watch your · pdf fileverbs require gerund complements, some infinitive complements, ......

Watch Your Verbs

by

Mary Sarawit

Naresuan University

2014

Preface

I have been teaching English to Thai learners of English for over forty years. I

am fascinated by the power, beauty, and complexity of words and their subtle differences,

especially when looking at words across languages, specifically in the Thai-English context.

Words are classified into major groups: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.

According to the second edition of the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary (1989), there

are around 85,738 nouns and 24,500 verbs. However, I would argue that verbs are the power

player in an English sentence; the verb decides what can be subject and also determines

whether it will have a complement and what kind of complement that will be. In general, the

verb speak requires a human subject capable of speech, slap requires an animate subject with

hands, demolish requires an object which is a structure capable of being destroyed. Some

verbs require gerund complements, some infinitive complements, and some clausal

complements. Because of the importance of the verb in the sentence and how it controls

other parts of the sentence, learners of English should carefully learn how individual verbs

are used. Nouns for the most part label things and the singular and plural status of nouns

must be learned, but verbs have more complex relations with subjects and complements as

well as active, passive, and middle voice.

Over the years, I have studied the errors Thai learners make with some English

verbs using contrastive analysis, error analysis, and corpus analysis, hoping to find a remedy

for the errors. With Watch Your Verbs, I have summarized these studies and added some

exercises. I hope both students and teachers will find the data, analyses, and exercises

helpful.

Please send your comments to [email protected] and put VERBS as the

subject of your e-mail.

Mary Sarawit

July 2014

mailto:[email protected]

Index

page

1. Converse Verbs 1

2. Kill and Murder 4

3. Protect and Prevent 6

4. Psychological Verbs 9

5. Study and Learn 12

6. Winning and Losing 15

7. Say and Tell 18

8. Introduce and Suggest 22

9. Loyal and Honest 25

10. Key for Exercises 27

1

Converse Verbs

Some verbs are found to have the same area of meaning (semantically similar)

though they are used (syntactically) differently. These differences involve which noun

phrase (NP) can be the subject. For example, verbs like lead and follow may be described as

synonymous. Each has basically the same meaning, and each has the same two related noun

phrases. The two verbs differ in which NP can be subject: lead requires the Agent, the noun

phrase with the control to instigate the action and be the subject while with follow, the Agent

that initiated the action is the object in the sentence.

The coach led the players onto the field.

The players followed the coach onto the field.

Verbs of this kind are called Converse Verbs. Following are the major pairs of

Converse Verbs.

Like and Please Like and please have basically the same meaning. Each verb has two NPs related to it

where one NP is the Receiver or Experiencer and the other NP is the Stimulus of the state of

the verb. The two verbs like and please differ in which NP may be the subject. Like requires

that the Experiencer be subject while please requires that the Stimulus be the subject.

Experiencer Stimulus

Jane likes classical music.

Stimulus Experiencer

Classical music pleases Jane.

Notice that both sentences basically express the same meaning: Jane experiences a state of

agreeableness brought on or stimulated by classical music. There are numerous Converse

Verbs in English. The following are a few more examples:

Fear and Frighten

Experiencer Stimulus

I fear that man.

Stimulus Experiencer

That man frightens me.

Buy and Sell

Receiver Object (Thing) Agent (Source)

Daeng bought cake from the saleslady.

Agent (Source) Object (Thing) Receiver

The saleslady sold cake to Daeng.

2

Give and Get

Agent (Source) Receiver Object (Thing)

The teacher gave the student a book.


The teacher gave a book to the teacher.

Receiver Object (thing) Agent (Source)

The student got a book from the teacher.

Borrow and Loan


I borrowed the book from Joe.


Joe loaned the book to me.


Joe loaned me the book.

Steal and Rob

Agent Object (Thing) Source

The man stole the cell phone from the girl.

Agent Source Object (Thing)

The man robbed the girl of the cell phone.

The verbs rent and blame also have NPs with converse relations, but the verb is the

same word.

Rent


Jill rented a house from my mother.


My mother rented a house to Jill.


My mother rented Jill a house.

Blame Agent Receiver Object

The father blamed the child for the accident.

Agent Object Receiver

The father blamed the accident on the child.

The more you read and see the verbs in context, the easier it is to remember how the

verbs are related to the noun phrases in the sentence.

Source: Sri Nakharinwirot Pisnulok, Year 3, #2, Aug.-Nov. 1977, p.41-48.

3

Practice

Choose the best answer. The correct answers can be found on page 27.

1. You shouldn’t blame/praise me. You are the one who forgot to close the window

last night.

2. Frank borrowed/loaned Joe 1,000 baht and told him to pay it back in four months.

3. Which season do you like/please best, winter or summer?

4. Snakes fear/frighten most people even when they are not poisonous.

5. We bought/sold some fruit for our lunch.

6. The scholarship students get/give a 6,000 baht stipend a month.

7. The young girl and old man stole/robbed the bank yesterday.

8. What likes/pleases you the most, his work ethic or his research output?

9. I got/gave a pair of new shoes at the Mall.

10. The new soft lighting pleases/likes everyone at the hotel.

11. The company complained/blamed the crash on the bus driver.

12. My brother bought/rented that motorcycle to his roommate.

4

Kill and Murder

The syntax and semantics of a verb are determined by what relations the verb has with

the associated noun phrases. Looking at the verbs kill and murder, while there is a common

semantic area: someone dies, there are differences in their meaning.

The differences in meaning and use for these two verbs are due to the noun phrase

relationships and restrictions. Kill requires that a NP which is either the Agent (Doer) or the

Instrument be present. Murder, unlike kill, specifies the Agent be present. That is, while

both murder and kill can have three NPs in the relationships of Receiver of the action, Agent

(doer of the action), and Instrument (thing or force involved in causing the action); and while

both verbs must always have a Receiver; murder requires an Agent (doer); but kill has a

choice between Agent or Instrument.

Agent Receiver Instrument

Someone killed Bill with an overdose of morphine.

Someone murdered Bill with an overdose of morphine.

Agent Receiver

Someone killed Bill.

Someone murdered Bill.

Instrument Receiver

An overdose

of morphine killed Bill.

A comparison of these sentences shows that murder always requires in its meaning

and use that the Agent be involved; it indicates intention. Even in the passive voice, the

meaning of there being an Agent is retained.

Receiver (Agent)

Bill was murdered. (by someone)

There are additional semantic differences between the two words. Murder is the

unlawful killing of a human being. Killing is sometimes considered lawful as in war or in

countries with the death penalty.

Source: Sri Nakharinwirot Pisnulok, Year 3, No.2, Aug.-Nov. 1977, p.41-48.

5

Practice


1. Snake bite killed/murdered the dog.

2. Five people were killed/murdered in the car accident last weekend.

3. Having planned for months, Harold finally killed/murdered his wife with an overdose

of morphine.

4. The hunter killed/murdered the bear.

5. He was arrested and charged with attempting to kill/murder his business partner.

6. Not knowing he was allergic to penicillin, the nurse accidentally killed/murdered the

old man.

7. The judge decided that the accused man had killed/murdered his girlfriend.

8. Jerry was killed/murdered in the lightening storm while playing golf.

9. The judge ruled that Sam’s death was not accidental, and that he had been

killed/murdered. 10.The bee sting actually killed/murdered Alfred.

6

Protect and Prevent

The verbs protect and prevent can often be troublesome. The verbs differ in structure

and meaning relations. One of the basic structural differences between protect and prevent is

that prevent takes a sentential complement (subject + verb), but protect doesn’t. The

sentential complement is in the form of a gerund as prevent your being injured or prevent

you from being injured. Prevent is a one place verb while protect can have two places (a NP

and a prepositional phrase) after the verb. Compare the following sentences:

Daily brushing protects the teeth from tooth decay.

Daily brushing prevents tooth decay. (your teeth from decaying)

Mothers protect children from danger.

Mothers prevent children (from) doing dangerous things.

He will protect you from evil.

He will prevent you (from) being injured. (your being injured).

Wearing this charm will protect you from evil.

Wearing this charm will prevent evil.

Wearing this charm will prevent you (from) having bad luck.

Actually, the structure of prevent is similar to that of suspect.

We suspected [Joe steal money].

We prevented [Joe steal money].

We suspected Joe’s stealing the money.

We prevented Joe’s stealing the money.

We suspected Joe of stealing the money.

We prevented Joe from stealing the money.

However, note two differences: (1) suspect could be followed by a noun clause, but

prevent can’t be followed by a noun clause, and while suspect takes the usually of with the

gerund, prevent takes from.

We suspected that Joe stole the money.

We prevented that Joe stole the money.

The structure of protect is more straight forward. It takes two places: protect (1) me

(2) from danger.

In addition, there is a basic difference in meaning relations between protect and

prevent, and what comes after them. In deciding which verb to use, this is the crucial point.

Look at the following sentences:

Philip was protected from flying planes.

Philip was prevented from flying planes.

7

What follows protect already exists and the sentence means that Philip is kept safe

from the planes that are flying, but with prevent what follows has not happened. Prevent

here means that Philip was not allowed to fly the planes. It never happened. Take a look at

the difference in meaning between the follow two sentences.

He protected her painting.

He prevented her painting.

With protect the sentence means that she has a painting, and that he has kept it safe.

With prevent the sentence means that he has not allowed her to paint. The object of protect

above is simply ‘her painting,’ but the object of prevent is more complex for it is ‘she paint.’

Remember to protect your knowledge of English verb usage for it can prevent you

from making errors.

Source: Sri Nakharinwirot Pisuloke, Year 4, #2, Aug.-Nov., 1978, p.62-72.

8

Practice


1. The purpose of the helmet is to protect/prevent your head if you fall.

2. There are currently vaccines that can protect/prevent childhood pneumonia.

3. I protect/prevent my sister from doing bad things.

4. They built a high wall to protect/prevent the enemy from entering.

5. You must wear glasses to protect/prevent your eyes when welding.

6. Booms float on the surface of the water to protect/prevent oil from spreading.

7. Early intervention can protect/prevent development of reading difficulties.

8. Fish consumption is said to help protect/prevent against cardio-vascular diseases.

9. Some people believe that high doses of vitamin C can protect/prevent the

common cold.

10. Sea lions have a thick layer of blubber to protect/prevent them from the cold

winters in the North.

9

Psychological Verbs

Psychological verbs are verbs that refer to a psychological state. The verbs interact

with two noun phrases: the Stimulus of the psychological feeling or state and the Experiencer

of this feeling or state of being. The trouble in using these verbs is that some of the verbs

require that the subject of the sentence be the Stimulus, but others require that the subject be

the Experiencer. Take a look at the following two sentences:

Karen loves children.

Loud noises bother me.

Love requires that the subject be the Experiencer of the love and the Stimulus of the

feeling of love is the object of the verb. With bother, the subject is the Stimulus that causes

the state of feeling bothered and the object is the Experiencer of this feeling of being

bothered. As long as the relationships are the same with the English and Thai verbs there

shouldn’t be any problem in using these verbs. The problem comes when the relationships

are not the same. Take a look at the following two sentences:

Mr. Kramer’s lectures bore me.

Greek mythology interests many students.

The verbs bore and interest take the Stimulus as the subject and the Experiencer as

the object. However, the Thai verbs เบื่อ and สนใจ require that the subject is the Experiencer

and the object is the Stimulus. Below are the two basic patterns and the verbs which take

each pattern:

Experiencer Verb Stimulus Stimulus Verb Experiencer

I admire your courage. Statistics confuses me.

Other verbs: miss, trust, like, enjoy, Other verbs: bother, interest, content,

remember, regret, prefer, love, embarrass, bore, insult, please, frighten,

hate, respect, understand, worry surprise, satisfy, anger, amuse, worry

Note that worry shows up for both patterns: I worry that I will not pass the exam and

Janet’s behavior worries me.

It is also possible to move the Experiencer and Stimulus around by using passive

which means to add the verb to be and by or sometimes with and in:

Your courage is admired by all.

Your reasons for leaving are understood by all.

Strong coffee is preferred by most Europeans.

I am confused by statistics.

I am interested in modern painting.

I am bored with John’s excuses.

10

These psychological verbs can also be turned into present and past participles and

then used as adjectives. It is important to remember that the present participle comes from an

active form and the past participle from a passive form. Note the difference in meaning

between the two participles in the following sentences:

The amusing clown made the children laugh.

The amused clown laughed when the monkey jumped down.

The first sentence means that the clown did something funny to make the children

laugh while the second sentence means that the clown was amused by the funny monkey. In

the same manner, the bored man fell asleep because he was bored by having nothing to do

while the boring man has few friends because that man is boring and never does anything

interesting.

We use these psychological verbs quite frequently because they tell how we feel, so

be careful how you use them so you convey what you mean.

Source: “Psychological Verbs in Thai and English: An Example of Learner Errors,”

University Journal , Srinakharinwirot University, Phitsanulok, 1978.

English Structure, Naresuan University, 2000.

11

Practice


1. World events enjoy/interest me, so I read the newspaper everyday.

2. Steve bothers/regrets that he never finished college.

3. Quiet weekends sometimes enjoy/bore me.

4. Physics doesn’t understand/confuses me.

5. We respect/worry your decision to move to Singapore for a better job.

6. Most of us admire/satisfy classical musicians.

7. The student’s behavior insulted/regretted the teacher.

8. Those small flying insects bother/hate the tennis players at night.

9. Only a few people content/prefer working at night.

10. The new sales tax angers/hates most of the shop keepers who frighten/fear they

will sell fewer products.

12

Study and Learn

As with all verbs, correct usage involves understanding the complement structure:

what follows the verb and the meaning of the verb. Without knowledge of the syntax and

semantics of the related verbs like study and learn, it is easy to make errors when using these

verbs.

I would like to review some of the differences among the following verbs: study,

learn, practice, train, and drill. The words are all related to gaining more knowledge or skill

in something. Let’s look at study and learn. Both are process verbs, but learn presupposes

that one gain knowledge while study has no such requirement. Look at the following

sentences:

Incorrect I learned English, but I still don’t know it.

Correct I studied English, but I still don’t know it.

Notice the difference in meaning between the following sentences:

I’ve learned to be a good student counselor.

I’ve studied to be a good student counselor.

Both are correct, but the sentence with learn assumes I know how or what it takes to

be a good student counselor while the sentence with study makes no such assumption.

There are other grammatical difference in using study and learn. We don’t normally

use adverbials like hard, a specific time, or a specific place.

Incorrect Malee learns history very hard.

Correct Malee studies history very hard.

Incorrect Jill learns the violin every Saturday morning.

Correct Jill studies the violin every Saturday morning.

Incorrect Sometimes I learn French in the library.

Correct Sometimes I study French in the library.

Maybe it would be helpful to think of know and learn as a pair. They differ in that

know is not a process verb and so cannot be used in the continuous or the command form.

Incorrect I am knowing English.

Correct I am learning English.

Incorrect Know English.

Correct Learn English.

Turning now to the three remaining verbs: practice, train, and drill, there are

problems in usage involving both grammar and meaning. Practice takes as its complement

an inanimate object, but train requires an animate subject.

Hal practices the piano every day.

I trained my dog to fetch the newspaper.

In addition, practice can take a sentential complement, but it must be in a gerund form

whereas train can take a sentential complement, but it must be in the infinitive form.

Dave practices throwing a curve ball every day.

13

The volunteers were trained to react quickly in an emergency.

Train is similar to teach in that you teach (train) someone to do/be something.

However, train has an added requirement in that it assumes a certain standard for the

outcome.

He taught me to be an ice skater.

He trained me to be an Olympic ice skater.

Train is also unusual in that it has two patterns: one in which the subject is the Agent

and a Cause in that the object is caused to do something and one in which the subject is only

the Agent.

Agent/+Cause Receiver (+James studies to a concert pianist.)

Professor Sears trained James to be a concert pianist.

Agent/-Cause

James trained to be a concert pianist.

Receiver –Agent-Cause

James was trained to be a concert pianist.

The last verb to be considered here is drill. Drill is similar to train in that it takes an

animate object and has both a subject which is both agent and cause and also a subject which

is simply the agent of the action of drill. In addition, drill carries a special meaning of

making someone do an activity repeatedly, such as the act in the following sentences:

Agent + Cause Receiver (+ the soldiers for sometime.)

The sergeant drilled the soldiers for three hours.

Agent –Cause

The soldiers drilled for three hours.

Receiver –Agent-Cause

The soldiers were drilled for three hours.

The use of words, such as study, learn, practice, train, and drill which have overlapping

syntactic and semantic content require a thorough understanding on the part of the user and

lots of time and practice in using them in context.

Source: Sri Nakharinwirot Pisuloke, Year 5, #1, Apr.-July, 1979, p.66-74.

14

Practice


1. I have practiced/trained football since I was 12 years old.

2. I learned/studied how to knit a sweater, but I still can’t do it.

3. Andre wanted to get into university, so he trained/studied all the time.

4. The students practiced/drilled English for 2 hours every afternoon.

5. I am knowing/learning how to dance.

6. The teacher drills/practices his students before the big exam.

7. Carl has been practicing/training the high school gymnastics team for 8 years now.

8. Know/learn English, and it will help you to get a better job.

9. I practice/drill speaking English with my American friend every evening after

dinner.

10. Study/practice the differences between the cultures, and you will train/learn how to fit

in.

15

Winning and Losing

The focus here will be on four verbs: win, lose, defeat, and beat.1 These verbs can

cause problems for Thais because of the differences in how the Thai counterparts ชนะ and แพ้ are used.

In analyzing the verbs, we must consider the relationship between the main verb and

other constituents in the sentence. Basically, there are three semantic parts related to the

verb. These are the Winner (W), the Loser (L), and the Goal (G). As I will try to point out, it

is the difference in how each verb is related to the Winner (W), Loser (L), or Goal (G) that

accounts for the differences in usage for win, lose, defeat/beat, and ชนะ and แพ้. The chart below outlines the basic structure for each verb. The last part which

appears as a prepositional phrase is optional. The second noun phrase is obligatory. Even

with verbs like win where it is often deleted, the meaning is understood. That is, we can say

a) I won the game or b) I won. However, even for sentence (b) we understand that I won

(something).

WINNING AND LOSING VERB CHART

Pattern Example

W win G(L) I won the tennis match with Bill.

W defeat L(G) The English majors defeated the Bio major in the third game.

L be+defeat W(G) The bio majors were defeated by the English majors in the

third game.

L lose2 G(W) Bill lost the tennis match to me.

L be+defeat G(W) Our team was defeated in the game with team C.

G be+lose L(W) Over a billion dollars was lost by Britain to Japan.

G be+win W The 2010 World Cup was won by Spain.

G be+lose W3

The oil rich region was lost to the rebels.

WG4

ชนะ L แดง วิ่งชนะ ด ำ W ชนะ L(G) แดง ชนะ ด ำ ในกำรวิ่ง

L แพ้ W(G) ด ำ แพ้ แดง ในกำรวิ่ง

LG4 แพ้ W ด ำ วิ่งแพ้ แดง

1 The structure of beat is basically the same as that of defeat. However, if the goal is a

test or examination beat is the preferred word. Therefore, beat and not defeat is used

in the following sentence: I beat my friend in the exam; my score was 92, but his

was 89. Defeat seems to require that there be an acknowledged contest. A test or

exam is not usually a contest between two parties with a winner or loser. Beat

appears to be more general in that it can be used in an acknowledged contest, such as

a boxing match or a war where the winner and loser are quite evident or in an exam

or other such situation where the sense of a winner or loser is less clear.

I defeated Bill in the tennis match.

I beat Bill in the tennis match.

The U.S. defeated Hitler in WWII.

The U.S. beat Hitler in WWII.

16

I beat Bill on the English quiz.

I beat you: I’m 5’9”, and you’re 5’7”.

France beat the U.S. in producing a rabies vaccine.

2 Lose can also take the pattern L lose W G as in I lost to Bill in the tennis match. In

addition, lose has a special pattern where the subject is neither the W or L but rather

a Cause: You lost us the game. Here, us is the Loser, game is the Goal, and you is

the Cause of our losing the game. The winner isn’t stated. If the winner were to be

included it would be something like the following: You lost us the game to the Thai

team. 3 The prepositional phrases with to in sentences with lose can be tricky. While most

of the time, the prepositional phrase refers to the winner as in sentences A and B

below, there are also examples where the to phrase refers to the loser as in sentences

C and D or to neither winner nor loser but rather to the cause of the situation as in

sentence E. 4 L G W

A: The socialists lost the election to the right wing.

G W

B: Over $800,000 was lost to the embezzlers. (The loser is the bank/company.)

G L Cause

C: Rolando was lost to the team for six weeks due to a leg injury.

G L

D: Although the sun was lost to them, the light was sufficient, and they rode

ahead on their bikes.

G Cause

E: Guard J.D. Pollock was lost to knee injury for the rest of the season. (The

loser is the team.)

5 In this Thai pattern WG ชนะ L as in the pattern LG แพ ้W the constituent for the Goal

is incorporated into a Verb form: วิ่งชนะ and วิ่งแพ้. There are examples of English

incorporating the goal into the verb, but the verb win becomes redundant: I won the

race with Bill becomes I outran Bill.

Above all, the semantic intent of the writer must be understood through the situation

presented. The semantic roles that usually occur with verbs of winning and losing as well

as the basic patterns are intended to be a helpful guide for the writer/reader.

Source: Sri Nakharinwirot Pisuloke, Year 5, #3, Dec.,1979-Mar., 1980, p.58-62.

17

Practice


1. He defeats/loses easily because he doesn’t practice his serve.

2. My team won/defeated his team at the regional playoffs.

3. She was very sad when she lost/defeated.

4. Chile defeated/lost the game with Brazil in the knock-out stage of the World Cup.

5. You got an A; I got a B, so you beat/won me in this course.

6. You defeated/lost the game when you got a red card.

7. Novak beat/won Federer at Wimbeldon because of his skill and fitness.

8. Who will win/beat the election this year?

9. Germany won/defeated the World Cup because of their great team work.

10. Walter won/defeated all contestants in the game show last week.

18

Say and Tell

I’d like to examine some of the rules for using say and tell. Say and tell share

semantic and structural properties. Both verbs are concerned with communication and both

are transitive verbs which permit direct and indirect object complements. An additional

difficulty for Thai students of English at the beginning or intermediate levels of proficiency is

that both verbs have as one of their translations the high frequency Thai verb บอก. The

structure of บอก is much closer to tell than say.

Say and tell hold a converse relationship in the following sentences:

I will say nothing to him.

I will tell him nothing.

They are converses in that basically both sentences have the following constituents:

Speaker, Verb, Information, and Addressee. There is a speaker who communicates

something to someone, the only difference being that say and tell in these sentences require

their complements (Information-direct object and Addressee-indirect object) in opposite

orders.

This similarity can be deceptive for there seems to be an underlying difference

between say and tell in that tell seems to require that information be directed toward

someone. Even when the addressee is optionally deleted in the surface structure, the sentence

with tell carries a meaning that the information was directed to some addressee.

I said (to Bill) that you are lying.

I told Bill that you are lying.

He told what he had done, meaning he told someone what he had done.

He said that he enjoyed the movie.

As already noted both say and tell take two object complements. However, while tell

allows the indirect object to be moved before the direct object as well as placed after the

direct object say does not. Only in the case of a long direct object, usually in a clause form

does say allow for the indirect object to move before the direct object, and in such a case it

must retain the prepositional maker to of the indirect object.

I told Jim the story.

I told the story to Jim.

I said something to her.

I said to Jim that we would come to visit him if we had a chance.

In an attempt to summarize the structure of tell and say, the two verbs are presented

with their complements in Tables I and II, respectively.

19

Table 1 Tell and its complement structure

SPEAKER TELL SOMEONE SOMETHING

Helen told him the story.

Helen told …. the story.

Helen told him about the movie.

Helen told …. about the secret treasure.

Helen told him that you were coming.

Helen told ….. that you were coming.

Helen told …. where you were.

Helen told him to come early.

SPEAKER TELL SOMETHING to SOMEONE

Helen told the story to him.

Table 2 Say and its complement structure

SPEAKER SAY SOMETHING to SOMEONE

Helen said something to him.

Helen said something.

Helen said that Ann was sick.

Helen said why he was late.

Helen said to come on Friday.

SPEAKER SAY to SOMEONE SOMETHING

Helen said to the new employee that she had great

potential.

Helen said to the student to bring her English

dictionary.

Note again when the language is directed specifically to someone tell is the preferred

choice of verb. There are also differences between the two verbs for the passive voice with

some restrictions on the use of passive with say.

Active Passive

Joyce told me that Joe had left. I was told that Joe had left.

Joyce told Joe to leave. Joe was told to leave.

Joyce said nothing to the committee. Nothing was said to the committee.

Joyce said to me that Joe had left. ………….

Joyce said for Joe to leave. ………….

We do get passive with said when the object of the active sentence is a clause. In this

case, the subject of the clause is raised out of the clause to be subject of the passive sentence

as can be seen in the sentences below.

20

Active Passive

Joyce said that Joe had left. Joe was said to have left.

Joyce said that the vaccine was effective. The vaccine was said to be effective.

As mentioned before, you need to be extra careful when using say. Notice the

differences between the almost identical patterns below with ask and say.

I asked Nick to go. (Nick will go.) I said for Nick to go. (Nick will go.)

I asked to go tomorrow. (I will go tomorrow.) I said to go tomorrow. (Someone

(not me) will go tomorrow.)

Discussion of say and tell while not encompassing all possible uses of these verbs is

offered as a guide for students and teachers of English as a foreign language in Thailand.

Source: Humanities (Srinakharinwirot University, Phitsanulok), Year 2, #2, Oct. 1987, p.62-

72.

21

Practice


1. Fred told/said to the students that the test had already begun.

2. John told/said Adele why Dan looked so unhappy.

3. She tells/says what she thinks.

4. The teacher told/said that we would take a field trip to the science museum next month.

5. The announcer told/said the audience that the guest speaker would be delayed about 40

minutes due to traffic.

6. The anthropologist told/said a story that had been passed down orally for over one

thousand years.

7. The public relations officer told/said what he thought the committee members wanted to

hear about the release of the new product.

8. I told/said you to e-mail the news to all the members.

9. It is told/said that preparing well is the best way to overcome stage fright.

10. Nothing was told/said about how long the meeting would take.

22

Introduce and Suggest

As with all my work on verbs, it begins with an observation that my students

consistently have errors in using some verbs. The question, of course, is why. For if I can

answer why they make these errors, I can explain the errors and give the students exercises to

help them correct their misunderstanding.

A survey of my sophomore and junior university students revealed that around 50%

of the students made errors when constructing sentences with the verb introduce. Sixty

percent of these errors were a result of using the pattern in which the object of introduce was

an animate noun followed by an infinitive clause, for example:

He introduced the students to read more. (incorrect)

He told the students to read more. (correct)

He suggested that the students should read more. (correct)

The sentence above with introduce involves two errors: one syntactic and one

semantic. First of all, syntactically introduce takes to + NP not an infinitive as the student

had given here with to read. The other problem is that there are semantic restrictions on the

inanimate NP. It must be something new or different. Therefore, read is not really anything

different or novel here. There are three basic patterns:

INTRODUCE SOMEONE to SOMEONE

Joe introduced Beth to his mother.

INTORDUCE SOMETHING to SOMEONE

[+innovation or

new to someone]

Dr. A. Frost introduced painless dentistry to the world.

INTORDUCE SOMEONE to SOMETHING

[+innovation or

new to someone]

Jim Thompson introduced Americans to the beauty of Thai silk.

Suggest was far more troublesome for my Thai students. Over 78% made errors in

constructing sentences with suggest. The most common error was using someone after

suggest followed by an infinitive. The basic pattern for suggest is suggest + something

where the something is in the form of a clause, gerund, or noun.

The teacher suggested me to study more. (incorrect)

SOMEONE SUGGEST SOMETHING

The teacher suggested that I study more. (correct)

studying more.

some new books.

There is an optional variation to this pattern where the person receiving the suggestion

precedes the suggestion.

23

SOMEONE SUGGEST to SOMEONE SOMETHING

I suggested to my sister that she buy a small car.

Because the suggestion is usually in the form of a clause, when passive is used It

usually takes the position of the subject as in the sentence that follows:

It was suggested (to my sister) that she buy a small car.

Semantically the complement of suggest usually has not occurred yet, for example, I

suggest that you take a trip to Chiangmai. Suggest is also peculiar in that it does not take

normal tense markings in the clause following the main verb suggest.

We suggest (that) Bill study abroad. or

We suggest (that) Bill should study abroad.

The key here is to focus on the main verb and the semantic and syntax requirements

of the verb.

Source: Educational Administration Newsletter, Year 1, #1, Nov.-Dec., 1991.

24

Practice

Correct the following sentences. Sample sentences can be found on page 30.

1. I introduce my children to study hard. ………………………………………………

2. Harold introduced us with his family. ………………………………………………

3. You should introduce the students cleaning their rooms weekly.

………………………………………………………………….

4. Please introduce to me your new friend from Spain.

5. A salesman suggested his goods to Jill. ……………………………………………...

6. I suggested to my friend a new job. ………………………………………………

7. My teacher suggested me to apply for a scholarship. ………………………………….

8. I suggest that you will travel abroad before beginning your job.

…………………………………………………………………

9. The students were suggested that they needed to study harder for the next test.

…………………………………………………………………

10.The doctor suggested Ken to lose some weight.

……………………………………………………………………

25

Loyal and Honest

Finally, I want to examine the words loyal and honest, especially in terms of how

these words are used by Thais. In 2010, I used error analysis and corpus data to examine the

usage of loyal and honest and the Thai words ซื่อสัตย์, สุจริต, and จงรักภักดี. I found that

students who rely on bilingual dictionaries will often find ซื่อสัตย์ when translating loyal and

honest into Thai and honest and loyal when translating ซื่อสัตย์ into English. In English,

loyal means faithful and honest means truthful. There is never any overlap between the two

meanings. In addition, because honest has a higher frequency of use in English, students are

less familiar with loyal.

Error analysis revealed that grammatical errors were more numerous than semantic

errors for both words: loyal 46.66% vs 3.39% and honest 28.57% vs 8.93%. For the most

part, students had trouble with the two following patterns:

have + Noun (loyalty/honesty) He has loyalty. He has honesty.

be+ Adjective (loyal/honest) He is loyal. He is honest.

In addition, the students did not use the correct prepositions. Words in English often

require specific prepositions, such as interested in and annoyed with. In the case of loyal and

honest, loyal takes to + person and honest takes with + person: He is loyal to his friends; he

is honest with his friends.

The semantic errors were basically due to the use of honest in contexts for which

English would require loyal, eg., My sister has a loyal dog which is always at her side. This

means her dog is faithful to her. The dog cannot be honest because this requires a conscious

choice between truthfulness or lying.

In learning new words, it is important to learn collocations; that is which words go

with a word. Over 93.5 % of the time, loyal will go with a word referring to a person: loyal

friend, 5.1% with a product of human endeavor: loyal support, and.1.4% with an animal:

loyal pet. Over 50.4% of the time, honest will go with a word referring to a person: honest

salesman, 25.2 % with a product of human endeavor: honest mistake, 19.8 % with the

expression to be honest, and 4.7 % others, such as honest indicator, honest sign, and honest

atmosphere.

With the easy availability of free on-line corpus sites, such as the Corpus of

Contemporary American English (www.americancorpus.org) which comprises 450 million

words from over 160,000 texts, anyone wishing to see how a word is used can simply type in

a word, click, and see the word in context in hundreds or thousands of sentences. This is

language in use.

Source: (2010) Loyal and Honest a Question of Usage. www.sarawit.com

http://www.americancorpus.org/

http://www.sarawit.com/

26

Practice

Fill in the blank with honest or loyal. Correct answers can be found on page 30.

1. In buying a second-hand car, you must be very careful because very often the

………..buyer is dealing with an unfair seller.

2. I want a/an ……….. government.

3. My coworkers are always ……….. to me.

4. If you are ……….., you will not cheat on the test.

5. I want my friends to be ……….. with me and tell me what they really think.

6. Dogs are ……….. companions and will stay with their owner when they are injured.

7. The negotiator said that there would have to be a/an ………..atmosphere if they were

to begin talks to solve the dispute.

8. Harold has given me 20 years of ………..service, and it is not possible that he stolen

the jewels.

9. The president’s most ………..voting bloc are the young voters under 40 years of age.

10. Everyone thought Franco was ……….. to the company, and so we were shocked to

learn that it was Franco who leaked the news to the newspapers.

27

Key

Converse Verbs

1. Blame: blame someone for a bad deed; praise someone for a good deed.

2. Loaned: Frank gave Joe 1,000 baht for him to pay back later.

3. Like: You like the season; the season (winter or summer) pleases you.

4. Frighten: Snakes cause people to be afraid; people fear snakes.

5. Bought: bought for lunch; sold to someone.

6. Get: Students get (receive) the money; the school gives the students the money.

7. Robbed: robbed the bank; stole the money from the bank.

8. Pleases: His work ethic pleases you; you like his work ethic; you are pleased by his

work ethic.

9. Got: I got (bought) the shoes at the Mall; I gave my sister the shoes.

10. Pleases: The lightening pleased everyone; everyone likes the lightening.

11. Blamed: blamed the bus driver for the bus crash; complained about the crash/bus

driver.

12. Rented: rented to; bought from.

Kill and Murder

1. Killed: murder one person is intentionally killing another person.

2. Killed: accident.

3. Murdered: planned.

4. Killed: murder killing of a person.

5. Murder: trying means intended to kill.

6. Killed: accident because not knowing.

7. Murdered: judge decided it was intentional.

8. Killed: accident, lightening.

9. Murdered: not an accident.

10. Killed: bee sting, accident and not a person killing Alfred.

Protect and Prevent

1. Protect: your head exists, the helmet keeps it safe.

2. Prevent: not let the child get pneumonia.

3. Prevent: doing, comes from She do bad things, so it means not allow her to do bad

things; protect my sister from bad things would be grammatically correct but different

in meaning because we don’t know who created the bad things or situations.

4. Prevent: the enemy cannot enter.

5. Protect: your eyes exist, and the glasses won’t let anything hurt your eyes.

6. Prevent: don’t allow the spread of oil.

7. Prevent: reading difficulties will not occur.

8. Protect: against, without the word against, prevent would be correct; similar meaning

just different focus: protection or prevention.

9. Prevent: won’t allow you to get the cold.

10. Protect: the blubber (fat) means that in the cold they will not freeze; you can not

prevent the cold air from being there.

28

Psychological Verbs

1. Interest: I am interested in world events; I enjoy world events.

2. Regrets: That he never finished college bothers Steve; it bothers Steve that he never

finished college.

3. Bore: I am bored by quiet weekends sometimes; sometimes I enjoy quiet weekends.

4. Confuses: I am confused by physics; I don’t understand physics.

5. Respect: Your decision is respected; your decision worries us (different meaning).

6. Admire: Classical musicians are admired.

7. Insulted: The teacher was insulted by the student’s behavior.

8. Bother: The tennis players are bothered by those small flying insects at night; the

tennis players hate those small flying insects at night.

9. Prefer: Working at night is preferred by only a few people; only a few people are

content with working at night.

10. Angers and Fear: Most of the shop keepers are angered by the new sales tax; most of

the shop keepers hate the new sales tax; they fear they will sell fewer products; they

are frightened that they will sell fewer products.

Study and Learn

1. Practiced: practiced football; trained to be a professional footballer.

2. Studied: learned to knit, and now I can knit sweaters and scarves.

3. Studied: studied and trained to be a teacher.

4. Practiced: practice speaking and writing in English; the teacher drilled the students

on irregular verbs and passive voice.

5. Learning: know does not take the progressive (continuous) form or the command

form.

6. Drills: the teacher drills the students on specific points, and the student practices by

doing exercises.

7. Training: training in gymnastics and practicing on the balance beam.

8. Learn: know cannot be used in the command form.

9. Practice: do a pronunciation drill about the th sounds and then practice speaking.

10. Study and learn: study about Thai culture and then practice making the ‘Wai’

greeting; with some training and practice you will be able to act appropriately in the

Thai setting.

29

Winning and Losing

1. Loses: loses the game, defeats his opponent.

2. Defeated: defeated his team.

3. Lost: lost the game.

4. Lost: lost the match; Brazil defeated Chile; Chile lost (the match) to Brazil.

5. Beat: You beat me with your higher grade.

6. Lost: lost the game.

7. Beat: Novak won the trophy by beating Federer in the final.

8. Win: win the election by beating/defeating your opponent.

9. Won: Germany defeated Argentina in the final, beating Argentina in over-time with a

score of 1-0.

10. Defeated: win the contest by defeating/beating all the other players.

Say and Tell

1. Said: said something to the students; told the students.

2. Told: told Adele.

3. Says: says something (what she thinks).

4. Said: said something.

5. Told: told the audience.

6. Told: tell a story to someone, tell someone a story.

7. Said: said something.

8. Told: told you, said something to you.

9. Said: something (that preparing well is the best way to overcome stage fright) is said

by many people. The clause is too long to be the subject of the sentence, so IT is

placed as the subject of the passive sentence.

10. Said: Someone said nothing about…… changed to passive nothing was said about….

30

Introduce and Suggest

1. I tell my children to study hard; I suggest that my children study hard.

2. Harold introduced us to his family.

3. You should tell the students to clean their rooms weekly; you should suggest to the

students that they clean their rooms weekly. (Tell is stronger here.)

4. Please introduce me to your new friend from Spain.

5. A salesman recommended/suggested that Jill use his goods.

6. I suggested a new job to my friend; I suggested that my friend try a new job.

7. My teacher suggested (that) I apply for a scholarship.

8. I suggest that you (should) travel abroad before beginning your job.

9. The students were told (passive/teacher is the one who told them) that they needed to

study harder for the next test; the teacher suggested (not very strong) that the

students needed to study harder for the next test.

10. The doctor suggested to Ken that he lose some weight.

Loyal and Honest

1. Honest: compared to the unfair or dishonest seller of second hand cars.

2. Honest: We expect our government to be honest, fair, and not corrupt.

3. Loyal: loyal to someone, honest with someone.

4. Honest: don’t cheat.

5. Honest: honest with me.

6. Loyal: Dogs are faithful to their owners.

7. Honest: Honest atmosphere means no lying or cheating.

8. Honest: honest here because we are told he did not steal.

9. Loyal: faithful and the block will vote for him.

10. Loyal: Franco was not loyal and went and told things about the company to the

newspapers.

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