...versi ini sedang diterjemahkan ke bahasa Melayu...

Bahasa Inggeris Untuk Nimoiz:
Kursus Bahasa Inggeris Ringkas Untuk Penyair Berbahasa Melayu
© eSastera Enterprise (No. Pend. 001369352-U), 2002

Mula Terjemah: 20.05.2004
Siap Terjemah: Sedang Digarap.
Pengeditan Terakhir Versi Terjemahan: 30.09.2004.

A: Pendahuluan

Objectif Kursus:
Untuk memberi petunjuk tentang bahasa Inggeris mudah kepada penyair yang berbahasa Melayu.

Audiens Sasaran:
Kursus ini direka bentuk untuk kategori pembaca yang berikut: he course is designed for the following category of people: Someone who knows enough English words and has the ability to arrange these words into a meaningful composition to enable him to communicate his ideas to others. The focus here is to improve on that ability so that appropriate words and good grammar are used all the time.

Main Reference(s):
The contents of the course materials are prepared based on the following publication(s):
1. Milon Nandy. "Mastering English The Easy Way", Pelanduk Publications, 2002.
2. "Uses of Grammar", Kumpulan Rusa, 1997.
3. E. S. Ramaswamy. "Practical English Grammer", Kuala Lumpur: Golden Book Centre Sdn. Bhd., 1997.

B: Indeks
(Not availabe at the moment)

C: Kandungan
(You may "jump" from one point in the course material to another by using the hyperlinks provided. However, for the first reading, you are encouraged to read the materials in the order presented):

Module 1. Introduction
Module 2. About the Course
Module 3. Adding In The "the"
Module 4. The Articles (I)
Module 5. From "kampung" To "country"
Module 6. Of One and More
Module 7. The Articles (II)
Module 8. Plurals
Module 9. Comparison
Module 10. As A Matter Of Fact...
Module 11. The Corrected Statement

D: Nota Kursus

Modul 1: Pengenalan

1.1 English is the most-widely used language. It is native to the people of England. At the moment, English has become native to America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
1.2 Nimoiz T.Y is a 19-year old Malay poet and engineering undergraduate from the state of Kelantan, Malaysia, currently studying civil engineering at KUiTTHO, who wrote the following paragraph in an Internet on-line-community noteboard:

"My vocab in english language is very lower. Maybe,i'm come from village and always use 'bahasa kelate' when talking with parents and friend.So,Anybody like to transalate my poems in Berita Minggu(my first poem in mass media), please send e-mail to me. When send e-mail, please write in malay language.Thank you."

Back to Contents Listing

Modul 2: Tentang Kursus Ini

2.1 I will concentrate mainly on two aspects of the English language, namely: (a) vocabulary, and (b) grammar
2.1.1 As for vocabulary, I will try to introduce to you "useful" words and expressions, i.e. words and expressions that I think are not very simple but are good for you to know.
2.1.2 As for grammar, I will try to explain some of the "awkward" English ways of saying things as compared to Malay.
2.1.3 I will also cover "figures of speech" (especially similies and metaphors).

2.2 As far as the delivery methodology is concerned, I will use the "first person (I) to second person (you) talking" method.

2.3 I am no expert in the English language. If you find any error in the teaching materials, please point it out. I do not mind at all.

2.4 Please note that English, like any other language, cannot be learned simply by learning the words and the grammatical rules. They must be applied. (a) There is no substitute to reading to improve your language. I recommend that you spend an hour everyday reading materials in English. From my experience, the "Malay Mail" newspaper gives good reading as far as learning English is concerned. (b) Speaking and writing are also important means to improve your language. You are welcomed to use our community's noteboard to practice.

2.5 At the end of the course materials, there is a word list which gives the Malay equivalents of the more difficult English words used in this course materials.

Back to Contents Listing

Modul 3: Menambahkan "the"

3.1 Let us start the course by looking at the noteboard statement made by Nimoiz as stated above. (I have added in the spaces after the punctuations where they are absent, and corrected the wrong letter cases as well as the careless spellings which are typical of noteboard statements):

"My vocabulary in English language is very lower. Maybe, I'm come from village and always use 'bahasa Kelate' when talking with parents and friend. So, anybody like to translate my poems in Berita Minggu (my first poem in mass media), please send e-mail to me. When send e-mail, please write in Malay language. Thank you."

The words are reasonably apt. The arrangement is logical. One can easily understand what Nimoiz is saying. Let us focus on the expressions “English language” and “Malay language”. (These are highlighted with the green color in the paragraph).

Tips 1: Just remember that the expressions “English language”, "Malay language", and the like, require the article “the” before them. You must write “the English language”, “the Malay language”, “the French language”, etc. I will discuss the use of the articles “the” and “a” in the next Module 4. So, Nimoiz’s statement should be improved to give the following:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very lower. Maybe, I'm come from village and always use 'bahasa Kelate' when talking with parents and friend. So, anybody like to translate my poems in Berita Minggu (my first poem in mass media), please send e-mail to me. When send e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

3.1.1 Please note that "the English language" is called "English" and "the Malay language" is called "Malay". So, if you wish, you can actually replace these expressions by their equivalents to give the following:

"My vocabulary in English is very lower. Maybe, I'm come from village and always use 'bahasa Kelate' when talking with parents and friend. So, anybody like to translate my poems in Berita Minggu (my first poem in mass media), please send e-mail to me. When send e-mail, please write in Malay. Thank you."

Back to Contents Listing

Module 4: Artikel-artikel

4.1 The grammatical parameter called “the articles” are the words “a” and “the”. Under certain circumstances (which will be elaborated later), the word “a” is written “an”. Thus the first article is normally written “a/an”.

4.2 The article “the” is called the “definite article”. The article “a/an” is called the “indefinite article”.

4.3 The difference between the two articles are as follows:

(a) “the” points to a definite or particular person, thing, or place. (We use “the” to refer to a thing, person, or place we are sure of and not to just any person, thing, or place.)
(b) “a/an” refers to any one person, thing, or place. It does not refer to a particular person, thing, or place.

4.3.1 Consider the following Malay sentence:

Ali: “Saya sedang mencari isteri.”

The sentence is ambiguous. It may means that Ali is looking for a girl to marry (or for any married woman). It may also means that Ali is looking for his wife (who is probably lost in the crowd). In English, the meaning of the sentence can be made specific:

Ali 1: “I am looking for a wife.”
Ali 2: “I am looking for the wife.”

Ali 1 is looking for a girl (not sure who the girl is) to marry. (He may also be looking for any married woman, i.e. anyone’s wife). Ali 2 is looking for his wife (i.e. a particular or definite person).

4.4 To summarise, we can say that “the” and not “a/an” is used for the followings:

(a) To point out a person, thing, or place already spoken of (i.e. a particular person, thing, or place). Eg.: He was the boy who came out first in the poetry writing competition.

(b) To describe things of which there is only one in existence: the earth, the sun, the moon, the world, the universe, the Queen of England, the Sultan of Johore, the jailed ex-Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, etc.

(c) Before the names of (i) famous buildings, (ii) bodies of water and highlands, (iii) important books, and (iv) certain organizations. Examples: (i) the Taj Mahal, the Twin Towers, (ii) the Straits of Johore, the Himalayas, (iii) the Koran, the Bible, and (iv) the United Nations, the Red Crescent.

(d) When a singular noun is used to refer to a whole class, race, group, etc. Example: The lion is a strong animal. (refers to any lion or all lions).

(e) Before an adjective when the noun is understood. Example: The poor need help. (the noun “people” which is described by the adjective “poor” is understood). A point to remember: “the” is pronounced “thi” before a word which begins with a vowel. Eg. The (say: thi) umbrella.

4.5 “a/an” is used when you are referring to any person, thing, or place. Eg.: Give me a pen. (refers to any pen).

4.5.1 How do you decide to use either “a” or “an”? Quite simple, really.

(a) You use “a” before words which begin with a consonant. Eg.: a house.
(b) You use “an” before words which begins with a vowel. Eg.: an elephant.
(c) Please note the following exceptions: (i) if a word begins with a long “U” sound (i.e. having the sound of “you”), use “a” instead of “an”. Eg.: a university; a uniform; a useful hint; a European. (ii) if a word begins with a silent “H” (i.e. the H sound is not pronounced), use “an” instead of “a”. Eg.: an honest person; an hour; an heir; an honour; an hornet; an honourable person.

4.6 A point to remember: Do not use “articles” in the following circumstances:

(a) Before the name of a proper noun (a person, a place, etc). Eg.: Kuala Lumpur is a busy city.
(b) Before the name of a material. Eg.: His company exports rubber.
(c) Before abstract noun. Eg.: They speak with wisdom.

4.7 By the way, I hope you do realise now that:

(i) the expression "mass media" falls under category 4.4(d). Thus, it has to be written with the article "the"; and
(ii) the word "e-mail" falls under category 4.5 and 4.5.1(a). Thus, it has to be written with the article "an". Nimoiz's statement now becomes:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very lower. Maybe, I'm come from village and always use 'bahasa Kelate' when talking with parents and friend. So, anybody like to translate my poems in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

Tips 2: Always write "the mass media".
Tips 3: Always write "I am in the process of ... (doing something)".

Back to Contents Listing

Modul 5: Dari "kampung" ke "country"

Please have a look at Nimoiz's (modified) statement again:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very lower. Maybe, I'm come from village and always use 'bahasa Kelate' when talking with parents and friend. So, anybody like to translate my poems in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

There is a simple error due to carelessness in Nimoiz’s statement. The expression “I’m” should be written simply as “I” (saya, aku). I will not discuss this simple error here. I will just apply the correction right away. Nimoiz’s statement now becomes:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very lower. Maybe, I come from village and always use 'bahasa Kelate' when talking with parents and friend. So, anybody like to translate my poems in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

I want to focus on the sentence:

"Maybe, I'm come from village and always use 'bahasa kelate' when talking with parents and friend.”

This is a “multiple sentence” which can be broken up into three “simple sentences” (we will discuss “sentences” later, insya-Allah):

1. Maybe, I come from village.
2. Maybe, I always use ‘bahasa kelate’ when talking with parents.
3. Maybe, I always use ‘bahasa kelate’ when talking with friend.

I want to focus on sentence 1:

Maybe I come from village.

I will remove the word “Maybe” for this analysis and concentrate on the rest of the sentence (which itself is a complete simple sentence):

“I come from village.”

Anyone who knows both English and Malay can guess that Nimoiz is thinking in Malay while writing this sentence. The word “village” here is the Malay equivalent for “kampung”. (Saya datang dari kampung). There is a “tricky” situation here. Normally, the Malay word “kampung” is “village” in English. However, in Nimoiz’s sentence, “kampung” is not written in the sense of “a defined area where people live”. It is used in the sense of “a singular noun pointing out a whole class”. [See Module 4.4(d)]. In simpler terms, “kampung” here refers to “the rural area” rather to any individual “village”. Unfortunately, the English word “village” is not like the Malay word “kampung”. The English word “village” does not carry the meaning of “the rural area (as a whole)". Hence, Nimoiz’s statement, should be rewritten as follows:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very lower. Maybe, I come from the rural area and always use 'bahasa Kelate' when talking with parents and friend. So, anybody like to translate my poems in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

Can you replace the expression “the rural area” with a single word equivalent to the Malay word “kampung”? (Remember “kampung” here is not “village”). The answer is “yes”. The expression “rural area” in English is the same as the word “country”. For example, “budak kampung” is “country lad” in English. (Please note that the word “country” has another meaning –negara. Do not be confused by it). Hence Nimoiz’s sentence now becomes:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very lower. Maybe, I come from the country and always use 'bahasa Kelate' when talking with parents and friend. So, anybody like to translate my poems in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

Vocabulary 1: (a) The rural area (or “kampung”) in English is “the country”. (b) countryman (or countrywoman) is someone who lives in the rural area. (c) countryside is a rural area. (d) your "fellow-countryman" is someone who comes from the same country (negara) as you.

Vocabulary 1 These two pairs of words I learned when I was a young school boy but I found them to be very useful throughtout life: consequent (kon-si-kuen) and subsequent (sab-si-kuen); appropriate (ap-pro-pri-yate) and deteriorate (di-ter-rio-rate); Please look up their meanings in the dictionary and remember them by heart. Use them when you have the chance to.

Back to Contents Listing

Module 6: Tentang Satu atau Lebih

Before we move any further, let us look at the expression 'bahasa Kelate' which is coloured green in the latest version of Nimoiz's statement, as given below:

The expression 'bahasa Kelate' ("bahasa Kelantan" in standard Malay) written within the quotation sign, is proper. However, let us do some refinement by translating the expression into English. Of course, "bahasa" is "language" in English. However, "bahasa" in the expression 'bahasa Kelate' is more aptly translated as "dialect" since 'bahasa Kelantan' is merely a dilect of the Malay language. Using "Kelantanese" as the adjective for Kelantan, we can thus rewrite Nimoiz's statement as follows:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very lower. Maybe, I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friend. So, anybody like to translate my poems in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

6.1 Now that the refining process is complete, let us focus on the words "friend" and "poems" which are coloured green in Nimoiz's statement (latest version):

6.1.1 We can easily identify the folowings: (a) From the context, we gather that when Nimoiz wrote "friend", he was actually referring to more than one. Thus the correct word is "friends". (b) When Nimoiz wrote "my poems in Berita Minggu", he was referring to one poem as indicated in his subsequent statement, "my first poem in the mass media". Thus the word "poems" should be written "poem". Nimoiz's statement can now be corrected further as follows:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very lower. Maybe, I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends. So, anybody like to translate my poem in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

6.1.2 Of course, adding an "s" to indicate the plural sense is a simple enough concept to understand. Nimoiz did not make the mistake due to ignorance (lack of knowledge) but rather due to carelessness. In any case, we will continue to study this issue since there are "traps" (exceptions) involved. However, we will do that a little bit later on. As for now, I want to return to the articles discussed in Module 4.

Modul 7: Article-artikel (II)

7.1 An “adjective” is a word that describes a “noun” (person, thing, or place). It tells us something about the noun. It is always written before the noun. Example: big house.

7.2 Let us now recall the articles (“a/an” and “the”) that we discussed in Module 4. If you have been observing carefully, you would have noticed that all the words to which I have added the articles are nouns. Hence two questions arise here: (i) Are the articles attached to nouns ONLY? The answer is YES. The articles are actually “adjectives”. They are attached to (and before) nouns only. (ii) Do you have to attach one of the articles to ALL nouns? The answer is YES, with some exceptions. We will elaborate on the exceptions here.

7.3 Let us first identify all the nouns and the articles attached to them in Nimoiz’s statement. (The nouns are colored red and the articles green in the following latest version of Nimoiz’s statement.):

The words in blue are adjectives that describes the nouns concerned. They answer the question "what kind of?" about the nouns. They are called descriptive adjectives (or adjectives of quality).

7.4 You would have noticed that:

(i) some of the nouns do not have articles attached to them. They are: (a) vocabulary (b) I (c) parents (d) friends (e) anybody (f) poem (g) Berita Minggu (h) first poem (i) me (j) you
(ii) articles are also attached to nouns with descriptive adjectives already applied to the nouns, and, for those nouns, the articles are written before the adjectives.

7.5 As a rule, articles are not required under the following circumstances:

(1) before proper nouns (name of a person, place, etc.), or pronouns that replace them.
(2) before names of materials (gold, rubber, etc.)
(3) before abstract nouns used in a general sense (beauty, wisdom, etc.)
(4) if another adjective is already applied except adjective of quality (descriptive adjective). No articles needs to be applied before the following adjectives: (a) adjective of quantity (five, many, some, much, a little), (b) possessive adjective (my, your, her, his, our, their), (c) interrogative adjective (which, what, whose), and (d) the demonstrative adjectives "this", "these", "that", and "those").
(5) in special expressions which are defined figures of speech: for example, (a) thank you, (b) at school, (c) going to bed. All such expressions have specific meanings.

7.6 Those words in Nimoiz's statement that do not have articles associated with them, do not have the articles for the following reasons:

(a) vocabulary: 7.5(4)(b) - the possessive adjective "my" is already applied.
(b) I: 7.5(1) - a pronoun.
(c) parents: 7.5(4)(b) - the possessive adjective "my" is already applied, although, in this case, it is optionally dropped.
(d) friends: 7.5(4)(b) - the possessive adjective "my" is already applied, although, in this case, it is optionally dropped.
(e) anybody: 7.5(1) - a pronoun.
(f) poem: 7.5(4)(b) - the possessive adjective "my" is already applied.
(g) Berita Minggu: 7.5(1) - a proper name.
(h) first poem: 7.5(4)(b) - the possessive adjective "my" is already applied.
(i) me: 7.5(1) - a pronoun.
(j) you: 7.6 - a special expression "thank you".

Module 8: Plurals

8.1 Nouns which can be counted are called countable nouns. They have plurals. (There are a few exceptions, of course.) Examples of countable nouns are books, flowers, and houses.

8.2 Generally, a plural is indicated by adding an "s" at the end of the respective word. Eg. one book, three books.

8.2.1 Most words ending with the vowel "o" are made plurals by adding "es" at the end. Eg. one potato, twelve potatoes.
8.2.2 Most words ending with the consonant "y" are made plurals by changing the "y" into "ies". Eg. one body, many bodies.
8.2.3 Certain words are made plurals by other means, eg. by changing their spellings. Eg. one man, three men; one child, two children.
8.2.4 A number of words do not have the plural form. They remain the same when functioning as plurals. Eg. five sheep; ten fish; some information. (Note: the word "fishes" does exist but it refers to "different kinds of fish", not to "more that one fish".)

8.3 Nouns that cannot be counted are referred to as "uncountables nouns".

8.3.1 Uncountable nouns do not have indefinite articles "a/an".
8.3.2 Most uncountable nouns do not have plurals.
8.3.3 The following are examples of uncountable nouns: (a) all fluids (gases: air, oxygen, carbon dioxide; liquids: water, oil, ink, milk) (b) certain solids (you have to remember this by heart: sugar, salt, rice, butter, wool) (c) abstract nouns (annoyance, complaint, consolation, courage, difficulty, effort, help, pleasure, satisfaction): some of them have plurals.
8.3.4 "Money" is an uncountable noun but "coins" and "dollar notes" are countable nouns.

8.4 To "count" countables nouns, the following words are used: (a) one, two, three, etc. (two spoons) (b) many (many spoons) (c) a few (a few spoons) (d) few (few spoons) (e) several (several spoons)

8.4.1 To "count" uncountables nouns, we use the following words: (a) little (little sugar) (b) much (much water) (c) a little (a little salt) (d) a lot of (a lot of rice) (e) lots of (lots of money)
8.4.2 The words "some " and "any" can be used for both countable nouns and uncountable nouns. (some flowers; some water; any book; any money) TIPS. Remember this strict rule ot the English language: Always use the plural form when more-than-one of anything is involved. It is WRONG not to use the plural form. This rule is very different from that of the Malay language.

Vocabulary 2 Please remember the correct meanings and usages of the following pair of words:
personal = an adjective derived from the root word "person"; meaning: of or for a particular person (eg. personal favour, personal interview, personal beauty, personal remarks).
personnel = all the people being employed in a certain organisation.

Module 9: Comparison

Let me take you back to Nimoiz's last corrected statement:

I now want ot focus on the first sentence: "My vocabulary in the English language is very lower". Look at the last word "lower" which I have highlighted in red. The word "lower" is derived from the root word "low". The part "-er" is always added to indicate a comparison. I want to discuss comparison here to justify making correction to the sentence "My vocabulary in the English language is very lower".

9.1 A comparison is applied to adjectives only. Since "low" is an adjective, it has been applied by Nimoiz to a correct word.

9.2 There are three degrees of comparison: Positive: basic adjective (eg. "small") Comparative: second degree comparison; comparing two items (eg. "small" becomes "smaller"). Superlative: third, and highest, degree of comparison; comparing three items and more (eg. "small" becomes "smallest").

9.2.1 Hence we have the "standard" comparison where the adjectives are modified as follows: big, bigger, biggest. large, larger, largest. noisy, noisier, noisiest.
9.2.2 A smaller number of adjectives do not take fhe form +er and +est. Instead we need to use the word "more" and "most" to compare. Eg. beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful.
9.2.3 There are adjectives that cannot be compared. Eg. perfect golden circular square unique
9.2.4 The word "more" can be applied to the "positive" adjectives. The word "much" can be applied to the "comparative" adjectives (but you need to remember which one to apply): more (happy; strong) much (better; worse; harder)
9.2.5 Remember that the "comparative degree" must be used only when "two things" or "two groups of things" are being compared: (a) He is the taller of the two man. (b) He is taller than all other man. (Two groups are involved here: "he" versus "all other men").
9.2.6 Remember that the "superlative degree" must be used only when "three or more things" or "three or more groups of things" are being compared: (a) He is the tallest of the three man. (b) She is the most beautiful of the 45 girls in the class.
9.2.7 When the pronoun "other" is used before a noun, the "comparative" must be used: The giant is taller than all other men.

9.3 Some of the adjectives that cannot be compared are as follows: (a) shape (circular, oblong, round, square, triangular, four-footed) (b) material (golden, vegetable) (c) time (weekly, monthly, annually) (d) place (celestial, insular) (e) qualities in the highest degree (eternal, perfect, unique) (f) qualities in a moderate degree (reddish, palish)

9.4 Let us go back to the first sentence of Nimoiz's statement: "My vocabulary in the English language is very lower". What is Nimoiz comparing? Nothing! There is no "two-or-more things" being referred to. Nimoiz was referring to a single item, which is "My vocabulary in the English language". Since there is only one item, no comparison can be made. The basic adjective (positive degree) "low" should be used. Nimoiz's sentence should be written as: "My vocabulary in the English language is very low". Up to now, we can say that Nimoiz's statement should be written as follows:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very low. Maybe, I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends. So, anybody like to translate my poem in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

Module 10: As A matter of Fact...

Let us now focus on Nimoiz's second sentence in the corrected statement:

"Maybe, I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends."

As I mentioned earlier, I am no expert in the English language. However, being an "active user" of the language, I am able to "feel" that there is something wrong with the sentence. (That is why we need to read and use the language often so as to develop the "feel" for the language, and thus be able to handle it properly without having to know the exact rules of grammar). Nimoiz's second sentence is, as a matter of fact, grammatically correct. Unfortunately, as it is, it is factually incorrect. (I am purposely using some twisted language here to confuse you, hahaha...) What the sentence is saying is that Niomiz thinks (but he is not sure -- he says "maybe") that he comes from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends". This is, of course, factually not correct because Nimoiz KNOWS (for sure) that "he comes from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends". What Nimoiz is not certain is whether his "low vocabulary in the English language" is BECAUSE "he comes from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends". Hence, the second sentence should be written:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very low because I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends."

I have taken out the word "maybe" to make the sentence clearer. The first two sentences thus become:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very low. My vocabulary in the English language is very low because I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends."

These sentences can be shortened by joining them using the conjunction "because":

"My vocabulary in the English language is very low + My vocabulary in the English language is very low because I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends = My vocabulary in the English language is very low because I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends ."

Otherwise, the repeating clause in the second sentence can be shortened by using "it":

"My vocabulary in the English language is very low. It is because I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends."

I will now add back at he word "maybe" to indicate Nimoiz's uncertainty. The full statement now becomes:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very low. Maybe, it is because I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends. So, anybody like to translate my poem in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

Back to Contents Listing

Module 11: The Singular Verb

A verb must agree with its subject in NUMBER and PERSON. A subject of the singular number, first person requires a verb of singular number , first person, etc. The subject "anybody" is singular. Hence the verb "like" should take the singular form: "likes". (REMEMBER: A verb takes an "s" to become singular).

I will now apply the correction to Nimoiz's statement:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very low. Maybe, it is because I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends. So, anybody likes to translate my poem in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

Back to Contents Listing

Module 12: The Corrected Statement

Let us now look at Nimoiz's statement with all the corrections made up to now:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very low. Maybe, it is because I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends. So, anybody likes to translate my poem in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When send an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

I will now made another two corrections so that the statement is correct throughout:

"My vocabulary in the English language is very low. Maybe, it is because I come from the country and always use the Kelantanese dialect when talking with parents and friends. So, anybody who likes to translate my poem in Berita Minggu (my first poem in the mass media), please send an e-mail to me. When sending an e-mail, please write in the Malay language. Thank you."

We now have a correctly written statement. I do not wish to explain the last two corrections which I made. I know they have to be made but I think it is too tedious for me to explain them to you. Please ask your English language teacher. Or, maybe, some of the members here may wish to help.

TAMAT.