Learning with English

Semicolon, Colon and Interrogation mark

Semicolon (;)

The semicolon represents a longer pause than the comma. It is used to separate the clauses of a compound sentence, when they contain a comma.

• He was a simple, unassuming man; yet we all respected him.
  

Note that the semicolon is usually followed by conjunctions like and, but, yet or or.

The semicolon is also used to separate clauses which are loosely connected in thought.

• As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him.
  
• Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; writing an exact man.
  

Colon (:)

The colon marks a more complete pause than that indicated by the semicolon. It has the following uses:
1. It is used to introduce a quotation.

• Solomon says: "Of the making of books there is no end."
  

2. To introduce a list of items.

• The writers I look best are: Milton, Dickens and Shaw.
  
• The problem is this: which came first, the hen or the egg.
  

3. Between sentences grammatically complete but closely related in thought.

• Study to acquire a habit of thinking: no study is more important.
  

Interrogation mark (?)

The interrogation mark is used after a direct question:

• What are you doing?
  
• Where are you going?
  
• How are you doing?
  

Note that the interrogation mark is not used after an indirect question.

• He asked me what I was doing.
  

The interrogation mark is not used after a polite request or submission.

Would you mind passing the salt.

What are verbal nouns?

A verbal noun is a noun derived from a verb. It exhibits all of the properties of ordinary nouns and none of the properties of verbs.

A verbal noun can have plural forms just like a noun. It can also occur with determiners and adjectives. In English, verbal nouns are formed with a variety of suffixes. Examples are given below:

arrive (verb) / arrival (noun)
decide (verb) / decision (noun)
destroy (verb) / destruction (noun)
fly (verb) / flight (noun)

• He sudden arrival surprised me.
  
• He has not yet announced his decision.
  
• He boarded a flight to Chicago.
  

A verbal noun can be identical to its source verb. Examples are: return (verb) / return (noun), attack (verb) / attack (noun).

Gerunds

A verbal noun can be formed with the suffix -ing. Examples are: run (verb) / running (noun), speak (verb) / speaking (noun). Note that a verbal noun should not be confused with a gerund, although many grammarians make this error.

A gerund, though it looks exactly like a verbal noun, has many properties of a verb and can take objects. It can also be modified by an adverb.

• Smoking cigarettes is injurious to health. (Here the -ing form smoking is a gerund and takes the object cigarettes.)
  
• I like watching movies. (Gerund – watching, object – movies)
  

A verbal noun, on the other hand, has no verbal properties.

The deliberate bowling of bouncers should be banned. (Here the -ing form bowling is a verbal noun because it exhibits nominal properties: taking determiners, adjectives and prepositional phrases.)

What are adverbs?

Adverbs are words like now, then, today, tomorrow and carefully. An adverb modifies the meaning of a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Read the following sentences:

Alice smiled sweetly.
Those mangoes were very sweet.
He spoke quite loudly.

In sentence 1, the adverb quickly shows how (or in what manner) Alice smiled. It modifies the verb smiled.

In sentence 2, the adverb very says something about the sweetness of the mangoes. It modifies the adjective sweet.

In sentence 3, quite says something about the manner in which he spoke. It modifies the adverb loudly.
Note that adverbs standing at the beginning of sentences sometimes modify the whole sentence, rather than a particular word.

• Unfortunately no one was present there. (= It was unfortunate that no one was present there.)
  
• Probably I am mistaken. (= It is probable that I am mistaken.)
  

Kinds of adverbs
There are very many kinds of adverbs.

Adverbs of time
Adverbs of time answer the question 'when'. Examples are: today, yesterday, now, before, daily, already, since, ago, never etc.

• I met him yesterday.
  
• His father died two years ago.
  
• I have seen him before.
  
• They have already come.
  
• We will have to start now.
  

Adverbs of frequency

Adverbs of frequency answer the question 'how often'. Examples are: often, always, once, never, again, seldom, frequently etc.

• We seldom go out on Sundays.
  
• I have seen him only once.
  
• He called again this morning.
  
• We must always try to do our best.
  

Adverbs of place

Adverbs of place answer the question 'where'. Examples are: here, there, up, down, everywhere, out, in etc.

• She sat down.
  
• He looked up.
  
• I searched for him everywhere.
  
• Come in.
  

Adverbs of manner
Adverbs of manner answer the question 'how' or 'in what manner'. Note that this class includes nearly all those adverbs ending in -ly. Examples are:
quickly, carefully, sweetly, clearly, bravely, beautifully, well, fast etc.

• The soldiers fought bravely.
  
• This essay is well written.
  
• she walked slowly.
  
• The baby slept soundly.
  

Kinds of conjunctions

Conjunctions are divided into two classes: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.

Read the following sentence:

Birds fly and fish swim.

This sentence contains two independent statements or two statements of equal rank or importance. The conjunction that joins together two clauses of equal rank is called a coordinating conjunction.

Notes

Coordinating conjunctions generally connect sentence elements of the same grammatical class. Examples: nouns with nouns, adverbs with adverbs, phrases with phrases and clauses with clauses.

• Jack and Jill went up the hill. (Here the coordinating conjunction and connects two nouns.)
  
• He worked diligently and patiently. (Here the coordinating conjunction and connects two adverbs.)
  

The chief coordinating conjunctions are: and, but, for, or, nor, also, either…or, neither…nor.

Kinds of coordinating conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions are of four kinds.

1. Cumulative or copulative conjunctions
   
2. Adversative conjunctions
   
3. Disjunctive or alternative conjunctions
   
4. Illative conjunctions
   

Cumulative conjunctions

Cumulative conjunctions merely add one statement to another. Examples are: and, both…and, as well as, not only…but also.

• Alice wrote the letters and Peter posted them.
  
• The cow got up and walked away slowly.
  

Adversative conjunctions

Adversative conjunctions express contrast between two statements. Examples are: but, still, yet, whereas, while, nevertheless etc.

• The rope was thin but it was strong.
  
• She is poor but she is happy.
  
• He is hardworking whereas his brother is quite the reverse.
  

Disjunctive or alternative conjunctions

Conjunctions which present two alternatives are called disjunctive or alternative conjunctions. Examples are: or, either…or, neither…nor, neither, nor, otherwise, else etc.

• She must weep, or she will die.
  
• Either he is mad, or he feigns madness.
  
• They toil not, neither do they spin.
  
• Neither a borrower, nor a lender be.
  

Illative conjunctions

Some coordinating conjunctions express something inferred from another statement or fact. These are called illative conjunctions. Examples are: for and so.

• Somebody came,  for I heard a knock at the door.
  
• He must be asleep, for there is no light in his room.
  
• He has been working hard, so he will pass.
  

Some conjunctions and their uses

Since

As a conjunction since means 'from the past time when'.

• Where have you been since I last you?
  
• It is just a week since we arrived here.
  
• I have never seen him since that unfortunate event happened.
  

The conjunction since may also mean as.

• Since we have no money we can't buy anything. (= As we have no money we can't buy anything.)
  

Or

The conjunction or is used to introduce an alternative.

• Is it green or blue?
  
• You can have tea or coffee.
  

Sometimes or is used as an equivalent to and.

• The troops were not wanting in strength or courage, but they were badly fed. (= The troops were not wanting in strength and courage…)
  

If

The conjunction if means 'on condition that'; 'supposing that'.

• If you want to go there I will take you.
  
• If it rains we shall not go.
  

If can mean 'when' or 'whenever'.

• If I don't wear my spectacles, I get a headache.
  

If is also used to express wish or surprise in the structure if only.

• If only I had known that. (Emphasizing one's regret that one did not know it.)
  

That

That is simply a connector. It is used to express a reason or cause.

• His manners are so bad that nobody invites him to a party. (= Nobody invites him to a party because his manners are so bad.)
  
• Bring it to the light so that I can see it better.
  

What as a relative pronoun

As a relative pronoun what means 'the things which.' It does not refer to a noun that comes before it.

• What she said made me cry. (Here what and its clause act as the subject of the verb made.)
  
• We can't give you what you need. (Here what and its clause act as the object of the verb give.)
  

Note that clauses beginning with what act as subjects or objects and are called nominal relative clauses.

Cases where what is not used

What cannot be used as an ordinary relative pronoun after a noun or pronoun.

• We have shipped everything that you ordered. (NOT We have shipped everything what you ordered.)
  
• The only thing that keeps me going is my desire to win. (NOT The only thing what keeps me going is my desire to win.)
  

To refer to a whole clause that comes before it, we use which, not what.

• Ann married her secretary, which made her mother angry. (NOT Ann married her secretary, what made her mother angry.) (Here which refers to the whole clause that comes before it.)
  

Other words that are often used as nominal relatives include whatever, whichever, where, wherever, whenever and how.

• Take whatever you want. (= Take anything that you want.)
  
• You can come whenever you want. (= You can come any day that you want.)
  
• Look at how he treats his wife. (= Look at the way in which he treats his wife.)
  

Tips for Selecting Your Story's Narrative Style

Before writers can share their stories, they have to decide what type of storyteller they're going to hire for a particular gig. Here are the job candidates:

First Person

For this narrator, it's all "Me," "Me," "Me." (Or, more precisely, "I," "I," "I.") But it's not that simple. The first-person narrator can be integral to the story, in which case they know only what they observe or discover. Alternatively, they can be a minor character, which may actually free them up to know more than the major players. The first person might also be once or twice removed from the story: They heard it from a friend or a friend of a friend (or some other indirect source).

But keep in mind before you hire this applicant that it's a challenge to keep the first-person narrator from telling too much, and that such a person is subjective and therefore unreliable. (Actually, that can be a good thing, dramatically speaking.)

First person is an effective device especially for action-oriented genre fiction: detective stories, thrillers, and the like, because this type of narration keeps the reader close to the action and privy to the cogitations of the protagonist, who is usually trying to solve a mystery or foil a plot.

Second Person

The second person ("You") doesn't get much work. You might think second person is the most engaging type of narrative, because it puts the reader in the thick of the action, but the device gets old quickly. However, it can be used incidentally, in a prologue or in one or more asides, cued by the first-person or third-person narrator.

Third Person

This narrative device ("He," "She," "They") is the most common, for good reason(s): The third-person narrator is an objective observer who describes and interprets the characters and their actions, thoughts and feelings, and motivations without direct knowledge. (That objectively doesn't always prevent the narrator from making satirical or otherwise judgmental observations, however.)

But before you leap up and cast this role, there's one more decision to make: Is this narrator omniscient, meaning they know all, or are they, like the characters, limited in their knowledge? Beyond that, is the third person partisan about the proceedings, or neutral? Consider, too, that just like a first-person narrator, the third person might be unreliable: An observer, whether they have limited or unlimited access to knowing what the heck's going on, may have a mischievous streak and decide to deceive the reader.

Tense
Regardless of who you hire, one more issue needs to be resolved: tense. Will the narrator describe occurrences in the present ("I steal over to the sofa and make sure the gun appears to have fallen out of her hand"), or in the past ("I stole over to the sofa and made sure the gun appeared to have fallen out of her hand.")? Just as with second person, a little present-tense narration goes a long way, but a short short story can be effective in that form, or you can introduce present tense in digestible morsels in a longer work, such as when a character is recalling an incident.

Choose tense and narration form carefully, and may the best person win.

Affect Is (Usually) a Verb

Before so much of the professional jargon of psychology found its way into the popular vocabulary, explaining the difference between affect and effect was a bit easier than it is now.

One could state categorically, "affect" is a verb:

The loss of his father affected him profoundly.
How will the new mall affect the neighborhood?

One would then explain that effect can be used as both noun and verb.

As a noun, effect means "the result of an action":

What will be the effect of closing Main Street? (noun)
Have you read "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon- Marigolds"? (noun)

As a verb, effect means "to bring about, cause, accomplish":

The new administration effected many changes in policy. (verb)
The return to systematic phonics instruction effected the desired reading improvement within five years. (verb)

Now, thanks to the use of the word affect as a noun by psychologists and psychiatrists, we must consider this defintion:

affect (noun): Psychol. (and Psychiatry). A feeling or subjective experience accompanying a thought or action or occurring in response to a stimulus; an emotion, a mood. In later use also (usu. as a mass noun): the outward display of emotion or mood, as manifested by facial expression, posture, gestures, tone of voice, etc.

Examples of affect used as a noun:
The clinician observed the patient's affect.
When the picture of a dog was flashed on the screen, Mr. Smith's affect was sudden and violent.

Bottom line: It's probably safe to say that in most everyday contexts, affect is used as a verb and effect is used as a noun. To decide which spelling you want, determine whether the word is being used as a noun or as a verb. If it is a noun (effect) it will probably have some kind of determiner or qualifier in front of it: the effect, an effect, some effect, any effect, the desired effect, etc.