A Reduced Clause is Not a Skinny Santa (Part II: Weird Adjective Clauses)

In Part I, I described how most adjective clauses are reduced.  This is very important information, but kind of boring.  Now I’d like to show you some of the weird, wacky, wonderful ways to use reduced adjective clauses.  You’ll see them a lot when you read, especially in literature, but kids, don’t try these at home.  (Professional writer - closed course.)

This first one is pretty vanilla, but I realized I didn’t give any examples of reduced non-defining clauses.  I’m sure you were tossing and turning all night last night worrying about this.

• In the following days, Magellan, inflamed with biblical fervor, destroyed other idols arrayed along the shore, and incited the agitated islanders to follow his example.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

This one actually has two reduced adjective clauses.  (Can you find them?  No peeking.)  The first one is the non-defining clause.  In its full glory, the clause would read Magellan, who was inflamed with....  It is a non-defining clause because Magellan is a proper noun (capitalized name).  The second one is idols that were arrayed....  This one is a defining clause (without commas) because idols is a general, non-specific noun.

(For an explanation of defining and non-defining clauses, click HERE.)

Here is another non-defining clause with a non-action verb that has been changed to a gerund.

• Phil and Mac, realizing that Louie was going to get his head ripped off, grabbed the oars and bumped the sharks away while Louie splashed about, trying to drown the lice.  (Unbroken)

The full version of the adjective clause would be Phil and Mac, who realized that....  Again, nothing spectacular, but a couple more examples never hurts.  One interesting thing that I’ve found in doing this “research” over the past year or so is that every writer has their own grammatical tendencies.  One writer will use tons of gerund phrases while another will use very few.  One writer reduces everything while another rarely does.  Over the Edge of the World has lots and lots of appositives and adjective clauses while Unbroken has many more noun clauses.  (Maybe I’m the only one nerdy enough to care about this.)

One of the more interesting “discoveries” I made while looking at all of these sentences was that not all adjective clauses come directly after the noun they modify.  For example:

• Increasingly desperate to find the strait, Magellan scrutinized every inlet, hoping it might contain a hidden channel leading inland...  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

This sentence begins with the adjective desperate, which seems strange at first glance.  This is actually a reduced SVC clause that describes Magellan’s feelings.  The original pre-reduction sentence would read:

• Magellan, who was increasingly desperate to find the strait, scrutinized every inlet...

In the original form, the action, which is most important, is being interrupted by the emotion.  By fronting the adjective desperate, the author is setting the mood of the sentence and letting the action flow more smoothly, without interruption.

Another interesting type, which I discussed in Part I, is putting an adjective AFTER a noun rather than in front of the noun, which is far more common.  One simple example is the adjective after an indefinite pronoun.  For example:

• I want to have something spicy for dinner.

In this extremely simple example, the adjective spicy, which started in the adjective clause that is spicy, must go after something because you cannot put an adjective in front of a pronoun.  But why would you do this with nouns?  One reason is simply literary style.  The author just likes the sound of it.  It works in literature, but I don’t recommend it for formal academic or business writing.  The second reason is shown in this sentence.

• The slave labor at Naoetsu was the kind of work that swallowed men’s souls, but the prisoners found ways to score little victories so essential to their physical and emotional survival.

The phrase could have been written as essential little victories.  However, the information about physical and emotional survival is extremely important.  If the author put essential in front of victories, she would not have been able to include this information.  In order to include the infinitive phrase, the adjective had to be put after the noun as a reduced adjective clause.

Finally, here’s one that, after a LOT of head scratching, I think I’ve finally figured out.

• ...the ill will between Spain and Portugal led to rumors that the lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

At first glance, it seems pretty straightforward.  The adjective clause begins with rumors that.  But is it really an adjective clause.  The answer is YES and NO.  The first rule of adjective clauses is that the relative pronoun (who, which, that, etc.) has the same meaning as the noun that it follows.  For example.

• the dress that my wife is wearing (that = dress)
• the students who sit in the back of the room (who = students)

However, in this case, does that mean rumor?  If you take the entire clause out of the sentence, without that, this is what you are left with.

• The lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.

Nothing seems to be missing.  Now, try the same thing with the simple adjective clauses I wrote

• My wife is wearing
• sit in the back of the room

Clearly something is missing in these.  Furthermore, how could you add the word rumor to the clause about the co-commanders?  You can’t.  So what in blazes is going on?  This is what I’ve discovered.

Is the clause, as written, an adjective clause?  No.  It’s a NOUN CLAUSE.  (They heard that the lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.)  However, it is also a reduced SVC adjective clause.  When you put the reduced words back into the clause, this is what you get.

• ...the ill will between Spain and Portugal led to rumors, which were that the lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.

In other words, the rumors were that their lives were in danger.  Another explanation for this is that the noun clause (that their lives...) is an appositive.  In the immortal words of Gus Portokalos, “There you go.”  Here are some other examples of this structure that I have found.

• [Magellan] agreed to free Cartagena on condition that Mendoza confine him aboard Victoria.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)
• Despite the many indications that they had found nothing but a large river...  (Over the Edge of the Earth)
• ...[Louie] had been filled with the rushing fear that he would lose her.  (Unbroken)
• ...citizens...were relentlessly indoctrinated with the lesson that to be captured in war was intolerably shameful.  (Unbroken)

In conclusion, reduced adjective clauses are like dogs.  (Huh?)  They come in many shapes and sizes and you see them everywhere, but they all come from the same common ancestor.  (The wolf.  Get it?)

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Over the Edge of the Earth is a fascinating book about the voyage around the world of Ferdinand Magellan.  It's a bit long with a lot of detail, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The language is fairly advanced.

Unbroken is one of the best books I've ever read.  Without spoiling the story, if this were a fictional story, no one would read it.  It would be too fantastical.  However, it is a true story.  I highly recommend this book.

For links to these and other books that I've read and used in online exercises, click HERE.

The Mystery of the Random “Be” Verb in Japan and Korea

The majority of my career as an ESL teacher has been spent teaching Japanese students. First, I spent twelve and a half years living and teaching in Japan. Then, after moving to Hawaii, I spent ten years teaching in an ESL program that usually had between eighty and ninety percent Japanese students.

For years I couldn’t figure out why the "be" verb would often find it’s way randomly into sentences, like:

• I am like sports.
• I was played soccer last weekend.
• They are study in the library.

Then, as I taught more Korean students in Hawaii, I began to see this mistake in their writing as well. Finally, one day a discussion in class led me to this discovery. The "be" verb is traditionally taught WRONG in Korea and Japan.

I don’t blame the teachers. I have met and worked with many dedicated hard-working Japanese teachers who only want the best for their students. I have also met enough Korean teachers to know that this is true for them as well. The problem is a monolithic education system that prescribes everything from what and how teachers teach to the size of desks and chairs in the classroom.

Although it is less true today than it used to be, when I was in Japan in the late 80s and 90s, it was said that you could go into any fourth grade classroom in Japan and they would be teaching the same lesson in the same way from the same textbook, down to the page. The English problem is exacerbated by the fact that the Japanese Ministry of Education has decided that all English language textbooks for Japanese students must be written by Japanese authors. A book written by a native-speaker cannot be used in a Japanese public school classroom. Furthermore, even the few books that are allowed all refer back to the same Ministry source on what and how to teach. It’s my understanding that this source has not been updated in perhaps 100 years.

Since the Korean education system is so similar to the Japanese education system and since both languages are so similar, my discovery leads me to think the educational root is the same in Korea. The linguistic root is definitely the same.

To understand the root of the problem, you need to understand a little about the two languages. English is an SVO language, meaning the standard clause structure first has a subject, followed by a verb and finally the direct object, if one is needed. Japanese and Korean, on the other hand, are SOV languages, meaning the verb comes last and the direct object goes in the middle. Look at these two sentences, the first in Japanese, the second in Korean.

• Watashi wa hon o arimasu.
• Na nun chek ul kajida.

If they were transcribed literally into English, without changing word order, they would read:

• I book have.

Both languages also have features not found in English. The original Japanese sentences has five parts whereas the English sentence only has three. There are two additional "words" in Japanese. The first is wa, which is called the subject marker. This is how the subject is connected to the sentence. The second is the object marker, which is o. There is a third marker, ga, which is extremely confusing to non-native speakers like me, that can be substituted for either the subject or object marker. Similarly, the Korean subject marker is a variant of nun, depending on the final consonant of the subject, and the object marker is ul.

Here is where the mistake comes from. In both countries, students are taught that the subject markers wa or nun indicate the use of the "be" verb. Therefore, students would translate these sentences as:

• I am have a book.

This is completely and totally WRONG. There is absolutely no correlation between wa/ga or nun and the "be" verb in English. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, they have no counterpart in English at all. Therefore, they are untranslatable and should just be ignored for acquisition purposes.

The "be" verb, does, however, have a fairly direct counterpart in both Japanese and Korean: the last word of the sentence.

Take for example the following sentences, first in English, then in Japanese and Korean.

• I am cold.
• Watashi wa samui desu.
• Na nun cha da.

Since the verb is the final word of the sentence in Japanese and Korean, then the "be" verb is indicated by the final word of these sentence, i.e. desu in Japanese and da in Korean.

Although this is not universally taught in Korea and Japan anymore, I still run across enough students who tell me they learned this way to think it still happens often enough to be an ongoing issue.
Any thoughts or comments?

That Crazy Little Thing Called the “Be” Verb (Part II)

The "be" verb is the most irregular verb in the English language, but because it is so commonly used, learners stop making mistakes with subject/verb agreement fairly quickly. What makes the "be" verb so tricky is knowing when to use it and what form you are using.

Be Verb as the Main Verb

 

Adjective Complements

 

The first, most common use of the "be" verb is as a main verb. When an action or non-action verb is used as the subject of a clause, the noun that comes after the verb is the direct object, so the most common type of clause is an SVO clause. However, when the "be" verb is the main verb, the word (or phrase) that comes next is called a complement and the clauses are called SVC clauses. In English, there are four kinds of complements that can be connected to the "be" verb.

 

The most common complement that comes after the "be" verb is an adjective complement. The adjective describes the condition or state of the subject. 

• The runner is tired. (the tired runner)
• The test was difficult. (the difficult test)
• Everything is ready.

Noun Complements

 

The second most common type of complement is a noun complement. This is when a noun describes the subject, often a relationship or a job. The subject and the complement are the same person or thing. 

• My brother’s name is Justin.                   (brother’s name = Justin)
• Mr. Smith is my math teacher.                (Mr. Smith = math teacher)
• London is the capital of Great Britain.    (London = capital of Great Britain)

One feature of noun complements is that they can switch places with the subject. For example:

• Justin is my brother’s name.
• My math teacher is Mr. Smith.
• The capital of England is London.

To decide which noun should be the subject and which should be the complement, you must decide which piece of information is most important. The most important piece of information should be the complement and the other should be the subject.*

 

Second language learners often use the "be" verb between two nouns when it shouldn’t be. If you are trying to decide whether to use the "be" verb or not, just ask this simple question. "Are the two nouns the same person or thing?" If the answer is yes, then you can use the ‘be" verb. If the answer is no, then you need something else, very often the verb have. For example.

• I ≠ a cold.                            The cause of the accident = icy roads.
•      I have a cold.                        The cause of the accident was icy roads.
• I ≠ high school.                      I = high school student.
•       I go to high school.               I am a high school student.

 Adverb and Prepositional Phrase Complements

 

The final two are less common, but they are regularly used. You can also connect an adverb to a subject with the "be" verb. The adverbial complement usually answers the questions when or where.

• The test is tomorrow.                 (When is the test?)
• The children are outside.            (Where are the children?)

 Finally, the "be" verb can connect a prepositional phrase to the subject. These also usually answer the questions when or where.

• Jason is in the library.                (Where is Jason?)
• The test is on Monday.                (When is the test?)

 

 

Be Verb as a Helping Verb

 

The Continuous Tense**

 

The second use for the ‘be’ verb is as a helping verb. The simplest and most common use is in the continuous tense. To do this, you simply add the gerund form of the main verb to the "be" verb. For example:

• The children are playing...
• The dog is barking...
• We were sleeping...

Again, this is relatively simple, but there are frequent errors. The most common is putting the base form of the verb after the "be" verb rather than the gerund form. For example:

• I was eat lunch in the cafeteria.
• We aren’t have a pet. 

One possible root of this error will be discussed later. To avoid this error, just remember you always need ~ing after the "be" verb.

 

 The Passive Voice***

  

The final use of the "be" verb is also as a helping verb. It is used in the passive voice and followed by the past participle form of the main verb.

•  This blog was written...
• The game was played...
• The tests are taken... 

This is it. This is how the "be" verb is used in English. With a little time and practice, the "be" verb isn’t that hard to master. The trick is knowing when to use it.

 

-- Back to Part I --

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 *As a general rule, when organizing information, the least important information should go first and the most important information should go last. This is because you remember best what you hear or read last.

•  We will have a unit test next Friday.
• (The day of the test is the most important.)
• Next Friday, we will have a unit test.
• (The plan for next Friday is the most important.)

**For more on the continuous tense, you can read this blog post. (I haven’t written the blog yet. Give me a little more time.)

 

***For more on the passive voice, you can read this blog post.

That Crazy Little Thing Called the “Be” Verb (Part I)

(I wrote this blog entry almost a year ago, and then life got in the way.  I have since left California and moved my family back to Hawaii.  Now I'm just a few weeks away from going to Saudi Arabia to start a new job.  This is proof of the old saying: "Life is what happens while you are making plans.")

For years in my writing class, I would tell my students two things that they never believed. First, when you know how to do it, writing is easy. Second, after you learn the fundamentals of writing, writing is actually fun. I would also tell them that, while I would never sit down on a Friday night and write and essay for fun, when I need to write something for work, I look forward to it. Well. I was wrong on that one. I actually do sit down on a Friday night and write for fun. It has become a hobby, and with a little luck, maybe a second job someday.

This past year, when I moved to California and began teaching at a new school, has been full of interesting challenges and opportunities to expand as a teacher. But it has also been insanely busy. Therefore, writing for fun had to be sacrificed. I can’t believe it’s been nine months since my last blog posting. However, with summer finally here and a less crazy schedule in the fall*, I can look forward to more time to do the things I love. I will have more time to spend with my family. I will be able to take Skyler to the pool every morning and train our new puppy. I will watch every Yankees game and read, read, read. But what is the one that keeps coming up in my mind? I get to write again.

I have a list of blog topics as long as my arm, but I thought I would relaunch my online ramblings from the beginning. That tiny little word that causes so many gigantic problems for second language learners: the "be" verb.

The "be" verb is one of the most common words in English, and even though it is the most irregular verb in English, most students learn how to use it correctly very quickly.
 
Forms of the Be Verb
 Every verb in English has five forms*: the base form, simple past, past participle, gerund and infinitive. Regular verbs are very simple and although irregular verbs are frustrating, with a little time and effort, they are fairly simple as well.

•                              Regular                 Irregular
• Base                     study                      take
• Simple Past          studied                   took
• Past Participle      studied                   taken
• Gerund                 studying                 taking
• Infinitive              to study                  to take

The only time you have to worry about the subject is with the 3^rd person singular in the simple present tense. If the subject is he, she or it, you need to add ~s to the base form of the verb.

The "be" verb, on the other hand, has three forms in the simple present (am, is and are) and two in the simple past (was and were). Which form you use depends on the subject.

•                          Present Singular          Present Plural
• 1^st person          I am                               We are
• 2^nd person         You are                         You are
• 3^rd person          He/She/It is                  They are　

 

•                           Past Singular               Past Plural
• 1^st person           I was                            We were
• 2^nd person          You were                     You were
• 3^rd person           He/She/It was              They were

However, as I said earlier, with a few weeks of solid practice, this becomes very natural.
 
Questions and Negatives 
Now for the good news. The "be" verb is the easiest verb to use in questions and negative statements. To make a negative statement, all you have to do is put not after the verb. All of the negative forms, except I am, have a shorter form, which is called a contraction.

•                            Present Singular                        Present Plural
• 1^st person            I am not                                      We are not (aren’t)
• 2^nd person           You are not (aren’t)                   You are not (aren’t)
• 3^rd person            He/She/It is not (isn’t)              They are not (aren’t)

 

•                             Past Singular                           Past Plural
• 1^st person             I was not (wasn’t)                    We were not (weren’t)
• 2^nd person            You were not (weren’t)           You were not (weren’t)
• 3^rd person             He/She/It was not (wasn’t)      They were not (weren’t)

To make a question, all you have to do is switch the subject and the "be" verb. (Put the "be" verb in front of the subject.)

•                              John is here.                              Is John here?
•                              I am hungry.                             Are you hungry?
•                              Everything was ready.              Was everything ready?
•                              They are playing...                    Are they playing...?

The only weird thing related to the "be" verb is with imperatives***. For example, if someone were being noisy, you could say to them "Be quiet." However, a negative imperative is made by putting don’t in front of the main verb, like "Don’t drop that!" The correct negative form with the "be" verb is Don’t be...

• Don’t be shy.
• Don’t be so noisy.

These are the basics of how to use the "be" verb.  Now, it is even more important to know WHEN to use the "be" verb.

-- Go on to Part II -- 

-- Click here for "be" verb exercises online. --

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*I finally have my dream schedule. I am going to be a full-time grammar teacher. While this might be hell for many teachers, it’s heaven for me.

**I would argue that there is a sixth form in English, the present 3^rd person singular, which is formed by adding ~s or ~es to the base form.

***Imperatives are like orders. The subject is always you, so it’s not necessary to say or write. Therefore, the first word of an imperative sentence is the verb.

• Stand up!
• Open your books.
• Don’t do that!