate with clarity, brevity and impact.

Avoiding common mistakes when creating and submitting your résumé is both relatively simple and incredibly important.

But research has shown that the internet encourages job-seekers to send out lazy, generic, ‘cut-and-paste’ résumés that are riddled with errors.

Lighthouse PR, a London-based company working in the technology sector, analysed the 245 applications it received while recruiting in the first three months of 2007 and discovered that three-quarters of them contained basic errors, such as spelling and grammatical mistakes.

The evidence showed candidates make volume email applications which are ‘spammed’ to numerous companies, rather than creating a bespoke, carefully-researched and well-written application targeted to each individual firm.

So if you are applying for a new job or will be looking for one in the near future, here are my top tips to avoid common résumé mistakes and boost your chances of success:

Follow convention

Essentially, as with all writing, you want your audience or reader – in this case, the person doing the hiring – to absorb what you are presenting to them and concentrate on its content, not its mistakes and/or style.

Follow convention generally – now is not the time to show your creativity. Think about it: you want the job. That job may well have been advertised and attracted dozens or hundreds or even thousands of applications. So do not put off the person hiring in any way. Use a template you are happy with (either get one from the internet or follow a friend’s résumé which has already brought success).

Put yourself in their shoes: if you had to go through numerous résumés, perhaps for days on end, you too would want to see the vital information on every one of them easily and at a glance. So help them and they may well help you.

Keep your resume to a maximum of two pages. Too little is not enough and too much becomes a drag to trawl through.

Tailor it – be specific

When you have found a résumé template you are happy with, you need to think about the job itself and the company you want to work for. You would be surprised at the number of people who do not do this. Focus on information about yourself which your potential employer would want to read about. Tell them why you are the most suitable person for the job.

Be truthful!

A major warning: be truthful with what you write. By all means, write in a persuasive, confident manner, but just make sure that what you do write is accurate: it will only come back and bite you if it is not.

Do not clutter

So, follow a format, tailor what you write but be sure to leave plenty of white space. Cluttered résumés are among the first to be ignored. It goes back to what I said earlier: you want to make it as easy as possible for your reader to absorb what you have written without thinking that it is hard work. They will think that you too are hard work. Harsh but true.

Do not waffle

The person you are writing to is incredibly busy and won’t be excited by paragraphs or pages full of irrelevant nonsense (as far as he or she is concerned). Get to the point – quickly. As I always say: aim for clarity, brevity and impact. Always.

Write your cover letter/email

Again, you want to be brief and clear with this: just know what you want to say, and say it.

Stick to a formal, personalised greeting followed by something like: “Further to your advertisement for the such-and-such position, please find attached/enclosed* my résumé.”

Then just say that you look forward to hearing from them. Your résumé should do the selling, not your letter. However, you can draw the reader’s attention to certain experience or a specific skill you have, which is written in more detail in your résumé, if it is relevant to the job or company.

* Use whichever is relevant.

Don’t be lazy

When you have written your résumé and letter or email, you must, must, must proofread them.

That means printing rough copies of both and looking for spelling and grammatical mistakes. Do not rely on your spellchecker.

I find it is always worth printing your work as your eyes find it easier to read and spot things on paper compared to on a screen.

Sending a résumé and/or letter full of errors makes a woeful first impression and will probably result in your application going straight into the recycling bin.

Johnson Wu, Gulzar Muhamed, Sivakumar Balasubramanian, Tahmina Hashmi and Qiangxiaohui are among the subscribers who requested guidance on improving their vocabulary, so here it is:

Learning English can of course be a daunting task. But the best way to approach it is clear and simple: one small step at a time.

That way, you are less likely to feel intimidated by both the sheer scale of your task and also the vast amount of resources which are available.

Sometimes, having so many options can be a problem in itself.

So here I have compiled a brief but effective list of methods you can employ in order to grow your English vocabulary.

Start off by asking yourself what your goals are. For example, are you starting from a very basic level and want to build your vocabulary from the bottom up, with the simplest words, such as colours, numbers and some common nouns?

Or are you more interested in building your knowledge of words which relate to a specific topic, for example, to do with your job or favourite sport?

Answering such questions will help set you on the right path from the outset and will allow you to focus on the vocabulary which you need to study.

Make use of available resources

The internet provides an amazing array of tools and resources. Many are free, many are not. But I do suggest you have a good look and use whatever suits you best.

For example, sign up to one of the newsletters which provide a new word every day, such as that at www.wordsmith.org.

Build word lists by themes…

A good way to build your vocabulary is by thinking of the world around you. Think in terms of where you live, your appearance, any animals you might see, your age. Consider colours, shapes, the weather, a particular sport.

…and phrases

You might also find it effective to think of words by common phrases. Build vocabulary by greetings (for example, ‘Good morning,’ ‘Good afternoon,’ ‘Good evening,’ and ‘Good night.’).

Playing language-based games is another great way to boost your vocabulary. For example, if you are a regular on Facebook, try the Scrabulous game (online Scrabble). You are guaranteed to learn a few new words in this way and have great fun as you do so!

Finally, one of the most effective ways I have used in order to grow my vocabulary is also probably the simplest: whenever I am reading and I come across a word with which I am unfamiliar, I just note it down, look up its definition, then write that beside the word.

Even Google can help you do this: next time you come across a word you are unsure of, go to Google’s home page, type ‘define:’ and then type the word you want to know about. When you hit enter or the search button, you will have your definition.