Wrap Up Your Work

During a class activity, I heard someone say, "wrap up with your work." Often, we misuse the preposition, "with." Earlier, I blogged about "advise you with our arrival" (it should be "advise you on our arrival"). Today, I'm looking at another misuse of "we."

In the expression above, there's no need to use "with." The expression is simply "wrap up your work." I honestly don't know why but I think it's just a question of usage and clutter. Where usage is concerned, people have always just said "wrap up your work." Where clutter is concerned, "with" does not add to or detract from the meaning of the expression so there's no need for it. In this case, "with" is unnecessary so it just "clutters" the sentence.

Enjoy your week, everyone! Try to wrap up all your work before the weekend. Cheers!

It's On Behalf Of!

Much as I don't like to repeat myself, I had to post on this topic again. The improper use of "in behalf of" is starting to irritate me.

Yesterday, Casey and I were in Megamall for some errands and we stopped by Toy Kingdom, my husband being a toy collector after all. Toy Kingdom had a voice over the PA announcing birthday celebrants who were shopping in the store. The announcer kept saying, "In behalf of Toy Kingdom, we would like to greet...." After the announcement, all the employees would clap and this rather annoying birthday jingle would play. My irritation at the music aside, I kept wincing every time I would hear "in behalf of Toy Kingdom." How many Toy Kingdom shoppers had their birthday yesterday anyway?

One of my earliest posts was on this topic. When we are representing someone else, we say "on behalf of". "In behalf of" is used when we're doing something for the benefit of someone else. Hence, it's "On behalf of Toy Kingdom" (the person over the PA is representing everyone in Toy Kingdom) and "We collected goods in behalf of the flood victims" (the speaker collected charity for the benefit of the flood victims).

Now, I do know that English is a living and evolving language. In fact, "on behalf of" and "in behalf of" are often interchanged now. Still, I think it's important to know how to use English correctly just the same.


Thanks for reading!

If I Have The Chance

One of my students said, "Ma'am, if I have a chance to go abroad, I want to go to the States to earn money for my family." I appreciate the sentiment but I've got to correct the grammar.

If you want to talk about one chance to do anything, say, "if I have the chance." In a previous post, I explained the difference between the and a. We use a when we're talking about one thing among many. For example, "Let's go to a restaurant in Greenhills tonight." In this case, the speaker is talking about any one restaurant in Greenhills, a place with many restaurants. The, on the other hand, is used when we're talking about one particular thing "Let's go to the restaurant beside the bookstore in Greenhills." Here, the speaker is talking about one restaurant beside the bookstore. If you noticed, the first example talks about a non-specific restaurant. In the second, the restaurant is specified.

Where chances are concerned, we say "the chance" because we're talking about one particular chance to do something--"if I have the chance to go abroad." Granted, people might have more than one chance to do something--"this is a chance to find love"-- but if you're talking about the one chance, use the.

I hope this wasn't confusing?

Birds Of A Feather

Yesterday, I was talking to a student who said, "the same feather flock together." It was a silly mistake but I had to give her credit for trying to integrate an idiom into what she was saying.

The correct idiom is "birds of a feather flock together." No, we're not talking about birds here; however, the meaning of this idiom is taken from the way birds behave. Think about a flock of birds flying overhead: a flock (a group of birds) will only have one kind of bird. If we're lucky, we can catch a flock of sparrows, a flock of swallows, a flock of seagulls. We don't see a flock composed of all three kinds of birds. The expression "birds of a feather" means a group of the same birds (they have the same feathers!).

The idiom "birds of a feather flock together" talks about a group of people who are similar in whatever respect. So a football-obsessed teenager will hang-out with other football obsessed
teen-aged friends. Their age and love for football make them like "birds of a feather." In human terms, people who like the same things and act the same way stick together.

Toodles!

Accident Prone

Happy Saturday, everyone! It's been a very busy last three days and work is not over yet. I'm working overtime tomorrow on account of the coming Christmas holidays when the office usually closes so I don't expect to be able to post till around Monday or Tuesday. Here's a quick post and then I'm off to work again.

While traveling down Santolan the other day, I saw this road sign: "Accident Prone." Now, the sign was placed on a rather dangerous curve on the road, which is why it's meaning was pretty clear to me. However, this is pretty bad English! In the first place, "accident prone" is a modifier, it explains something. Like all modifiers, it's not a stand-alone expression. What it modifies has got to be clear. What the sign should have said is, "Accident Prone Area." That way, motorists will easily figure out what "accident prone" is referring to.

Ta-ta!

For The Benefit Of

We often hear people say "for the benefit of" when they speak of doing something for someone: "I'm doing this for the benefit of my mother," "we must call off classes for the benefit of the students," "we bought this for your benefit." Now, you may wonder why we use the word "benefit" instead of its plural, "benefits." After all, sometimes, a person can receive more than one benefit from one action.

The thing is, in the case of this expression, "benefit" is used as a collective noun. In other words, it is a singular noun but it may encompass many things--all the effects, or benefits, of doing that certain action. We never say, "for the benefits of."

Enjoy this rainy day!

At This Point in Time

Sorry for the erratic posting. I've really been so busy and next week isn't going to be much better in terms of free time. Considering this, my blog topic for today is quite timely.

Some years ago, I remember hearing a priest say, "at this point of time." I thought it was a fluke, that he was just one guy who did not know the correct expression. Fact is, I've been hearing people say "at this point of time" more often now.

The correct expression is, "at this point in time." If you think about it, we're all surrounded by time, we're "in" time everyday of our lives! Hence, "in" is the more appropriate preposition here.

Don't waste time!

Being Fond of Someone and Being In Love

A heard a student a couple of days ago saying, "I am in fond of him." This is clearly incorrect as there is no such expression as "in fond of." Instead, we say, "I am fond of him/her/that." Obviously, the mix-up comes from the expression, "I am in love with him/her/that."

Why is it that we say "fond of" and "in love with?" Honestly, I don't know. This is a question of usage or convention more than anything. I'd like to think of this question in terms of images: when we're in love, we're really into a person. We're crazy about the person we're in love with! We're into his face, hands, hobbies, fears, passions, etc. The image I get is someone who is all over another person, holding him, hugging him, kissing him. People in love almost want to absorb the person they love! This is different from when we're fond of something.

When we're fond of something or someone, we like that person or thing very strongly, like the way we like and love a best friend or a favorite toy. Still, we are not into that person or thing. For example, we may know our best friends well but we don't know them as well as we know our spouses or partners.

Hence, we fall in love with a partner and we are fond of a friend (unless you start falling in love with your friend).

Going Out On A Limb

I mentioned in an early post that I would write about English idiomatic expressions. I started with one on the expression, "barking up the wrong tree." Today, I would like to write about "going out on a limb."

Most idiomatic expressions work by playing with images. In the expression, "going out on a limb," the image we see is someone who is on a tree branch crawling to the end of that branch to get something. If you think about it, it's a very dangerous position for a human being to be in (who would want to crawl on a tree branch?).

Following from what the image means, we see that the expression " going out on a limb" alludes to doing something dangerous. The danger here will not likely be a physical one but more of a social or psychological one. For example, you may describe asking your boss for a pay increase as "going out on a limb." Asking for a raise is rather dangerous, if you think about it. You can get the raise or you can get fired. So, if you feel you're doing something that can be dangerous or stressful, you can say, "I'm going out on a limb."

By the way, work is taking me to Baguio this week. Be back Saturday. Take care!

Based On

Hi everyone! It's been five days since my last post. Whew! I've been extremely busy. I was supposed to be free yesterday but I got called in to work so I was out all day again. Anyway, I'm back and here's my newest post:

I keep hearing people say "based from" when they want to say something like: "Based from what I was told, if I want to be a nurse abroad, I have to take several qualifying tests." I've also heard "Based from the website I read, to work in the U.S., you have to spend a lot on application fees." Now, the other parts of the sentences are all right; the problem lies in the expression, "based from."

The correct form is actually not "based from" but based on.

When we say based on, what we're referring to is drawing conclusions from information. So, let's say you want to be a nurse abroad, you might want to refer to several websites and agencies to find out how you can go about it. Once you've checked with all of these, then you can make conclusions about your own application: "Based on the information I gathered, I need to work on getting all the qualifications first before I can apply for a working visa."

Based on statistics, most Filipinos want to work abroad.

Sold!

While reading through the readers' feedback of a magazine, I saw this message from a satisfied reader: "At first, I was not sold to the idea of your magazine, but I learned to enjoy it." What I want to blog about is the mistake found in the expression, sold to.

We know that the word sold is the past tense of the verb, sell. This verb means to exchange goods for money: "I sold my iPod for a good price." However, it also means to convince someone to buy into or accept an idea, item, etc.: "I sold her on the idea of celebrating her birthday in Tagaytay." It also means that the speaker is convinced by an idea: "I am sold on the idea of buying a new car." Both sentences mean that someone was convinced by something. If you want to use the verb sold in this way, the correct expression is sold on and not "sold to."

In the sentence I got from the magazine, the writer was saying that at first, she was not convinced by the idea of the magazine but that she eventually learned to appreciate it. Since this is the case, then she meant that she was sold on the idea.

Sold to, however, is correct if you want to say that an item was sold to someone: "I sold my iPod to my cousin" or "That item was sold to your neighbor." It is never used to say that someone was convinced to buy into something. Where this is concerned, we use sold on.

By the way, I will be in Bacolod this weekend. See you again either Monday or Tuesday.

Turn Off The Lights!

I often hear people say, "I put on the light" or "I put on the electric fan." We do not use the expression "put on" to mean to "turn something on."

One of the meanings of the verb "put" is to place something in a definite place or location. Hence, we "put the plates on the dining table" and we "put the pots and pans in the pantry." We also "put on clothes" like, "I just need to put on my socks." When we're hitting light switches or electric fan switches, we're not "putting on" lights or fans or any appliance. Instead, when we want lights or fans, we say, "We turn on the lights and fans when we get home."

When we use the verb "turn," one of the things we mean is to "start a process." When we're talking about appliances, we need to switch them on to start the process that will make them work. So, when we "turn on the lights," we're starting the electrical process that makes lights work. We also say "turn off the lights" when we want to stop the process.

We do say "put out," though, when we're irritated with someone or something: "I was put out because they arrived so late!" We can also say "put on" when we're saying that someone is teasing us or giving us false information: "You say aliens exist in the Philippines? You're putting me on!"

Want to save energy? Turn off the lights when you don't need them or you might put out the environmentalists out there!

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

I haven't posted anything on English idioms so I decided to start today with the expression "barking up the wrong tree."

Idioms are essentially phrases that use figurative language to communicate a point. They are used to make a point more powerful. Also, they are used to communicate an otherwise complex idea in a few words. They often use imagery.

Let's look at the idiom, "barking up the wrong tree." Consider a dog chasing a cat through a forest. The cat shimmies up a tree quickly. The dog sees this. Upon reaching the top of the tree, the cat jumps onto a branch of another tree. The dog, since he's on the ground, does not see the cat jumping to the next tree. The poor doggie, then, keeps barking up the original tree not knowing that kitty has moved to another tree and is now safe from him. Doggie is still barking up the wrong tree.

In human terms, imagine you're trying to fix a problem with one solution. But, no matter what you do, the problem persists. Unknown to you, the solution is something completely different. If you're experiencing something like this, then, you're barking up the wrong tree. Like the dog who was looking for the cat in the wrong tree, you're trying to solve a problem with the wrong solution.

Instead of describing the situation (which will take some time), you can just say, "I was barking up the wrong tree."