Reporting Speech with Noun Clauses (Intermediate)

 

A few posts back, we had talked about reporting what someone says using noun clauses.  The focus was mainly on reporting what someone says about a present action or an action that is presently happening.  You could review the post “Reporting Speech with Noun Clauses (Basic)” from January 26, 2010.

This time, we will find out how to report what someone says about a past event.

Before we talk about how to do this, recall how to talk about something that took place in the past.  If we do not have a point of reference but merely want to express that an event is complete, we use the simple past tense.

Ex.       My family celebrated Father’s Day by taking Dad out to dinner.

On a different note, both the present perfect and past perfect are used when talking about a past action in relation to another point in time.  The present perfect is used retrospectively to refer to a time prior to now.  The past perfect is used retrospectively to refer to some past time. 

Present perfect

Ex.       My dad has finished the bottle of wine he received. 

Past perfect

Ex.       My dad had wished for the wine for months before Father’s Day.

OK, so then, if someone we are talking to expresses a past action using the simple past, present perfect, or past perfect, how can we report his or her speech?  Read the following dialogue.

Ex.      

Joy says, “My family celebrated Father’s Day by taking Dad out to dinner.”

John replies, “Oh, then, did you and your family buy your dad a gift?”

Joy answers, “Well, my dad had wished for a bottle of wine for many months.”

John predicts, “OK, so then you guys must have bought him a bottle, right?!  How does he like it?”

Joy exclaims, “Oh, he loves it!  He has finished the entire bottle already!”

That wasn’t too hard, was it?  OK, so if John goes and tells another friend, Tom, what Joy had told him about how she celebrated Father’s Day, how should John do this?  He could simply use the past perfect tense in the noun clause!  Below is what John would say to Tom about the three things that Joy mentioned.

Ex.      

Joy said that her family had celebrated Father’s Day by taking her dad out to dinner.

Joy said that her dad had wished for a bottle of wine for many months.

Joy said that her dad had finished the bottle of wine. 

Remember that besides using “to say”, we could use other similar verbs (e.g. to tell, to state, to declare, to claim, to announce, to exclaim, to comment, to blurt out, to whisper, to point out, to reply). 

Also, the verb in the “that” clause (even though the “that” is eliminated in informal situations) will change for subject-verb agreement and tense agreement. 

Verb in the “that” clause to express Past tense
Direct speech	Reported speech
Simple past	Past perfect
Present perfect	‘’
Past perfect	‘’

A picture is worth a thousand words – mannequin

mannequin /ˈmæn.ə.kIn/

Vancouver Olympics 2010 – Closing Ceremony

My recent neglect of my blog was due to the fact that I had paid a visit to Vancouver to witness the Olympics in action!  Coming back from the trip required a lot of catching up with work so my sincerest apologies for the delay. 

Although I was only there for the latter half of the Games, it was probably the more exhilarating half as all Canadians were ecstatic when they won gold in hockey and ended the Games with a bit of seemingly magic in the air!  If you are a devoted fan like me, I’m sure you’ve watched every bit of the Games.  Therefore, instead of talking about what may have already been shown on television, I’ll share one personal behind-the-scene experience.

I attended the Figure Skating Gala and the Closing Ceremony.  The Closing Ceremony was a bittersweet experience as while I was excited about the show, it signified that the Olympics have finally come to a closure.  While watching the Closing Ceremony, you may have noticed that the audience members were wearing light-colored paper ponchos and that there were occasional flashing lights in the sea of darkness out in the audience. In fact, each audience member was given an “Audience Participation Kit”.  This was accompanied by a “rehearsal” and training session prior to the start of the show and all throughout the entire show an “audience leader” gave us instructions about which props were needed for a particular segment.  Therefore, besides the actual performers, the audience was also involved!  In fact, we were constantly “busy” switching props and juggling them with our cameras. We were first asked to put on a light-colored poncho made from paper, which served as a canvas onto which an extensive display of lights were shown with messages and flags of the participating countries during the parade of athletes and entrance of the flag bearers on stage.

 

The culture of the host city, Vancouver, was exhibited with larger-than-life-sized hockey players, Canadian Mounties, and a distinctive array of animals like the beaver, bear, and the moose. The audience was asked to wear a moose antler hat during this period. In fact, despite its silliness, the audience was excited about wearing them as everyone was jubilant about the Games and Canadians were especially proud of their country after their hockey win. We also clipped on a red or white blinker onto the antlers, which explains the continuous flashing of lights in the audience.  At the end of this portion of the show, the entire stadium was then showered with red, orange, and yellow maple leaves made from tissue paper.  It was a very pretty scene!

 

During the handover of the Winter Olympic Games to Sochi, Russia, the audience turned on a snow globe with a miniature replica of the mountains of Sochi with words which say “See You in Sochi” and lit up BC Place Stadium in red, blue or white, or the colors of the Russian flag. 

 

The amount of time spent and the amount of people whom were involved with the Closing Ceremony are impressive.  It must have taken a lot of effort to make sure the kits were placed appropriately to create the desired effect.  Some digging into this matter unveiled that there were a total of 289 different possible combinations in the 60,000 kits in the audience!  Amazing!  Therefore, the organizing committee took time to thank the many volunteers who helped put together the event and made the Olympics possible with a flower tribute and gave them freebies like a set of postcards with the words “Thank you”.  Each kit contained a colored card in pink, purple, or yellow which formed one of the many petals in the one of many possible flower formations in the audience.  Known as Smurfs, as they were dressed in blue, there were a total of 18,500 volunteers at these Olympic Games. 

 

As a keepsake and for ease of transport, the props fit nicely in a suitcase-like cardboard box decorated with graphics from the various Canadian provinces. 

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Word list

(International Phonetic Alphabet included, following the pronunciation of American English)

accompany (verb) /əˈkʌm.pə.ni/ – to go with someone or something

antler (noun) /ˈænt.lə^r/ – a horn that looks like tree branches which grows on the head of a moose

array (noun) /əˈreI/ – a large group of things or people

bittersweet (adj) /‘bIt.ə^r.swit/ – to describe feeling sad and happy at the same time

blinker (noun) /ˈblIŋ.kə^r/ – a light that turns on and off quickly

Canadian Mountie (noun) /kæ’ney.diən/ /ˈmaʊn.ti/- slang for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police dressed in a full red serge outfit, boots, and a hat

canvas (noun) /ˈkæn.vəs/ – a piece of clothing, board, or other display area

catch up (phrasal verb) /kætʃ//ʌp/ – to do something that one should have already done earlier

closure (noun) /ˈkloʊ.ʒə^r/ – an end or stop in something

desired (adj) /dIˈzaIrd/ – something that is wanted

devoted (adj) /dIˈvoʊ.tId/ -to describe someone who is loyal and passionate about something

ease (verb) /iz/ – to make or become less difficult or unpleasant

ecstatic (adj) /Ikˈstæt.Ik/– extremely happy

exhilarating (adj) /IgˈzIl.ə.reI.tIŋ/ – very exciting

extensive (adj) /Ikˈsten.sIv/ – covering a large area or having a great range

flag bearer (noun) /flæg//ˈbeə.rə^r/ – someone who holds a nation’s flag

freebie (noun) /ˈfri.bi/ – something given with no cost to it for promotional purposes

host (noun) /hoʊst/ – someone who has guests

impressive (adj) /Imˈpres.Iv/ – special, admirable

jubilant (adj) /ˈdʒu.bI.lənt/ adj– feeling or expressing great happiness

juggle (verb) /ˈdʒʌg.l ̩/ – to handle two or more things or jobs at the same time

keepsake (noun) /ˈkip.seIk/ – a souvenir or present to remember something or some event

moose (noun) /mus/- a large deer with antlers which live in the forests of North America, northern Europe, and Asia

neglect (noun) /nIˈglekt/ – state of not giving enough care or attention to someone or something

poncho (noun) /ˈpɑn.tʃoʊ/ – a piece of clothing made from one piece of material with a hole in the middle for the head

prop (noun) /prɑp/ n- an object used to support something

province (noun) /ˈprɑ.vIns/ n– an area which is governed as part of a country or an empire.  Just like America has states, Canada has provinces.

put on (phrasal verb) /pʊt//ɑn/ – to wear

replica (noun) /ˈrep.lI.kə/ – a copy of an object

segment (noun) /ˈseg.mənt/– a part of something

silliness (noun) /ˈsIl.I.nəs/ n– the act of being silly or funny

Smurf (noun) /smə^rf/ – a small blue cartoon character with a white stocking cap and pants from the cartoon “The Smurfs”

stadium (noun) /ˈsteI.di.əm/ – a large closed area of land with rows of seats around the sides used for sports events or musical performances

tribute (noun) /ˈtrI.byut/  – something that you say, write or give which shows respect and admiration for someone  

unveil (verb) /ʌnˈveIl/ – to reveal or show something

The Hyphen

 

I apologize for not updating my blog as often lately. I’ll reveal the reason for the delay in my next blog so stay tuned!

At this time, let’s continue our discussion on the punctuation marks of the English language.   We discussed the dash several posts back.  This time we are going to look at the hyphen (-), which is often confused with the dash.   First, the dash is actually a bit longer than the hyphen.  Also, there is usually no space on either side of the hyphen (e.g. X-ray) unless it is part of a suspended compound:   

Ex. The full- and part-time employees went on strike. (Meaning: The full-time and part-time employees went on strike.)

There are four main uses of the hyphen:

1)      Writing numbers and fractions

He ate ninety-nine apples and got sick.

The athlete won the race by three-tenths of a second.

2)      Creating compounds

Some compounds always take on a hyphen.  The best way to remember these are to see them often and to memorize them.  When in doubt, check a dictionary!

Ex.       My sister-in-law came over to visit us.

Over-the-counter medicine tends to be more affordable than prescribed medicine.

Automobiles are not mass-produced inside a factory.

Sometimes, depending on the writer, a word could be hyphenated or not!    

Ex.       ice cream or ice-cream?

Use a hyphen to join two or more words acting as an adjective before a noun. Yet, when they follow the noun they modify, they are not hyphenated.

Ex.      The knife used to cut the cake is made of stainless steel.

             The stainless-steel knife was used to cut the cake.

The four-year-old child called the paramedics just in time to save his family.

The kid who saved his family was only four years old.

Never hyphenate compounds that are created with –ly adverbs even they come before nouns and act as an adjective.

Ex.       The beautifully designed house is owned by Oprah.

(NOT The beautifully-designed house is owned by Oprah.)

Oprah’s house is beautifully designed.

3)      Adding prefixes or suffixes.

There is no hard and fast rule about this as British English tend to hyphenate words that American English may not hyphenate.

            pre-school (British English)

            preschool (American English)

Yet, the prefixes ex-, self-, and all- almost always require a hyphen.

She still talks to her ex-husband.

She is acting tough to prove that she could also be self-sufficient and does not need to depend on a husband.

The suffix –elect is also always accompanied by a hyphen.

The president-elect angered many of his supporters when he was found to have accepted bribes.  

Hyphens are also used when separating out a prefix and a word with the first letter capitalized, with figures, or with letters.

The T-shirt has been popular ever since its invention sometime after the mid-1800s and became a piece of outer wear post-World War II.

4)      Avoiding confusion or “letter collision” but this is not absolute

shell-like (adj; having the shape of a seashell) vs. childlike (adj; like a child)

(Childlike does not create confusion.)

Sometimes the addition of a hyphen changes a word’s meaning.  Be careful about this!  Usually, one of these involves a prefix so its meaning may not be too difficult to guess.  Hear are some examples. 

re-mark (verb; to mark something again) vs. remark (noun; a comment)

re-formed (verb; to form again) vs. reformed (adj; changed or improved)

The placement of the hyphen in phrases with three or more words is a determinant of their meaning Can you guess the meaning of each of the following?  Try to guess before you look at the answers at the bottom of the page!

The forest has five-hundred-year-old trees.

The forest has five hundred-year-old trees.

The forest has five hundred year-old trees.

The forest has five-hundred-year-old trees. (Meaning: The forest contains trees that are 500 years old.)

The forest has five hundred-year-old trees. (Meaning: The forest contains five trees that are 100 years old.)

The forest has five hundred year-old trees. (Meaning: The forest contains five hundred trees that are 1 year old.)

A picture is worth a thousand words – lionize

lionize /’laI.ə.naΙz/

Reporting Speech with Noun Clauses (Basic)

There are many ways to improve our writing. One of them is using clauses in our sentences, which not only enhances our writing but increases its readability.  It makes a piece of writing “flow” better, as we like to say.  Often times, in writing, we report what someone else has reported to us from an informal conversation or a formal interview. These two things are achieved by the use of noun clauses.

Before we go into this topic further, what is a clause?  A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb.  A sentence is considered an independent clause as it could stand alone even though it is usually just called a sentence.  A dependent clause cannot stand alone.   

Jill made a New Year’s resolution.

        (independent clause)

Because she had made a New Year’s resolution, she vowed to stick to it. 

         (dependent clause)                                     (independent clause)

A noun clause is a clause which acts like a noun in the sentence. Compare the two sentences below.

We knew that she was not going to keep her resolution for long.

                                                (noun clause)

We knew English. 

                  (noun)

OK, for today’s lesson, we are going to look at how we could report what someone else said by using a noun clause.  Let’s pretend that our friend Jill tells us the following. 

Jill said, “My New Year’s resolution is to lose twenty pounds!”

If we are to tell someone else what Jill told us, how can we say this? 

Formal: 

Jill told me that her New Year’s resolution was to lose twenty pounds.

Informal:  Jill told me her New Year’s resolution was to lose twenty pounds.

The difference is the elimination of “that” in the informal case.  Also, notice that the possessive pronoun was changed from “my” to “her” in the reported speech as we are referring to Jill and not talking about ourselves.

Another example:

Jill said, “She is also planning to lose some weight.” 

 Formal:            Jill said that she was also planning to lose some weight.

Informal:           Jill said she was also planning to lose some weight.

Besides using the verbs “to tell” and “to say”, we could also use other synonymous verbs (e.g. to state, to declare, to claim, to announce, to exclaim, to comment, to blurt out, to whisper, to point out, to reply).  Just remember that this verb will be in the past tense as you are expressing what someone else had told you earlier.  The verb in the “that” clause (even though the “that” is eliminated in informal situations) will change for subject-verb agreement and tense agreement.  The tense of this second verb will depend on how it relates to the first verb and the intended meaning. 

Verb tense in the “that” clause
Direct speech	Reported speech
Simple present	Simple past
Present progressive	Past progressive

 

 

 

Happy New Year!  Hope you fulfill all your New Year’s resolutions!

A picture is worth a thousand words – copious

As you may know, learning new words is always difficult.  Often times resorting to memorization is not effective as we just cannot seem to be able to commit the word to our memory.  Considering this, it is hoped that this new series could provide you with a visual of those challenging words that are difficult to remember since “a picture is worth a thousand words.” 

Our first word is “copious”.  For those who do not know, American English speakers call police officers informally as “cops”.  Now, is this more understandable? 

The pronunciation of the word will not be included into the picture as a word may be pronounced differently by native English speakers from different parts of the world.  However, since I am a native speaker of American English, I will give the standard American English pronunciation in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) format.

copious /’ko·pi·əs/

Quinceañera

 

Los Angeles has a large and growing Latin American population.  Their influence on the city is substantial. Notices in public places are usually in both English and Spanish while business advertisements in Spanish alone are everywhere. Virtually all businesses provide Spanish interpretation upon demand.  

 A couple of months ago, a colleague  invited me to her daughter’s Quinceañera.  In the Latin culture, this is the coming-of-age ceremony for girls, much like the American or Canadian Sweet Sixteen celebration.  The quinceañera (also means the birthday girl) celebrates her quinceaños or fifteenth birthday on this day.

If parents could afford it, a big party is thrown where the entire Quinceañera celebration is similar to a wedding ceremony and consists of two parts.  The morning is spent at church where the quinceañera affirms her faith.  Those of Latin descent are usually Roman Catholics so there is a blessing given by the priest, followed by the presentation of gifts by family elders usually of a religious nature, like a Bible.  In the Latin culture, the girl’s godparents, or padrinos, play a very important role in her life and is also present during the mass and dinner.  

 Click here for a short overview video.

At nighttime, a dance party is held at a restaurant or banquet hall, which is decorated with one or two theme colors of the girl’s choosing.  Prior to the day, the quinceañera selects her ball gown (similar looking to a wedding gown) and her Court of Honor consisting of friends and relatives of the same age group to accompany her during the waltz performance at the dinner party.  The quinceañera herself is escorted by a male companion.

Click here to see a waltz performance.

After the waltz, other traditions are also carried out that night.  Usually, the quinceañera first comes in a pair of flat heel shoes that are then taken off and changed into high heels by her father during the “Shoe Changing Ceremony”.  The mother then assists in the coronation or crowning ceremony and exchanges this with her doll.  This is then followed by the Father-Daughter Dance, where the father and daughter take the first dance.  Other older male family members (e.g. brothers, grandfathers, uncles, godfathers) may also ask to take her around the dance floor.  Then the dance floor is opened up to all guests with the playing of fast songs, characteristic of the Latin culture. 

Click here to see some of the traditions and a father-daughter dance.

Of course, this ceremony may be celebrated on a smaller scale, like at a family’s backyard, depending on the financial well-being of the parents.

If you are ever invited to a Quinceañera make sure you accept it!

A Thanksgiving feast

First, I want to apologize for not being able to update my blog as frequently recently; I’ve been swamped with work. Today’s post will also be short but I’ll compensate by writing a longer post next time.  

The American holiday, Thanksgiving, will be celebrated this upcoming weekend so just wanted to talk briefly about it.  Thanksgiving is a big deal for Americans and Thanksgiving dinner is the highlight, comparable to the celebration and dinner eaten during the Lunar New Year by those of Asian descent.  Just like the Lunar New Year for Asians, Thanksgiving is a time when family members gather to give thanks for all that they have.  Even though there are variations, here are some of the more traditional dishes eaten during this day:

I personally prefer pumpkin pie, which is also my favorite Thanksgiving dish, over apple pie!

 

 One thing that I am thankful for this year is having you as a loyal follower of my blog!  Thank you for your continued support!   

Lastly, to those of you who do celebrate this holiday, Happy Thanksgiving!

Quotation marks (Part II)

Do you have the use of quotation marks down pat? 

Okay, as promised, we need to discuss the placement of quotation marks when other punctuation are present.  When commas or periods occur with quotation marks, English speakers in the United States will place the ending comma or period inside the quotes while in the United Kingdom or Canada, logic influences the placement of the comma or period.  Basically, if the punctuation relates to the quoted material, it goes inside. When it is part of the sentence, and not the quoted material, the period or comma goes outside.

Example:

Charles Dickens once said, “A loving heart is the truest wisdom.” (United States)

Charles Dickens once said, “A loving heart is the truest wisdom”. (United Kingdom and Canada)

 

Be careful!  This is only applicable for the comma and period, not for other ending punctuation like a question mark (?) or exclamation point (!), where the punctuation always go either before or after the quotation marks depending on whether punctuation is also part of the quoted material.

Example:

Did Charles Dickens once say, “A loving heart is the truest wisdom”?  (quoted material not part of question)

She asked, “Did you just say that the quote is from Charles Dickens?” (quoted material is part of question)

 

Now, a more complicated issue is what happens when quoted material is placed within quoted material, for example, when the writing is mentioning what someone is saying and that person is quoting someone else?

When this happens, the author would put double quotes around the speech that his informant said then single quote around what this person said that someone else said:

Example:

She said, “Charles Dickens once said, ‘A loving heart is the truest wisdom.’”

 

Last time, it was mentioned that writers may try to put others’ speech inside quotation marks to distance themselves from the speech or to suggest an alternative meaning to a certain word or phrase.  However, sometimes you may see that words or phrases are placed within quotation marks for emphasis. This should not be done as it would make readers wonder about the true meaning. Instead, one should underline or italicize the word.  On paper, underlining is probably going to be the chosen method while on the computer, italicizing is the better choice.

Example:

An advertisement at a retail store may read: “Low” prices  (This suggests that the prices might actually not be that low.)

Instead, underlining or italicizing should be used: Low prices OR Low prices

 

Last episode mentioned that titles of larger pieces of written work should be underlined or italicized. Here is a list of them:

Books

Journals and magazines

Plays

Long musical pieces

Television and radio programs

Famous speeches

Example:

Lincoln’s famous speech The Gettysburg Address

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

 

OK, that wraps up Part II on quotation marks!