Grammatical Considerations

Words like very and really seem to make your meaning stronger. But do they?

Consider the following sentence:

It was a very cold winter and many of the old people in

the village died of hypothermia.

Is it any less strong without the word very?

It was a cold winter and many of the old people in the

village died of hypothermia.

Consider the following sentence:

I love you. Will you marry me?

Does it sound stronger if we write it this way?:

I really love you. Will you marry me?

A shopkeeper woke up in the morning and found that his shop had been robbed in the night.

He called the police. They arrested two local boys and called them in for questioning...

The police asked the first boy: Did you rob the shop last night?

The first boy answered: No, I swear to you. I didn’t do it. I would never, never, ever do a thing like that. I’m telling the truth, you’ve got to believe me. Please mister, I'm not lying.

Then the police asked the second boy: Did you rob the shop last night?

The second boy answered: No, I didn’t.

Do the extra words in the first boy’s answer help make it sound more truthful?

I really, really, very much hate to eat spinach.

I hate spinach.

Which is stronger?

This?

Or this?

Short sentences are clearer and stronger than long ones.

It is said that this slogan is one reason why Lenin garnered the support of Russian workers in 1917. This slogan is powerful because it’s simple.

Qualifiers are words that intentionally weaken the meaning of a sentence. Although they

may give the author a feeling that he is being more honest.

It’s better to simply say what you believe and let the reader decide if it’s true.

She was quite an ugly woman.

Instead of:

She was an ugly woman.

Write:

It was pretty kind of her to bake a cake for a man who

had only two weeks earlier caused her to loose her job.

Instead of:

It was kind of her to bake a cake for a man who had

only two weeks earlier caused her to loose her job.

Write:

Words and phrases like kind of, a little, pretty much, a bit, and quite make your

sentences longer and more complex but they don’t make the meaning clearer.

Delete them .

UK USA

Colour, Flavour, Favour Color, Flavor, Favor

Realise, Actualise, Colourise Realize, Actualize, Colorize

Metre, Theatre Meter, Theater

Aeroplane Airplane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences

nd of hinking apacity

When you get to the end of a list, stop. Before you reach the end, keep writing.

There are many seasons such as winter, spring...

Instead of:

The four seasons are winter, spring, summer, and fall.

Write:

nd of hinking apacity

If you have to write an incomplete list, give more than two examples and write a complete sentence.

I like to eat traditional Indian foods such as masoor

dhal, etc.

Instead of:

I like to eat traditional Indian foods including masoor

dhal, channa masala, chapati, and roti.

Write:

Make items in a list follow the same grammatical structure.

I like watching films, to cook, read good books, and I

have long hair.

Instead of:

I like watching films, cooking meals, and reading good

books. I also have long hair.

Write:

In the following sentence, write each item in the list as a noun.

The advantages of our software are efficiency, easy to

manage, and speed.

Instead of:

The advantages of our software are efficiency,

simplicity-of-management, and speed.

Write:

The most expensive parts of a computer are the screen,

the microprocessor, the hard drive.

Instead of:

The most expensive parts of a computer are the screen,

the microprocessor, and the hard drive.

Write:

It wasn’t a long poem. If fact he remembered it

completely after seeing it only one time scratched above

the doorway of the old parsonage: “Catch for us the

foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our

vineyards that are in bloom.” He felt that he had heard

it somewhere else before but he couldn’t remember

where.

Instead of:

Besides, dual-core processors aren’t even faster for

single-threaded processes.

Instead of:

Furthermore, dual-core processors aren’t even faster for

single-threaded processes.

Write:

“Besides” is informal english.

Besides his deaf aunt, there was no one in the house to

hear the awful sound of his violin.

Instead of:

Aside from his deaf aunt, there was no one in the house

to hear the awful sound of his violin.

Write:

“Besides” is informal english.

Rewrite the following sentence without using the word “you”:

The guilt is the feeling you get when you know that you have done something wrong.

The report was written by Nguyễn Phan Nam.

Passive Voice:

Nguyễn Phan Nam wrote the report.

Active Voice:

My finger was bitten by a dog.

Passive Voice:

A dog bit my finger.

Active Voice:

My first visit to Boston will always be remembered

by me.

Passive Voice:

I will always remember my first trip to Boston.

Active Voice:

The reason that he left college was because his

health was failing.

Passive Voice:

Failing health forced him to leave college.

Active Voice:

(Microsoft Word style and grammar check will always warn you if you have any sentence in

passive voice.)

Use passive voice when it makes your writing simpler:

Nikola Tesla was regarded as a mad genius. Few

people really understood his ideas.

Here the writer intends to be unclear about who regards Tesla as a mad genius. Therefore it’s difficult to write the sentence in active voice.

Read The Elements of Style, Chapter III, section 11 for many more examples of active and

passive voice.

's

Đại Học Bách Khoa’s students have the habit of singing

karaoke late at night.

Instead of:

The students of Đại Học Bách Khoa have the habit of

singing karaoke late at night.

Write:

's

Your foot’s bottom is soft and vulnerable to infections,

cuts, and bruises.

Instead of:

The bottom of your foot is soft and vulnerable to

infections, cuts, and bruises.

Write:

's

Microsoft Excel’s gantt chart.

FPT University’s students.

Sir Hans’s girlfriends.

When you want to put two sentences together into one:

Karl was at the bar on the night of the shooting.

is one of my closest friends . Karl , , Karl, one of my closest friends, was at the bar on

the night of the shooting.

My wedding if it ever comes will be a source of great

relief to everyone in my family.

Instead of:

My wedding, if it ever comes, will be a source of great

relief to everyone in my family.

Write:

He was an interesting talker. A man who had

traveled all over the world, and lived in half a

dozen countries.

Instead of:

He was an interesting talker, a man who had

traveled all over the world, and lived in half a

dozen countries.

Write:

“Tức là...” can be translated as “I mean...”

but not as “It means...”.

After three years together you still aren’t happy. It

means, if you don’t love him then why don’t you

find someone else?

After three years together you still aren’t happy. I

mean, if you don’t love him then why don’t you find

someone else?

Instead of “I mean...” you can write “In other words...”

Process scheduling is an essential function of the

kernel of every modern operating system. I mean,

without it, there would be no multitasking.

Process scheduling is an essential function of the

kernel of every modern operating system. In other

words, without it, there would be no multitasking.

This phrase can not be used at the beginning of a sentence.

He could never wake up early in the morning. So

that he was always late for his first class.

He could never wake up early in the morning.

That’s why he was always late for his first class.

He could never wake up early in the morning.

Therefore he was always late for his first class.

He wanted to cut her picture up into tiny pieces so

that he could forget her more quickly.

The drain beneath the road was small and easily

clogged, so that every time a heavy rain came it

became flooded.

All nouns fit into one of the following cases:

• Proper Nouns: names of people, places, companies, operating systems

• Nouns with an article: a, the, my, your, our

• Plural nouns

• Uncountable nouns

Every time you hear a noun in English you must know the answer to these questions:

• Is it unique?

• Is it coutable?

• Is there one thing or more than one?

The

Article or Plural = countable, noun alone = uncountable.

Article or Plural

Hate causes suffering.

Sự thù hằn gây ra đau khổ.

Vietnamese: (sự thù hằn = hate, an uncountable noun)

English:

Cars cause air pollution.

Xe ô-tô làm ô nhiêm không khí.

Vietnamese: car – countable, plural, not unique air pollution: uncountable, not unique

English:

Cars make the air in Ha Noi more polluted.

Xe ô-tô làm cho không khí Hà Nội ô nhiêm hơn.

Vietnamese: car – countable, plural, not unique air in Ha Noi: uncountable, unique

English:

Uncountable nouns like love, life, ambition, and science can be written with the or without it.

The life / life

The love / love

The science / science

But adding the word “the” changes the meaning.

love

the love

the love love

“Love”: the idea of love in general. All kinds of love.

“The Love...”: a special kind of love. Not all love. Not love in general.

Love...

• ... isn’t just a feeling

• ... has to be felt to be understood.

• ... is just a waste of time.

• ... always forgives.

The love...

• ... of a mother for her child is the greatest love of all.

• ... that I have for you is only skin-deep.

• ... she felt for her sister was not enough to bring her back home.

1) Life is hard

2) Life of a college student is busy.

3) He has the ambition that is necessary for the leader of a large company.

4) A love like ours could never die.

The life is hard.

The life of a college student is busy.

He has ambition that is necessary for the leader of a large company.

The love like ours could never die.

Each of the sentences below is written twice. Choose the most correct version:

1) The love is the most important thing in the life.

2) The guilt is the feeling you get when you know that you have done something wrong.

The sentences below have some unnecessary articles. Identify the words that do not belong.

You are living the life.

English:

Bạn đang sống một đời sống thật là tuyệt vời!

Vietnamese:

You are living life.

English:

Bạn đang sống.

Vietnamese:

Should we pick up the girl before we go to the movie?

English:

Chúng ta có nên rủ cô ấy đi cùng trước khi chúng ta đi

xem phim? (tôi không nhớ tên cô ấy)

Vietnamese:

Should we pick up a girl before we go to the movie?

English:

Chúng ta có nên đi tán gái trước khi chúng ta đi xem

phim?

Vietnamese:

I’m looking for students.

English:

Tôi đang tuyển sinh.

Vietnamese:

I’m looking for the students.

English:

Tôi đang tìm lớp của tôi.

Vietnamese:

Can you feel the love tonight?

Can you feel the love tonight?

English:

Bạn có cảm nhận không khí yêu thương trong tối

nay không?

Vietnamese:

Do you feel love tonight?

English:

Bạn có cảm nhận được tình yêu trong tôi nay

không?

Vietnamese:

Get the car

English:

Đi lấy xe đi

Vietnamese:

Get a car

English:

Đi mua xe đi

Vietnamese: