amy2kyo

And then I found another writeup on English grammar. It’s about the suffixes.

Knowing these simple rules can help you remember how to spell words when confusing suffixes are added.

One of the problems in spelling English words is to know what to do with the final ‘e’ of a base word when a suffix that begins with a vowel is added.

In 4S, a number of simple rules are taught to address this spelling issue.

The 4S Key to Understanding Spelling teaches: When a word ends in a vowel, it is usually dropped before any suffix beginning with a vowel is added.

Consider the words brave, bake, use, defame, and inquire.

In each case, the final ‘e’ is dropped when suffixes beginning with a vowel or the semi-vowel ‘y’ are added.

Thus, brave: > braving – braved – braver – bravest – bravery.

The exceptions to this rule are few and involve some words ending in “ce” and “ge”.

Sometimes “ce” and “ge” words drop the final ‘e’, while at other times they retain it when “able” or “ous” is added.

Consider these examples: trace: > tracing – traceable, while change: > changing – changeable.

Note also prestige: > prestigious.

It is optional to use “usable” or “useable”, as both are correct.

The rule usually applies to words ending in two vowels, i.e. the final ‘e’ is dropped when a suffix is added.

Consider these examples: true: > truly; glue: > glued; toe: > toed.

The special exception “toeing” where the final ‘e’ is retained, needs to be remembered.

For and fore

We shall now consider a number of other common spelling issues.

The first one is: When do we spell with ‘for’ and when to use ‘fore’?

If the word being spelt has “before” or “in front of” as part of its meaning, ‘fore’ is used instead of ‘for’.

Consider these examples: forefront, forecast, foreground, forefather.

All these words refer in some way to “the front” or “before” something.

Now compare these words: forbid, forget, forsake, forlorn, forfeit.

To help solve problems spelling words with “cede”, “ceed” or “sede”, the 4S Key teaches: Most multi-syllabic words ending in the ‘seed..’ sound are spelt with the symbol combination ‘cede’.

Consider these words: precede, recede, concede.

This issue is made easier when it is realised that only three multi-syllabic words end in “ceed”, i.e. proceed, exceed, succeed and that only the word “supersede” ends in “sede”.

Another problem all learners have is dealing with words that change or are “shortened” when certain suffixes are added.

This problem is made more difficult because of the difference between American and traditional English spelling of some “or” and “our” words.

It is easy to remember this Key: Words ending in “our” shorten to “or” when some suffixes are added.

In traditional English, adding “ous”, “ary”, “ate” and “ist” to “our” ending words changes the “our” to “or”.

Consider these examples: humour > humorous – glamour > glamorous – vigour > vigorous – honour > honorary.

Some words that end in “er” are shortened to ‘r’ when certain suffixes are added.

Such words are exceptions and need to be committed to memory.

While adding “ance”, “y” and “ous” to “er” ending words can sometimes change the “er” to “r”, most “er” ending words simply add “y”.

Consider these examples: enter > entrance – minister > ministry – carpenter > carpentry – wonder > wondrous.

Now compare: summer > summery – rubber > rubbery – water > watery – discover > discovery.

Able or ible?

Like “ance” and “ence”, choosing between “able” or “ible” depends on whether these suffixes are clearly an “add-on” or are an integral part of the word.

If a word retains its root word when it is pronounced and can be seen to be a word in its own right, “able” is usually added. “Ible” is used when it is an integral part of the word.

Consider these “able” words: teachable – perishable – available – considerable – respectable. The “base” word makes sense by itself.

Sometimes, the final ‘e’ of the base word is dropped but the full sound of the “root” is still retained. Consider: usable – lovable – removable.

Now consider these “ible” words: audible – tangible – edible – incredible – horrible.

These base words do not make sense until the suffix ‘ible’ has been added. Thus, the suffix is integral to its understanding.

However, there are of course exceptions.

There are some “complete” words that end in ‘ible’.

These should be grouped into a special word family, used in context and – sorry, no shortchuts – committed to memory: e.g. contemptible, responsible, flexible, sensible, digestible, convertible, resistible, impressible, forcible, and so on.

· Keith Wright is the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S).

The 4S methodology and the associated Accelerated English Programme (AEP) mentioned in this fortnightly column are now being used internationally to enhance the English language proficiency of people from a diverse range of cultures and with different competency levels.

E-mail
contact@4Sliteracy.com.au for your free copy of The Spelling Guide.

Wow, such a big word. What’s idioglossia? The explanation I get from Wikipedia is this:

Idioglossia refers to an idiosyncratic language, one invented and spoken by only one or very few people. Most often, idioglossia refers to the “private languages” of young children, especially twins, the latter which is more specifically known as cryptophasia, and commonly referred to as twin talk or twin speech.

Children who are exposed to multiple languages from birth are also inclined to create idioglossias, but these languages usually disappear at a relatively early age, giving way to use of one or more of the languages introduced.

_____________________________________________________________________

While browsing the papers this morning, I found these writeups and find them really interesting.

Two poems on the peculiarities of pronunciation and the plural form in English.

English is tough stuff

Excerpt from The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité

DEAREST Creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.

I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)

Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.

But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.

Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.

And your pronunciation’s OK

When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.

Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.

Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.

Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.

Refer does not rhyme with deafer.

Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.

Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.

We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.

Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.

Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.

Tour, but our and succour, four.

Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.

Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.

Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.

Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.

Heron, granary, canary.

Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.

Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.

Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation – think of Psyche!

Is a paling stout and spikey?

Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?

It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough –
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?

Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!

Why English is so hard

Anonymous

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren’t invented in England.

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.

We have noses that run and feet that smell.

We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother’s not Mop?

Here’s the thing. I went to Maybank to drop in a cheque and to withdraw some money. Happily, I walked to one of the ATM and click click click. Usually, we’ll have to wait for the transaction to be processed by the machine, remove the bank card and get the money. Right. I removed my card and waited for the cash. I waited for quite some time and the card removal thingy kept on making noise. I suspected something fishy. So I waited, waited and waited… to no avail. The screen showed “Transaction is cancelled, please look for our Customer Service Officer.” and the machine suddenly went OUT OF SERVICE! Gosh! This is scary. Quickly I went to the Kaunter Pertanyaan. The guy checked and helped me to lodge a report. Clearly he knows it wasn’t my fault! Phew! He said the money will auto-reverse back into the account since it’s a Maybank ATM and Maybank account bank card. He asked me to call the banker after 30minutes to check whether the money goes back into my account.

So, I called and called, and got to talk to Pn XXXX after an hour because the phone was engaged the WHOLE TIME! Fine. She said she’ll fax the report to the ATM Centre and do whatever she needs to and call me back after that.

What a scary and crazy experience.

**Updates

The banker just called and it’s settled. I got back my money! Woohooo! Lesson learnt: Always withdraw money from the bank and during office hour to avoid troubles.

Money makes a person happy.

Money makes a person go crazy.

Money makes a person go out of control.

Money makes a person envious of others.

Owning lots of money …

Have you ever dream of having lots of money?

As I’m writing this, I’m 30k above the sea level, on my way to Hong Kong. Excited, indeed I am.

One obvious thing in the lavatory, there is a sign saying no smoking, but there is an astray below it. Funny, right?

Then I saw another phrase that says ‘No Stowage.’ It’s a new word to me and hilariously I thought they mispelt it, as in ‘storage.’ Silly me! Stowage has its meaning – compartment in a ship, in this case a flying one.

Well, HK Disneyland was fun. That’s all I can say. You have to experience it yourself at least once before you die. Seriously! And and HK is a haven of shopping. I wish there were lots of factory outlets here.

Distance. Distant.

Sometimes it’s just plain difficult for a couple to be in love and be separated due to some circumstances. It needs a lot of trust and a lot a lot of patience.

Been asked today on how we got into the relationship. Honestly I needed some time to recall. Haha. I’m not forgetful, no one asked after so long, so that’s why.

It’s nice to bring back those memories. To some it may sound funny, to me, it’s one of the sweetest moments.

Being a kid of the millenium era would made one to be extra smart or extra dependent on sources that can make one smart.

Being the ones who receive education could be less fortunate if the ones who teach aren’t accelerating at the rightful speed. What’s to become to our kids if one day the standard of education rises to its peak? If ever the educators take anything for granted, the ones who suffer are the kids. Not considering which background they are from.

Not to mention the quality of the educators.

Not to mention the honesty.

It’s an eyesore, it’s a heartache.

Really, it’s that bad.

But then again, ignorance is bliss.

Something funny happened during lesson today.

Scene: In the middle of a dictation.

Teacher was dictating “… a popular cartoon by Walt Disney.”

Teacher: Now who can tell me about Walt Disney.

Pupil 1: Walt Disney is a brand of clothes.

Pupil 2: It’s a cartoon.

Pupil 3: It’s a company that show cartoons on tv. [not a bad answer]

Pupil 4: Walt Disney is a name of a channel on Astro. [haha]

Teacher: All wrong!! Walt Disney is a name of a person!!

Pupils: Ooohhhh! I know.

Lol.

Having a tough time doing this! The solutions are there, so obvious! Why can’t they see them? This is really a heart-breaking scene. Super sigh. Maybe we should just give them those solutions instead. Zzzzzz

How much do we have to do to ensure they can be high flyers if there isn’t enough effort from themselves? Do we only facilitate them to find solutions or do we have to show them the way out?Does the monthly contribution force them to think that they should transfer the responsibility to others? Is their mind filled with tonnes with confidence that they do not believe in multiple-checking before submission? How difficult would it be to answer a simple question? How much time does it take to make sure answers are all correct?

Why is this happening?