In fact, there are more!
- "They wants to know what time the flight departs," said Abu
- "Does we can improve it?" said the lady
- "Thats mean?" said the teacher student
Thus, another English blues. T_T
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| I just couldn't take it anymore at one point! |
At one point, I asked myself this one question over and over again.
Why oh why oh why? WHY?
Why can't people get their S-V-A right?
I remembered I learned my first lesson on S-V-A when I was in Primary Three. My English teacher, Madam Foong Lai Ming (bless her heart) seldom smiled in my class although we were only 9 years old kids fumbling in a new language. She had no sense of empathy or sympathy for the young ones. She was tough like a stone but we endured it like a brave soldier. Producing a sentence like, "They eats the cookies" back then, would have entitled me dedicating an entire book of the corrected sentence, 'they-eat-the-cookies', writing that sentence over and over again until the last page.
If you are familiar with that kind of punishment, then you would understand my feelings when people just don't know, or can't remember where to put their 'S's.
By the way, S-V-A means Subject Verb Agreement.
I know, I know.
Not everyone is as brilliant to memorize that plural pronoun (Eg: They, We, Ali and Abu) goes with plural form of verbs (root verb, without the 'S') and vice versa. Also, I noticed, although most people are aware of the S-V-A rule, not everyone can consciously practice it in real speech.
So, I decided today, I'd like to review the basic rules of S-V-A.
Ready?
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| Source taken from: Here |
Remember, if you have a serious S-V-A problem, you need to read up more about the rules and do more exercises so that you'll be more confident in structuring your sentences, be it in writing or when you speak. I'm sure you don't want to cause any English blues to anyone right?
That's all for now! Another English blues solved! Till then!
Thanks. :D
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ReplyDeleteLet's have a look at the three sample sentences:
ReplyDelete'"They wants to know what time the flight departs," said Abu'
Here, the -s is not plural: it is third person singular, and properly belongs with "he/she/it". It does not belong with "they", because "they" is plural. But it may be noted that in African English (Black English) "they eats" does occur!
'"Does we can improve it?" said the lady’
Here, there are two problems. "Does we" is of course impossible: "Do we" would often be correct. Often, but not here. Because we already have an auxiliary, "can", and that is enough; we need no supporting "Do", and instead we say, "Can we improve it?"
'"Thats mean?" said the teacher student'
This sentence is difficult to interpret. What was the speaker's intention? Was it to say, "What does that mean?" Because it now looks as if it says, "That is mean?", but that is not a proper question. The main verb, "mean", must have a supporting "do(es)", and therefore: "What does that mean?"
(By the way: how about "teacher student"? If this is a teacher who is still in training, then the word order should be reversed: "the student teacher".)
Good luck!