Snowden’s Girlfriend and Sentences (1)

Do you know you can learn sentence structures, actually quite a lot, from Snowden’s Girlfriend?

Okay, how?

From the words she said.

What did she say?

At the moment I feel alone.   

(Did she really say it? Who knows?)

But what’s so special about it?

----------------------------------------------------

It tells you one thing.
What is it?





Making sentences are like building blocks.

What does that mean?

One word

Moveable

How moveable is it?

----------------------------------------------------

Moveable (1): To the Left or to the Right

First of all, you break the sentence into two blocks:

Block 1	Block 2
At the moment	I feel alone.

Then move Block 1 to the right of Block 2 and it becomes:

I feel alone at the moment.   

So, that’s it?

Not really.

There are some tips for moving the blocks.

----------------------------------------------------

Tips for moving the blocks

Go back to the sentence, the two blocks, and do you see something special?

At the moment I feel alone.   

Tip number 1 is about the letter ‘P’.

What does ‘P’ stand for?
Check out the first word in the sentence.

Two choices:

a. People

b. Prepositions 

Yes, prepositions.

In other words, using more blocks starting with prepositions makes your sentence structures harder to break.  

----------------------------------------------------

Tip number 2: Common English phrases starting with ‘at’ include:

at	the end of the day	everything else taken into consideration
	all	in any way
	heart	in your deepest feelings
	hand	nearby
	work	working

So, you may say:

You are the one at the end of the day.

At the end of the day you are the one.  

----------------------------------------------------

Moveable (2): Working like a team

Prepositions actually are like you and me.

What?

They sometimes want to work as a team.

That is, prepositions come in different forms, one-word or more-than-one-word.

A team of prepositions is prepositions with more-than-one-word. 

Want an example?

According to the Guardian, Snowden’s Girlfriend is alone 

at the moment.

The two words ‘according to’ work as a team, a team of prepositions. 

So?

So the point is some people make mistakes with teams of prepositions.

What mistakes do they make?

It is now your turn to spot it from the sentence below.

Regarding to language, you are not allowed to speak English here. 








The problem is with 'regarding to'.  


So what is the problem?


When you use 'regard' as a one-word preposition, it is:

regarding

When you use 'regard' as a more-than-one-word preposition, it is:

in/with regard to

What on earth is 'regarding to'?

It does not really exist in the world of English.
(Well, you may find 'regarding to' in a parallel universe.)




------------------------------------------
Other common teams of prepositions are:

1. Teams of two words:

as for         as to   

They all mean 'regarding'.



Want an example?

Here you are (in the situation of presenting your proposal)


As for the cost of manufacturing I have checked it out with the account department as for the cost of manufacturing



(I guess you still remember you can put it on the right or left, right?)



2. Teams of three words:

Here you are, common teams of three words.

 in case of           in spite of    

 in face of            in need of

Well, what do they have in common?
They're all English.

     Seriously?

They all start with 'in' and end with 'of'.


Want an example?

Which one do you want to talk about?
What about 'in face of'?

What is 'in face of'?

in face of   =   having to deal with a difficult situation

So, the example goes like:

In face of strong opposition from their parents Cat and Doggy still got married in face of strong opposition from their parents 




(Well, you are right. In the face of is also correct.)






3. Teams of four words:
Some of the common teams of four words include:

for the sake of  

with a view to

in the middle of

                           

So, when someone calls you and you are busy, you may say:

Hi, Ms Beauty, I am in the middle of something.  I'll get back to you later.  

-------------------------------------------------------------

Pic Sources

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkdooley/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/castle_life/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinaphotography/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylaphant07/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kheelcenter/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitesizeinspiration/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/freshballs/