Sunday, December 21, 2008

GRAMMAR QUESTION Dec. 21

Correct the errors in the following sentence:

Coming down the hill, we seen the truck driving to fast and couldn't of stopped before hitting a car on the intersection: there were debris laying all over the road.

Note: you can still see previous Grammar Questions; they are posted in the archive in the side bar and listed a year previous to their date of posting.

PUZZLE Dec. 21

Puzzle

Here is the answer to last week’s puzzle.
1. blankout + beep = bleep
2. pain + sting = pang
3. haggle + tussle = hassle
4. dumb + confound = dumbfound
5. ditsy + dotty = ditty

New Puzzle
Can you identify the language of the following greetings--each one means “Merry Christmas”. Each student identify just one of the languages before allowing another student a chance--there are plenty of opportunities!

1. Gesëende Kersfees
2. Boas Festas
3. Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rock
4. Glaedelig Jul
5. Felice Navidad
6. Hyvää Joulua
7. Joyeux Noel
8. Froehliche Weihnachten
9. Kala Christouyenna
10. Mele Kalikimaka
11. Merry Christmas, Bada Din Mubarak
12. Nollaig Shona Dhuit
13. Bono Natale
14. Shinnen omedeto
15. Kuwa na Krismasi njema
16. Sung Tan Chuk Ha
17. Linksmu Kaledu
18. Feliz Navidad
19. Natale hilare
20. Maligayang Pasko
21. Wesolych Swiat Bozego
22. Narodzenia
23. Feliz Natal, Gajan Kristnaskon
24. Srozhdestovm Kristovim
25. Suksun Wan Christmas
26. Chuc Mung Giang Sinh
27. Nadolig Llawen

Thursday, December 11, 2008

COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT










NEW STUDENTS
Welcome to Kathleen, Kong, and Shu-Chao who are joining the course in December. We hope you will enjoy the course and that you will participate in the blog.

CONGRATULATIONS
Another student has successfully completed the course; congratulations to Jonathan: well done:-)

HAPPY HANUKKAH!
We would like to wish all of our Jewish students a Happy Hanukkah. F


LAST WEEK'S GRAMMAR QUESTION:

The team is real happy that they won the game so easy and now the players recover from the party they had thrown afterwards.

1. Subject-verb agreement: In this sentence, “team” is plural; notice the use of the plural pronoun “they” to refer to the team. Change the verb “is” to “are”.
2. Word form: use an adverb to modify an adjective--change “real” to “really”.
3. Word form: use an adverb to modify a verb; “easy” modifies “won”, so change it to “easily”.
4. Verb tense: for something that is occurring at the present time, use the present progressive tense: change “recover” to “are recovering”.
5. Verb tense: the past perfect tense refers to something that happened before another event in the past, but the party happened after the game. For this reason, use the simple past “threw”.
6. Punctuation: When two independent clauses are separated by a coordinating conjunction (and), use a comma before that conjunction.


Next blog: Monday, December 21st.

COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT










NEW STUDENTS
Welcome to Kathleen, Kong, and Shu-Chao who are joining the course in December. We hope you will enjoy the course and that you will participate in the blog.

CONGRATULATIONS
Another student has successfully completed the course; congratulations to Jonathan: well done:-)

HAPPY HANUKKAH!
We would like to wish all of our Jewish students a Happy Hanukkah. F


LAST WEEK'S GRAMMAR QUESTION:

The team is real happy that they won the game so easy and now the players recover from the party they had thrown afterwards.

1. Subject-verb agreement: In this sentence, “team” is plural; notice the use of the plural pronoun “they” to refer to the team. Change the verb “is” to “are”.
2. Word form: use an adverb to modify an adjective--change “real” to “really”.
3. Word form: use an adverb to modify a verb; “easy” modifies “won”, so change it to “easily”.
4. Verb tense: for something that is occurring at the present time, use the present progressive tense: change “recover” to “are recovering”.
5. Verb tense: the past perfect tense refers to something that happened before another event in the past, but the party happened after the game. For this reason, use the simple past “threw”.
6. Punctuation: When two independent clauses are separated by a coordinating conjunction (and), use a comma before that conjunction.


Next blog: Monday, December 21th.

GRAMMAR QUESTION Dec. 11

Correct the errors in the following sentence:

An economic prof at Simon Fraser university describes Canada that it is an over weight country who needs going on the low-carb diet--low in carbons emissions--and loose some weight.

Note: you can still see previous Grammar Questions; they are posted in the archive in the side bar and listed a year previous to their date of posting.

PUZZLE, Dec. 11

Here are the answers to last week's puzzle:

1. bold + rash = brash
2. chuckle + snort = chortle
3. internal + communication = intercom
4. blow + spurt = blurt
5. flutter + hurry = flurry

What are the blended words that have come from the following pairs of words:

1. blankout + beep
2. pain + sting
3. haggle + tussle
4. dumb + confound
5. ditsy + dotty

ALL CHANGE Dec. 11, 2009

Change the words in the sentence below as indicated. You can only change the exact word in the sequence given; after someone else has posted the next change, then you can post another change. For instance, student 1 writes #1 Subject Noun, and changes the subject noun; Student 2 writes #2 Direct Object Noun, and changes that noun. Each student only makes one change at a time and keeps to the order indicated.If you complete all 7 changes, then start making more changes again from 1 to 7. Each student should build on the changes that the previous students make.

Susan is still eating candy from last Halloween.

1. change the subject noun 2. change the direct object noun
3. change the indirect object noun 4. change the adjective
5. change the adverb 6. change the verb name
7. change the verb tense

SENTENCE COMBINATION, Dec. 11,09

Learning to combine ideas into more complex sentences is an important skill in writing. There are many ways to do this--many possible bonus points! Try to combine the following three sentences.

Sentence 1: The snowfall lay heavily on the ground.
Sentence 2: People were shovelling driveways and sidewalks and piling up snow into snow mountains.
Sentence 3: There was little traffic on the roads until the snow ploughs had cleared the major routes.


Check the archives for previous questions and answers.

VOCABULARY Dec. 11

Vocabulary building is important for both reading comprehension and writing. Use the following two words (note the part of speech) in one sentence.

disproportionate (adjective) + antipathy (noun)


To further improve your vocabulary, check Word of the Day every day! There are also word games and puzzles on this site.

PLAIN ENGLISH, Dec. 11, 09

span style="font-style:italic;">Writing clear, direct English is particularly important in a business context. Please rewrite the following item; there are many different but correct ways of doing this.

During the whole of the time period, twenty-five long years, that he was employed by ABC Securities, our colleague, Mr. Sanchez, was solely responsible of the institution of numerous reforms that are being used in the company to this date; he is wished all the best as he begins his well-earned retirement.

Hint: Check Chapter 9 of Barron's Business English, and avoid using the passive voice and other wordy construction!

Monday, December 1, 2008

COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT

NEW STUDENTS
Welcome to Kathleen, Kong, and Shu-Chao who are joining the course in December. We hope you will enjoy the course and that you will participate in the blog.

CONGRATULATIONS
Another student has successfully completed the course; congratulations to Jonathan: well done:-)

BLOGGER AWAY!
The blogger (Veronica) will be away between Dec. 5th and Jan. 4th. In her absence, Tamara Renkas (tamaraAT…) will coordinate the blog. Look forward to some holiday specials coming up and keep on participating!

LAST WEEK'S GRAMMAR QUESTION:

While I had arrived in Paris neither the bus or the trains was running, the following day the buses ran and trains had been started to move later at the afternoon.

1. Word confusion: “while” indicates that something else was happening at the same time; here you need “when”.
2. Verb tense: instead of the past perfect “had arrived” use the simple past “arrived”.
3. Paired conjunction: the paired negative conjunction is “neither … nor.”
4. Subject-verb agreement: With a paired conjunction, the nearest subject to the verb determines the number. Because “trains” is plural, change the singular verb “was” to “were.”
5. Verb tense: the buses ran all day, so use the past progressive “were running”.
6. Verb tense/voice: “had been started” is the passive voice of the past perfect; here the simple past of the active voice “started” is needed.
7. Preposition usage: While you should use “at” with a specific time, for a more general time such as “the afternoon”, use “in”.
8. Punctuation: There are two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction, so separate them with a semicolon instead of a comma.

Next blog: Friday, December 11th.

GRAMMAR QUESTION, Dec. 1st, 2009

Correct the errors in the following sentence:

The team is real happy that they won the game so easy and now the players recover from the party they had thrown afterwards.

Note: you can still see previous Grammar Questions; they are posted in the archive in the side bar and listed a year previous to their date of posting.

PUZZLE, Dec. 1st, 2009

Here is the answer to last week’s puzzle; congratulations to Dejo who almost solved it;-)
1. flap + drop= flop
2. emotion + icon= emoticon
3. gorilla + baboon = goon
4. marionette + puppet = muppet
5. slovenly + language = slang

THIS WEEK:
What are the blended words that have come from the following pairs of words:
1. bold + rash
2. chuckle + snort
3. internal + communication
4. blow + spurt
5. flutter + hurry

ALL CHANGE! Dec. 1st, 2009

Change the words in the sentence below as indicated. You can only change the exact word in the sequence given; after someone else has posted the next change, then you can post another change. For instance, student 1 writes #1 Subject Noun, and changes the subject noun; Student 2 writes #2 Direct Object Noun, and changes that noun. Each student only makes one change at a time and keeps to the order indicated.If you complete all 7 changes, then start making more changes again from 1 to 7. Each student should build on the changes that the previous students make.

The excited children eagerly awaited Santa at the mall.

1. change the subject noun 2. change the direct object noun
3. change the indirect object noun 4. change the adjective
5. change the adverb 6. change the verb name
7. change the verb tense

SENTENCE COMBINATION, Dec. 1st, 2009

Learning to combine ideas into more complex sentences is an important skill in writing. There are many ways to do this--many possible bonus points! Try to combine the following three sentences.

Sentence 1: The shopping malls are decorated for Christmas.
Sentence 2: Parents are taking their children to have photos taken with Santa.
Sentence 3: It is sometimes hard to remember that there are other religious festivals at this time of the year as well as Christmas.

Check the archives for previous questions and answers.

PLAIN ENGLISH, Dec, 1st 2009

span style="font-style:italic;">Writing clear, direct English is particularly important in a business context. Please rewrite the following item; there are many different but correct ways of doing this.

During the whole of the time period, twenty-five long years, that he was employed by ABC Securities, our colleague, Mr. Sanchez, was solely responsible of the institution of numerous reforms that are being used in the company to this date; he is wished all the best as he begins his well-earned retirement.

Hint: Check Chapter 9 of Barron's Business English, and avoid using the passive voice and other wordy construction!

VOCABULARY, Dec. 1st, 2009

Vocabulary building is important for both reading comprehension and writing. Use the following two words (note the part of speech) in one sentence.

posthumously (adverb) + colloquial (adjective)

To further improve your vocabulary, check Word of the Day every day! There are also word games and puzzles on this site.