Q&A - PSLE English

[sharon yuansong]

Can anyone tell me whether those sentences are correct?


He (seldom/rarely) goes to work, does he?
He (hardly/scarcely/barely) goes to work, doesn’t he ?


I see one ans like this
He scarecely goes to work, does he?

I am confused.

[Teacher Aaron]

TheWriter:

1. Yes, you are very clever and competent in English, if that is what your long post wants people to conclude.

2. No, my competency in the language is not suspect because I made an error. I have made mistakes before and I remember the last time people pointed it out in a civil way, I responded in kind.

3. No, I am not required to explain anything simply because you demanded one.

TheWriter

I have no issues with people making mistakes; the only issue I have is that if you are going to peddle yourself as some kind of English expert, your bar is much higher than anyone else on the forum.

I find your attitude of \"I've have made mistakes; just point it out to me and it's not a big deal\" a very big deal. Your profile sells yourself as an expert, so people put what you have to say on a pedestal and trust your expertise. As a result, you have a much heavier burden to shoulder than the rest of the forum users. Imagine a senior consultant at a hospital amputating the wrong leg of a patient; by your standards, it's just a mistake, so point it out and move on. I'm sorry, but that is an unacceptable standard to me.

You patently do not understand the implications and consequences of the harm that your mistakes can cause. Imagine if the mistakes had not been called out. People would go away thinking the mistake is correct and carry it with them for god knows how long. In your world view, that appears to be no biggie, but thanks to completely wrong grammatical explanations such as \"you cannot have past tense and present tense in the same sentence\", you could very well cause someone to keep on doing badly in school because of these mistakes.

In my years as a university lecturer teaching English writing, I've seen the same story over and over again; students make similar kinds of mistakes (à la \"You cannot have past tense and present tense in the same sentence\") and I always get the same answer when I ask them why they write like that: my school teachers taught me this way. This explains why I am so particularly careful about explaining and teaching English grammar; if I say or teach the wrong thing, the consequences last a long, long time.

However, it appears that you do not share such a philosophy, as evident from point number one of your response. All you appear to be interested in is your ego because you attacked my posts as being lengthy and trying to be clever. Anyone who reads any of my posts explaining grammatical issues will know that my posts are lengthy in explanation and replete with examples because I deal with them as comprehensively and carefully as I can because as a teacher, I believe in eradicating as much doubt as I can in my explanations.

You are, of course, entitled to your own opinions and I do not need you to explain anything to me. Who you need to explain to are the people who see you as a subject-matter expert and depend on you for accurate advice.

[Teacher Aaron]

sharon yuansong:

Can anyone tell me whether those sentences are correct?


He (seldom/rarely) goes to work, does he?
He (hardly/scarcely/barely) goes to work, doesn't he ?


I see one ans like this
He scarecely goes to work, does he?

I am confused.

Seldom and rarely are generally interchangeable. There is almost no difference between the two, except that seldom is more formal. For the first question, \"rarely\" would be more appropriate because question tags are used only in spoken and informal English, so it's best to choose an informal adverb.

As for the question on \"scarcely\", the meaning of the word is \"almost not\" or \"only just\". The word \"hardly\" has the same meaning as \"scarcely\", with the main difference being the same difference as \"seldom\" and \"rarely\"; \"hardly\" is more informal while \"scarcely\" is more formal.

Hence, \"hardly\" is the better choice following the previous logic of choosing an informal adverb for an informal expression.

The only issue I have with the second question is that it ended with does he, and not doesn't he. Words such as hardly, scarcely, seldom and rarely are considered semi-negatives, and in practice they modify a positive verb such that the pair is considered to be overall negative, so the question tag should take the opposite position, which is the positive.

Hence, the correct sentence is as follows:

He hardly goes to work, does he?

[jwxh]

My father will cook for us if he is not working.


ans:
1) Unless my father is not working, he will cook for us.
2) Unless my father is working, he will cook for us.

plse advise which answer is correct and help to explain. tks

[bebe]

jwxh:

My father will cook for us if he is not working.


ans:
1) Unless my father is not working, he will cook for us.
2) Unless my father is working, he will cook for us.

plse advise which answer is correct and help to explain. tks

#2 is correct. Unless = If not
in #2, My father will cook for us if he is not working.
Not sure if my explanation is clear, perhaps someone can explain it better than me,

[TheWriter]

That’s how I would have explained it as well, but kids will still trip up on the logical aspects of the sentence from time to time.


TheWriter

[atutor2001]

bebe:

jwxh:

My father will cook for us if he is not working.


ans:
1) Unless my father is not working, he will cook for us.
2) Unless my father is working, he will cook for us.

plse advise which answer is correct and help to explain. tks

#2 is correct. Unless = If not
in #2, My father will cook for us if he is not working.
Not sure if my explanation is clear, perhaps someone can explain it better than me,

This brings back memories of those days coaching my kids.

At that time, I told them that the word 'unless' is negative. The word 'not' is also negative. By putting 2 negatives together, it becomes positive. So \"Unless my father is not working\" becomes \"my father is working\". This method works with my kid. Hope it is of use.

[Teacher Aaron]

atutor2001:

bebe:

[quote=\"jwxh\"]My father will cook for us if he is not working.


ans:
1) Unless my father is not working, he will cook for us.
2) Unless my father is working, he will cook for us.

plse advise which answer is correct and help to explain. tks

#2 is correct. Unless = If not
in #2, My father will cook for us if he is not working.
Not sure if my explanation is clear, perhaps someone can explain it better than me,

This brings back memories of those days coaching my kids.

At that time, I told them that the word 'unless' is negative. The word 'not' is also negative. By putting 2 negatives together, it becomes positive. So \"Unless my father is not working\" becomes \"my father is working\". This method works with my kid. Hope it is of use.[/quote]Yup, the correct answer is number 2.

It's usually helpful to think of sentences containing \"if\" and \"unless\" as having two distinct parts: the part after \"if\" or \"unless\" specifies the condition, while the other part of the sentence specifies the outcome. In the original sentence, the two parts are as follows:

\"unless my father is working\" (condition)

\"he will cook for us\" (outcome)

For the word \"unless\", the usage is such that the outcome will not change until the condition specified after \"unless\" is met. In other words, the condition specified by \"unless\" is the exception; the outcome will remain as it is until the exception happens.

In the original question, it is clear that my father has planned to cook and he will not change his plan. Even if he falls sick or the gas runs out, he's still going to cook. The only condition that will make him change his plan is that if he has to work. Hence the correct sentence is:

Unless my father is working (the only condition to make him change his plan), he will cook for us (the outcome he will perform if the specified condition isn't going to happen).

In contrast, the word\" if\" doesn't work the same way, even though the part after the word \"if\" also indicates a condition. For the word \"if\", how it works is that there is only one condition to cause the outcome that is specified in the sentence. All other conditions will not trigger the outcome. Let's use a modified version of the original question as an illustration:

\"if my father is not working\" (condition)

\"he will cook for us\" (outcome)

The only condition to make father cook for us is that he isn't working. Let's say that father finishes work early, but he still isn't going to cook for us because the only condition that will make him cook is that he is not working.

In practice, this is how I teach people to remember:

If condition X happens, then outcome Y can happen.

Unless condition X happens, outcome Y will not change and will continue to happen.

[PiggyLalala]

"Why are the dishes not washed? "Mother asked Peter.


Mother asked Peter ________________________________.

Need help for the above question. Thank you very much.

[sharonkhoo]

PiggyLalala:

\"Why are the dishes not washed? \"Mother asked Peter.


Mother asked Peter ________________________________.

Need help for the above question. Thank you very much.

Mother asked Peter why the dishes were not washed.