Lavengro

Thursday eGEM: angina

Sometimes misunderstandings can be serious!

This screenshot is from the ebook of Peter Harvey's Great English Mistakes made by Spanish speakers. It is viewed in Adobe Digital Editions, a free reader that is required to read the ebook. When ADE is installed and registered the book can be read on any registered device. On the left is a list of contents with clickable links, and the hyperlinks in the text act as cross references.

For an explanation of the phonetic symbols used in Lavengro Books ebooks, and of the reason for using them, click here.

A collection of screen shots can be seen here.

To buy books click here.

Lavengro Books: www.lavengrobooks.com

Reviews of Great English Mistakes

An easy-to-read and user-friendly book … grammar receives careful attention … may benefit both intermediate and advanced students of English … Teachers of English may also find it useful. Fernando Chueca, TESOL Spain Newsletter 33/1, July 2009*

While [this book] is clearly aimed at the Spanish-speaking learner of English it is also valuable for the teacher of English working in a Spanish-speaking environment … [it highlights] many of the false friends which exist … Translations show the learner what words do, and, equally importantly, do not mean … with a wealth of real-life examples which are sometimes humorous, the book is very readable … There is certainly a gap in the market for such a book … of all the many English language books I have on my bookshelf, this is the only one that has a long waiting list of Spanish-speaking friends wanting to borrow it. Modern English Teacher 18/3, July 2009*

Dear Mr Harvey, Let me congratulate you on your latest book, it's what every single student of English in Spain needs. http://howadultslearn.wikispaces.com

*Full reviews on www.lavengrobooks.com

 

Stephen Fry on language pedantry

Stephen Fry is, according to Wikipedia, ‘an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director and a director of Norwich City Football Club.’ In this interesting video he makes a statement against pedantry in language. The accompanying video material is fascinating in itself.

Monday eGELU: mathematical terms, arithmetic

"I found the exposition of mathematical terms useful for my learners as this is something which doesn't really come up in coursebooks."(Review of A Guide to English Language Usage in Modern English Teacher 18/3, July 2009)

This screenshot is from the ebook of Peter Harvey's A Guide to English Language Usage. It is viewed in Adobe Digital Editions, a free reader that is required to read the ebook. When ADE is installed and registered the book can be read on any registered device. On the left is a list of contents with clickable links, and the hyperlinks in the text act as cross references.

For an explanation of the phonetic symbols used in Lavengro Books ebooks, and of the reason for using them, click here.

A collection of screen shots can be seen here.

To buy books click here.

Lavengro Books: www.lavengrobooks.com

Reviews of A Guide to English Language Usage

An entertaining and illuminating read … shows a high awareness of learners' needs – it is clearly written by someone with solid classroom experience … The grammar sections are a strong area of the book … The information provided [on pronunciation] is accurate and relevant … the cultural information as a whole is well-presented, colourful and accurate … [it offers] clear and useful directions for learners … Modern English Teacher 18/3, July 2009*

Every English fact at your fingertips … a more than handy reference tool for all involved in imparting linguistic knowledge on a regular basis. In the author's alphabetically arranged detailed content one can only admire the spirit of Dr Johnson … it will help out when dealing with potentially awkward customers, or those keen to try out a new teacher. Wayne Trotman, ELGazette, January 2009*

When you start reading it, you are reminded of Modern English Usage by Fowler; however, in this case Peter Harvey is dealing with the reality of the foreign learner and what that learner wants to know … A Guide to English Language Usage is a good reference book for all of us who are teaching and for advanced students as well. It is worth having in our libraries. It is very practical, having been written by a teacher who knows his trade, and is highly recommendable. Liliana Russo, TESOL Spain Newsletter 34/1, July 2010 *

Not just a reference book explaining the intricacies of English grammar, but also a source of entertainment for the language-lover, covering numerous areas of the culture of the English-speaking world. Dr Brian Mott, Department of English and German Philology, Barcelona University

*Full reviews on www.lavengrobooks.com

Top Ten: 22-11-2012

Sulphur or sulfur? has proved to be such a runaway success that I have declared it hors de concours.

A recent post about a translation problem that I had concerning clients who think they know best has proved remarkably popular with alphabetical order following it. My discussion of the gender of ships (should a ship be referred to with feminine pronouns?) has been attracting readers. Number four is one of the series of screenshots from my books, in this case the article about the word folk from A Guide to English Language Usage. Commas and relative clauses come next with a strange example from the Guardian newspaper and apostrophes are an eternal bugbear for pedants. My view is clear: ‘Apostrophes in English are a menace and should be abolished.’ Harp Marx was no doubt a good, true and loyal man so my post entitled Harpo Marx a false friend looks at the falsity of friends from the language point of view. Is the word people singular or plural? It can be either and I look at this odd phenomenon in the context of Sunday’s election in Catalonia. Derby and the rest, which discusses the pronunciation of that name and others in British English, is the only member of this list to have survived from last time while coming in at number ten we have a pernicketiness of pedants – surely the correct word for them.

Not surprisingly, the Top Ten tend to be recent posts so I will go to the bottom of the pile to find some older ones that are still well worth looking at. First off, there is my apology to the Dhivehi language; to find out what I am apologising for please follow the link in the post. Of that ilk is one of those expressions that has gained a new life meaning something different from what it meant originally. Confusion in Oxford dictionaries? Well … I am a Cambridge man myself … Seriously though, Oxford dictionaries are one of the joys of the English language but sometimes things can be a little odd – as with any undertaking on that scale. Checking things is always a good thing for a translator to do and a comma catastrophe can wreck even the most important advertising material. The Word of the Year for 2009 was bailout and it came with some fascinating others. Brits and languages don’t usually mix easily, but language learning is not as good in Spain as it could be and one Spanish MEP discovered the problems with learning English. Problems with numbers have a language aspect and homophones are lying in wait for the unwary. That’s ten but I can’t resist mentioning the post about zero taller ants and other eggcorns.

(Zero taller ants!)

Thursday GEM: all

When should you say all and when should you say everything?

This screenshot is from Peter Harvey's Great English Mistakes made by Spanish speakers.

A collection of screen shots can be seen here.

To buy books click here.

Lavengro Books: www.lavengrobooks.com

Reviews of Great English Mistakes

An easy-to-read and user-friendly book … grammar receives careful attention … may benefit both intermediate and advanced students of English … Teachers of English may also find it useful. Fernando Chueca, TESOL Spain Newsletter 33/1, July 2009*

While [this book] is clearly aimed at the Spanish-speaking learner of English it is also valuable for the teacher of English working in a Spanish-speaking environment … [it highlights] many of the false friends which exist … Translations show the learner what words do, and, equally importantly, do not mean … with a wealth of real-life examples which are sometimes humorous, the book is very readable … There is certainly a gap in the market for such a book … of all the many English language books I have on my bookshelf, this is the only one that has a long waiting list of Spanish-speaking friends wanting to borrow it. Modern English Teacher 18/3, July 2009*

Dear Mr Harvey, Let me congratulate you on your latest book, it's what every single student of English in Spain needs. http://howadultslearn.wikispaces.com

*Full review on www.lavengrobooks.com.

 

The Maltese bird of prey

Tonio Borg from Malta will after all be the new EU Commissioner for Health. His nomination has proved controversial because of his strict Catholic opposition to divorce, abortion and gay rights, and as a result the Spanish newspaper El País refers to him as el ‘halcón maltés’. That is the Spanish name of the film The Maltese Falcon. Why do they choose that nickname? Because Spanish halcón also means hawk and Borg has hawkish views on these subjects. The play on words doesn’t work in English.

Maltese hawk	Maltese falcon

Commas and relative clauses

The comma is the most variable punctuation sign and the most difficult one to pin down but there is a good, clear rule which says that that it is used in non-defining relative clauses. For example:

That painting, which is hanging on my wall, is by Picasso.

Here the commas mark a parenthesis. The sentence could even be written with brackets:

That painting (which is hanging on my wall) is by Picasso.

In A Guide to English Language Usage I summarise the use of relative pronouns in this way:

That is possible only in defining relative clauses; who and which can be used in all types.

That makes the situation clear for non-natives who are confused by the choice of relative pronouns in English. But there is a rule, or rather a pseudorule that is more common in the USA than in Britain, to the effect that which should not be used as the pronoun in defining relative clauses. It would insist that in this sentence:

The painting which/that I bought is by Picasso.

which is not a correct option. This is nonsense. There is a defining relative clause introduced by which in the first paragraph of this post.

Sentence first has an interesting piece about all this, taking as its text a sentence from the Guardian:

There is another lesson to the Petraeus affair. The former general fashioned for himself a role, which is much more significant than top generals have during wars.

The comma is clearly unnecessary and is actually misleading. It gets in the way of a straightforward understanding of the meaning.

Clients who think they know best

I have mentioned problems with translation clients before, here and here. Recently an agency sent me a short adverting text for a big Spanish company. It began:

Solo recurriendo a ABC podrás estar seguro de que …

I put:

Only with ABC can you be sure that …

As usual I offered several versions. The client came back proposing a mixture of two versions and with a minor change I accepted it. But I noticed too that the paragraph now began:

Only with ABC you can be sure that …

The adverb inversion had been ‘corrected’ to the usual order with the subject before the verb. I corrected it properly and mentioned the matter to the agency. The correspondence (translated) was as follows:

In this change (can you), the client has ‘corrected’ something that was already right. It’s important to see what the client’s doing. There’s something strange in English. In certain situations there is what we call inversion, with the verb before the subject. The client has seen this and ‘corrected’ it off his own bat. If he hadn’t come back with the query about the versions, he would have published it with the error but seemingly as our work.

The answer came back from the agency

I understand your correction but the client prefers:

Only with ABC you can be sure…

Would it be grammatically correct??

I replied

No. it isn’t correct.

http://www.eslmonster.com/article/inversion-of-the-verb-after-certain-adverbs

It could be:

Only ABC gives you the assurance/certainty that …

I don’t know what they finally went for.

(Note: The name ABC is a placeholder. The client is not the newspaper ABC.)

Monday GELU: folk

This screenshot is from Peter Harvey's A Guide to English Language Usage.

A collection of screen shots can be seen here.

To buy books click here.

Lavengro Books: www.lavengrobooks.com

Reviews of A Guide to English Language Usage

An entertaining and illuminating read … shows a high awareness of learners' needs – it is clearly written by someone with solid classroom experience … The grammar sections are a strong area of the book … The information provided [on pronunciation] is accurate and relevant … the cultural information as a whole is well-presented, colourful and accurate … [it offers] clear and useful directions for learners … Modern English Teacher 18/3, July 2009*

Every English fact at your fingertips … a more than handy reference tool for all involved in imparting linguistic knowledge on a regular basis. In the author's alphabetically arranged detailed content one can only admire the spirit of Dr Johnson … it will help out when dealing with potentially awkward customers, or those keen to try out a new teacher. Wayne Trotman, ELGazette, January 2009*

When you start reading it, you are reminded of Modern English Usage by Fowler; however, in this case Peter Harvey is dealing with the reality of the foreign learner and what that learner wants to know … A Guide to English Language Usage is a good reference book for all of us who are teaching and for advanced students as well. It is worth having in our libraries. It is very practical, having been written by a teacher who knows his trade, and is highly recommendable. Liliana Russo, TESOL Spain Newsletter 34/1, July 2010*

Not just a reference book explaining the intricacies of English grammar, but also a source of entertainment for the language-lover, covering numerous areas of the culture of the English-speaking world. Dr Brian Mott, Department of English and German Philology, Barcelona University

*Full review on www.lavengrobooks.com

People – singular or plural?

The noun people is very unusual in English. It can take singular or plural verb forms and can have its own plural form peoples. As I say in A Guide to English Language Usage:

person and people

For almost all purposes people is the effective plural of person. It can follow a number and takes a plural verb: 1,500 people have bought tickets; the people who were (not was) present. However, people is not plural in origin. It comes from Latin populus, and has its own singular and plural forms corresponding to community, tribe, race, nation or ethnic group. So it is perfectly correct to speak of a warlike people; a peace-loving people; the peoples of Europe; Winston Churchill wrote A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

Today’s Observer has an article about the elections to beheld in Catalonia on 25 November. It says of the governing CiU party:

The campaign slogan is “the people's will”.

Not quite. In Catalan it is La voluntat d’un poble and there we have the Catalan version of that Latin populus. It is unquestionably used in the singular form, equivalent to French peuple or German Volk. It could be argued that the people’s will means the will of the people, with people being understood a singular. But that is not quite right since the Catalan has the indefinite article, and in any case the use of people in English in such contexts is usually parsed as plural even when there is no clear indication one way or the other.

This blog is about language. Comments on the use of people singular or plural are welcome. Comments about the Catalan election itself are not welcome.