CSEC English
Our young students will be back to school this coming week, so this will be the last in our August series of Brush up your English . We hope you’ve enjoyed the reminders of things learnt in school (and maybe learnt a couple of new things too!)
MAKING A LIST OF PARALLEL ITEMS
That word ‘parallel’ makes most of us think of Maths. But we have the concept of parallelism in English too. Imagine that you are the secretary of some Board, and are taking notes for the minutes. As different members offer suggestions, you will perhaps jot down a rough list looking something like this: ● Invitations to send out ● Don’t forget to order the drinks ● Get someone in to wipe down the plastic chairs ● Suzy will lend me her extra glasses ● Making the ice cream—Karen’s job As the list stands (and most lists start out this way!) the items are not parallel. But now look at the same items in the following list:
We agreed we had to
● Send out the invitations ● Order the drinks ● Wipe down the plastic chairs ● Borrow extra glasses from Suzy ● Remind Karen to make the ice cream. Here the writer decided to make the items parallel by turning each item into a command—starting with the verb in the infinitive. But other ways are possible. Look:
There was so much to do:
● Invitations to be sent out ● Drinks to be ordered ● Plastic chairs to be wiped down ● Extra glasses to be borrowed from Suzy ● Ice cream to be made by Karen
This time the writer kept all the items parallel by starting with the noun, and then indicating what needed to be done. Notice that each item in the list must follow smoothly from the shared introductory statement (underlined).
That haphazard list that we started out with now looks and sounds much more professional, don’t you agree? And it’s because the items are now grammatically parallel.
For you to do
Think of a project—improving a classroom at a local school, upgrading the local community centre, turning the sea wall into an attractive tourist spot, suggesting strategies for dealing with traffic congestion.
First, make a list of what needs to be done, but don’t bother to keep the items parallel yet.
Now re-write your list. Write a suitable introductory statement (like our underlined statements) and then ensure that the items in your list all follow smoothly from that statement.
Try the exercise with gerunds, infinitives and starting with the noun as we have done above.
DESPITE AND ALTHOUGH
Take a look at these two sentences:
Although he apologized, she could not forgive him. Despite he apologized, she could not forgive him.
Question: Is either sentence incorrect? Answer: #B is incorrect.
Explanation: People usually have no difficulty with using ALTHOUGH. The problem comes when they try to substitute DESPITE for ALTHOUGH. It just doesn’t work. Look at #A again, and notice the grammatical pattern: Although he apologized, she could not forgive him. (Although + sub ject (he) and verb (apologized). In other words, ALTHOUGH intro duces a CLAUSE.
DESPITE is different. It needs to be followed by a NOUN (or its equiv alent—which we’ll explain in a minute):
● Despite her tiredness, she went on working ● Despite their disappointment, they played brilliantly until the final whistle.
Those two examples show DESPITE followed by a NOUN. We can also use DESPITE followed by a GERUND:
● Despite feeling nervous, she stepped briskly to the podium. ● Dad lay awake until morning despite having taken sleeping pills.
We can also use DESPITE followed by THE FACT THAT.
● Despite the fact that he was younger and shorter, Sal usually man aged to beat his big brother at squash.
Your turn now.
Look at this example: Although she had injured her knee, she managed to limp to the highway.
A. Despite having injured her knee, she managed to limp to the high
way. B. Despite the injury to her knee, she managed to limp to the highway.
First follow the pattern of #A (gerund), and then follow the pattern of #B (noun) to rewrite these sentences:
1. Although she felt anxious, Mum still went to the school. 2. Although she admired John, she didn’t want to marry him. 3. Although we appreciate your work, we can’t employ you any longer. 4. Although we arrived early, we missed our onward connection. 5. Although he was bored, he still took notes in the class. 6. Although she explained the problem, he was unsympathetic. 7. Although you encouraged me, I still felt nervous. Check the bottom of the page for the correct answers.
ONE OF/THE ONLY ONE OF
Take a close look at these two sentences:
A. One teacher was studying in the library. B. One of the teacher was studying in the library.
Question: Is anything wrong with either sentence? Answer: #A is correct, but #B is incorrect.
Explanation: In #B, we are talking about ONE out of a group, so it should be ONE OF THE TEACHERS WAS…. Even though the verb WAS follows a plural word (TEACHERS), it remains singular because it refers back to the singular word ONE.
Now take a close look at these two sentences:
A. My brother is the only one of the campers who knows how to fish. B. My brother is only one of the campers who know how to fish.
Question: Why is the verb KNOWS in #A and KNOW in #B?
Answer: Because in #A the pronoun WHO refers to THE ONLY ONE (and not to CAMPERS), and so the verb is singular (KNOWS): the only one who KNOWS…
But in #B the pronoun WHO refers to CAMPERS (not to MY BROTHER or to ONLY ONE) and so the verb is plural (KNOW): campers who KNOW…
Explanation: When we hear the word ‘ONE’ we start thinking ‘singular verb’. One is, one drinks, one finds, etc.
That singular ONE sometimes refers to ONE taken out of a group of many: One of the men, one of the children, one of the teachers, one of the bananas. In that situation, even though the word ONE suggests a singular, we need to remember that the ONE is taken out of a group that is plural.
PUT YOUR MONEY ON IT!! We guarantee that if you listen carefully this coming week, you will hear someone slipping up and saying something like ONE OF THE WORKER, ONE OF THE STUDENT, ONE OF THE GUARD. Make sure you are not that ‘some one’!! Despite her anxiety, her admiration for John, our appreciation of your work, our early arrival, his boredom, her explanation of the problem, your encour agement.