Easy rules for speaking English

Please excuse the delay in posting new material here. The real reason I stopped posting was that I ran out of suggestions or observations to share. Of course no easy rules for speaking English exist, but thinking of a few guidelines is not hard. For example, speak slowly unless you are already fluent. Trying to speak as fast as native speakers just makes your English sound worse. No doubt this is true in most languages, not just English.

Speaking clearly also helps listeners understand you in any language. Don't cover your mouth, look down at your feet, or swallow your words. Watch your listeners for signs of understanding or confusion. Use the tone of your voice and body language to help get your point across. Sitting like a statue or talking head does not help you express yourself.

Please let me know any topics that interest you and I will consider them for a future blog. Also I am glad to help anyone who asks.

Thanks for reading!

Easy ways to improve your English writing.

Starting sentences with "it" makes them very weak.

Easy ways to improve your English writing.

What are some simple ways to improve your English writing style? First, don’t start sentences with “there is” and “there are.” When I pointed this out to one student, he understood immediately, and added his own observation "These words are like dead wood::” they added no meaning to the sentence. Though not technically incorrect, using these words only weakens your writing. In fact, using any unneeded words weakens your message by diluting it with irrelevancies. “There is/are” really says nothing except that something exists. Try to leave this out as much as you can.

In conversation, we use this construction frequently so using it in writing is natural. However, when writing we have time to carefully select the words and phrases we use. Any sentence starting with ‘there is” or “there are” can be stated differently. For example:

“There are twenty customers in the restaurant.”       

“Twenty customers are in the restaurant.”

“There is some food in the refrigerator.”

“Some food is in the refrigerator.”

In both cases, the facts can be stated directly, instead of needing the superfluous (extra) words “there is/are.” Sometimes, constructing sentences without these words seems difficult or even impossible. Don’t give up. Discovering the answer is how you can refine your English writing proficiency.

These comments also apply to writing sentences starting with “it is,” as in “It is sunny today.” The pronoun “it” is supposed to substitute for the previous noun but in this case, there is no such thing. Dig deeper and realize that what is sunny is the weather. Then rephrase the sentence: “The weather is sunny today,” or even “Today’s weather is sunny.” When you can express the same thought in several different ways, you can select the best one to suit your intention, to express yourself fully.

Even many U.S.-born writers use these expressions, not realizing the shortcomings. These easy, simple constructions become a habit to avoid having to select a more effective construction. You will note that professionally edited writing, online or in print, uses these constructions only rarely. Government and corporate bureaucrats use "It is" and "There is/are" s a lot, since they often seek ways of saying something without saying anything.

The second easy way to improve your English writing is by avoiding passive sentences. Sentences can be active, such as “The man carried the laptop,” or they can be passive “The laptop was carried by the man.” The second sentence is passive, because the subject (laptop) did not do anything. In fact, the action of carrying is reversed. Both sentences are true, but the passive sentence describes the action from the laptop’s point of view. Some more examples:

                The man flew the airplane vs. the airplane was flown by the man.

                I wash the dishes vs. the dishes are being washed by me.

                He watches TV vs. TV is being watched by him.

                The last goal was made by the youngest player vs. the youngest player made the last goal.

Notice how passive sentences only mention the agent indirectly (by him) while the object acted on is featured as the subject of the sentence. If you are not certain about active and passive sentences, transitive and intransitive nouns in English, reviewing them will help a lot. 

Using passive sentences in your writing only obscures your meaning. Why? This construction makes readers work harder to understand your meaning. Passive sentences actually detract from readability. Standard readability measures, such as featured in MS Word, detect and report the percentage of passive sentences. Though a careful reader will find passive sentences in my writing, I try to avoid them as much as I can. Often writers have trouble converting passive sentences to active ones. As difficult as it seems sometimes, all expressions can be stated actively if you try hard enough.

As a grammar exercise, try thinking of active sentences, like “the man drove the car” and its passive version, “the car was driven by the man.” Try to think of at least ten or twenty examples. Once you have practiced like this, your brain will begin to recognize the symmetry between active and passive. From then on, you can encourage yourself to discover active constructions for all your sentences.

Keeping these ideas is a very basic way to improve your writing style. Try to pay attention to what you read and write, to look out for these constructions. Ask yourself, do they add to the meaning?

High vs. Low Stakes: idioms describing risk

Wooden stakes 

High vs. Low Stakes: idioms describing risk

Many decisions can involve some risk, especially in business. Making the wrong decision can be very costly and even lead to complete failure. Other decisions have less serious or inconsequential levels of risk. In other words, decisions can have high levels of risk or virtually no risk at all. Deciding what shirt to wear in the morning has little risk for me, while deciding where to invest my retirement savings could have disastrous results.

Inconsequential decisions are often called “low stakes” situations because what happens does not matter very much. Wearing my blue shirt instead of my gray one will likely make no difference. “High stakes” situations include college admission tests, dating and marriage, job interviews, etc. You have a lot to gain or lose at critical points. Casinos try to attract “high stakes” gamblers who will bet a lot of money. For corporate boards, selecting a CEO is a process that is often critical. Because the potential risk is so high, the board is “playing for high stakes.” Here in Silicon Valley, a lot of venture capitalists compete for high stakes, such as funding the next Apple or Google.

So what is a “stake” exactly? Because of the spelling we know it isn’t for dinner (steak), even though the pronunciation is exactly the same. Please look this up because I am only offering my guess here, but the most common meaning of stake is a piece of wood that is sharpened on one end, to help stick the wood into the ground. For example, we use fence stakes to hold up fences. In the old days, people marked the corners of their property with wood stakes, so others would recognize the boundary. Even today, surveyors use wooden stakes to measure the land very precisely. Often the tops are sprayed orange or a colorful ribbon is tied around the top. If you camp, you probably have tent stakes to hold up your tent. Though originally made of wood, most tent stakes now are metal or plastic.

Stake supporting sapling

White settlers pushed west after 1865. The Homestead Act signed at the end of the Civil War encouraged western expansion by giving land for free to anyone who would go live there and put the land to use for seven years. Free land was a big incentive, and the settlers used wood stakes to mark out their land claims. Quickly, “staking a claim” meant asserting ownership over a piece of land, and eventually anything else. During many gold rushes in the west, each miner established his area by staking a claim, both literally and then figuratively, by registering with authorities. Before miners could travel west and stake their claim, they had to save or borrow a grubstake, so they could eat (grub=food) until they found gold.

Some mines grew very rich and attracted outside investors who often paid dearly for a small share, or stake, of a company. Initially, investors held only a “small stake” in the mine. By stock manipulation and other tactics they quickly grew their investments until they gained control. These days, people who own corporate stock are called stockholders, but we use “stakeholders” to indicate all those affected by group decisions. For example, all Americans are stakeholders in our democracy because how the government operates will affect us. Corporate employees who do not own stock are still stakeholders because their jobs are at stake.

To make a long story short, what started out as a piece of wood pointed on one end became a verb meaning “to claim,” and then evolved into a noun describing value (I wish I owned a big stake in Google!). Please post a comment or send me an email if you wish to correct or add anything. Accuracy is important to me because my reputation is at stake.

Slang, idiom, expression, argot, jargon, colloquialism: what is it?

To improve your knowledge of U.S. slang, this website is really good. Another good reference is the Urban Dictionary.

Slang, idiom, expression, argot, jargon, colloquialism:
Either a printed or online dictionary will tell you what each of these words mean. Some definitions may differ, but these words all generally refer to language as it is normally used by native speakers. This everyday language differs from academic language in important ways. The vocabulary of formal, academic English language is quite fixed and slow to change. Words have well-defined meanings that change little over time. However, everyday English changes constantly. Words used today were unknown yesterday. Yesterday's slang sounds archaic today. Some idioms are completely arbitrary, like "P,U." Every American pre-schooler knows this means something stinks! What do the initial letter stand for? No one knows for sure.

One function of colloquialisms is to establish and maintain a community. The community is people who understand and use certain slang expressions, Insiders know the what it means to "pay lip service." If you are an insider, you can understand the intended meaning of the expression that lies beneath the meaning of the individual words. If you are outside the community, you may understand the words but not understand the underlying meaning they way insiders do. For example, the community of people born or growing up in the U.S. constantly use slang, idioms, and similar expressions which exclude non-native speakers. People outside the community cannot usually penetrate colloquial expressions very easily.

Another function of slang is to provide a platform for humor. Since the actual meaning of the expression may be the opposite of the literal meaning of the individual words, people using these kinds of phrases often have an ironic intent. To understand humor in English, non-native speakers need a broad understanding of the most common expressions. These expressions are known since childhood by native speakers but continue to baffle non-native adults.

One good way to discover these expression is to read a U.S. general interest magazine, such as Time magazine, Readers Digest, or National Geographic. If you have not lived all or most of your life in the U.S., though you understand the individual words and grammar, the overall meaning of the magazine articles remains elusive. That is because vital parts of the meaning are contained in the slang, idiom, expression, argot, jargon, or colloquialism used in speech and writing.

Please let me know your own experiences with English slang. How have you tried to learn common expressions and idioms? You can email me directly by clicking here. Also, please give me any feedback you can so I can keep improving. Thanks!

What makes a native American English speaker?

Chief Sitting Bull

People born in other countries want to sound like native speakers of American English while they live in the U.S. People born outside the U.S., speaking English as a second language, cannot avoid having at least a small accent, even if they can speak perfectly otherwise. For most non-native speakers, understanding American expressions and idioms is just as hard as proper pronunciation. Actually, a speaker of native American is a member of the original inhabitants of the U.S. Sitting Bull was a famous Native American and probably could speak English as well I expect.

To be accurate, I must say I am a native speaker of American English, which is how this language as evolved in the U.S; English in the U.K,, Australia, Canada, Ireland, India, and elsewhere are all slightly different. American English is my native tongue.

Another difference between English speakers born outside the U.S. and those born here is that most foreign born speakers know far fewer slang expressions, cultural references, and historic background on many subjects. Often people feel confident speaking within their area of expertise, such as at the workplace. For one reason, they know all the specialized vocabulary. But in other situations, such as social gatherings, they feel completely out of the loop because they do not always fully understand the conversation and its implications.

Some experts think the distinction between native and non-native speakers is not important. Technically they may be correct, especially when writing or speaking formally, as in a presentation. In casual conversation, though, or general writing (as in email or blog), the depth of your English knowledge comes through. A famous speech refers to a crystal cup that holds the rare wine. Yes, the cup is precious and valuable but the wine is what is most important. The cup is only a container for the wine. Likewise, our words are only containers for our meaning. Whether we drink from a crystal cup or paper cup, the wine tastes almost as good.

The meaning of English words

What does "civil" mean?

Everyone knows you can find the meaning of English words in a dictionary. However, a dictionary can only provide the most basic answers. Dictionaries really only provide hints about each word, especially words that have different uses or completely different meanings. Some words change their meaning depending on their role or function in the sentence. For example, when used as a verb "live" means one thing and is pronounced in one way. When used as an adjective, "live" has both a different meaning and pronunciation. 

Yesterday a student asked me about the word "civil." Because he had just taken a business training workshop, he knew about "civil rights" of workers that offer legal protection against discrimination. Civil rights are the topic of this cartoon. Civil rights in the U.S. became a common cause during efforts to reduce discrimination against people of color. More recently, civil rights have been extended to members of the military regarding their gender preference. Using "civil" in this way is only a specific application of the general usage.

The word civil forms the basis for "civilization/" What is the difference between civilized and uncivilized people? Civilized people follow laws and social rules, try to be courteous and respectful to others, and to build sustainable societies. Even if people disagree completely, they can still debate their views with civil discourse instead of insulting, threatening, or attacking their opponent. People who act civilly believe in cooperation as well as competition. Civility is collaboration between people. Or from another view, being civil is just having good manners, acting civilized, not like a savage.

Civil rights then can be understood as the rights of an individual in a civilized society. The word has many other important meanings though. In the U.S., you can get married in a church or by religious means, or you can get married in a court by a judge or justice of the peace. In the second case, we call this a "civil" marriage to show that it was legally and socially sanctioned, but without any priest, minister, or other clergy presiding. The civil officer (judge) presides instead. If you don't choose a civil union, then you can have a "church" wedding.

Involvement of a judge and public court in civil marriages suggests that "civil" is an important part of the U.S. justice system. Our law is divided into two parts: criminal and civil. Criminal justice deals with crimes. Civil justice governs contracts between people or companies and resolves disputes between various parties when no crime is involved. Besides marriage, a kind of civil contract, civil courts are where lawsuits are filed and settled. Lately, many high tech companies have been suing each other over intellectual property (patents, etc.). These cases are all held in civil court since no crime is alleged.

"Civil war" is an oxymoron. (an oxymoron is a phrase that contradicts itself. Wars are anything but civil!) Yet we call wars that break out within one country civil wars because they are not wars with other countries. This year is the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. This war was not at all civil and even though it was a long time ago, it killed more Americans than any other war before or since. So this phrase "civil war" is unintentionally ironic.

The dictionary will offer brief hints for these meanings, but fully understanding them is difficult, especially for non-native English speakers. Like many words, the deeper you look, the more you think about it, the more detail you see and appreciate. So dive in and really think about some words you already know. Do they have more than one  meaning? Do their meanings change slightly in different expressions?