English > Concise writing and grammar > Flashcards
Concise writing and grammar Flashcards
12 noon
Noon
12 midnight
Midnight
3 am in the morning
3 am
A person who is honest
An honest person
A total of 14 birds
14 birds
Close proximity / consensus of opinion
Proximity / consensus
frank and honest exchange
frank exchange or honest exchange
Free gift
Gift
he/she is a person who
he/she
in spite of the fact that
Although
in the event that
If
one and the same
the same
period of four days
four days
we are in receipt of
we have received
Instead of
the reason for
for the reason that
due to the fact that owing to the fact that considering the fact that on the grounds that
this is why
Because, since or why
despite the fact that regardless of the fact that
Although / even though
in the event that
if it should transpire/happen that under circumstances in which
If
Instead of
on the occasion of
in a situation in which
under circumstances in which
When
as regards
in reference to
with regard to concerning the matter of where . . . is concerned
About
it is crucial that
it is necessary that
there is a need/necessity it is important that
it is incumbent upon cannot be avoided
Must or should
is able to
has the opportunity to is in a position to
has the capacity for has the ability to
Can
it is possible that
there is a chance that it could happen that the possibility exists for
May, might, can or could
prior to
in anticipation of subsequent to following on
at the same time as simultaneously with
Before, after or as
What is the active voice?
In the active voice, the subject of a sentence performs the action. In the passive voice, though, the subject is acted on or receives the action. To fix this, ask yourself who or what performs the action. Once identified, make the person or thing that performs the action the subject of your sentence.
Turn this sentence into the active voice:
The kitten was helped out of the tree by the firemen.
The firemen helped the kitten out of the tree.
Is this sentence in the active voice?
The man must have eaten the hamburger.
Yes. The man (subject) is doing the eating (verb)
Is this sentence in the active voice?
Marilyn mailed the letter
Yes. Marilyn (subject) is doing the mailing (verb).
Is this sentence in the active voice?
Colourful parrots live in the rainforest
Yes. The parrots (subject) are doing the living (verb)
What is the passive voice?
In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position. Instead of saying, “Steve (subject) loves (action) Amy (object),” I would say, “Amy is loved by Steve.” The subject of the sentence becomes Amy, but she isn’t doing anything. Rather, she is just the recipient of Steve’s love. The focus of the sentence has changed from Steve to Amy.
If you wanted to make the title of the Marvin Gaye song passive, you would say “It was heard by me through the grapevine,” not such a catchy title anymore.
Turn these sentences into the active voice:
The letter was mailed by Steve
The pen is held by me.
The bone is loved by the dog.
Several suspects are being interrogated by the police.
Steve mailed the letter.
I hold the pen.
The dog loves the bone.
The police are interrogating several suspects.
In each sentence, the subject (Steve/I/Dog/Police) are doing the action (Mailing/holding/loving/interrogating) on the object (the recipient of the action)
Why is the active voice usually better than the passive voice (3 points)?
The passive voice is often wordy.
When sentences are in the passive voice, it is easy to leave out the person or thing doing the action (hidden subject), eg, ‘Amy is loved.’
The passive voice can be harder to understand because the subject taking the action is not at the start of the sentence, eg, ‘John (subject) is running a marathon’.
Why do politicians often use the passive voice? (Give three examples)
Politicians often use passive voice to intentionally obscure the idea of who is taking the action. Ronald Reagan famously said, “Mistakes were made,” when referring to the Iran-Contra scandal. Other examples of passive voice for political reasons could include “Bombs were dropped,” and “Shots were fired”.
What is a normal possessive and a double possessive?
You use possessives to indicate who owns what. If Squiggly owns a car, you say, “This is Squiggly’s car.” You use an apostrophe plus an “s” on the end of “Squiggly.” You can also form a possessive by using the word “of,” such as “The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.” (Of course, you could also say, “the United Kingdom’s Crown Jewels.”) These examples are just normal possessives. There’s nothing double about them. The confusion arises when you use both ways of making possessives at the same time, as in “a friend of Fred’s.” Here you have an apostrophe plus an “s” plus an “of.” Although such a double possessive is allowed, I personally prefer “Fred’s friend” over “a friend of Fred’s.” Why not just say, “He’s Fred’s friend”?
When is it correct to use double possessives?
Here’s a clear-cut rule that helps explain this: When you’re talking about inanimate objects—objects that aren’t alive, such as “the United Kingdom”—you can’t use a double possessive (2). According to The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, for a double possessive to be legal, the object of the preposition “of” has to be “definite and human.” In other words, it’s fine to say, “a friend of my uncle’s” but not “a friend of the museum’s.” You have to say, “a friend of the museum.” However, according to this rule, it would be OK to say, “He’s a friend of a friend’s,” but we’ve all heard the common expression “a friend of a friend.” I guess double possessives don’t always work.
What are infinitives?
To understand split infinitives, we first have to clearly define the word “infinitive.” Wikipedia defines “infinitive” as the unmarked form of a verb (1), but you really need examples to understand what that means. In English, there are two kinds of infinitives: bare infinitives and full infinitives. Bare infinitives are the kind of verbs you usually see in a dictionary, such as
go
sprinkle
run
split
Full infinitives are made up of two words, usually putting the word “to” in front of the bare verb:
to go
to sprinkle
to run
to split
What is a split infinitive?
A split infinitive puts an adverb between the two parts of the full infinitive. “To generously sprinkle” is a split infinitive because “generously” splits the word “to” from the word “sprinkle.”
If you want to remember what a split infinitive is, just remember what might be the most famous example: Star Trek’s “to boldly go where no one has gone before.” “To boldly go” is a split infinitive. “Boldly” splits “to go.”
