Emails & Looking Forward to

Do you know which word is one of the most troublesome in English?  
A hint: it is just a word with two, not four, letters. 


Well, one more hint, you usually use it with 'hear' to end an email (or a letter).   ‘To’ is just a two-letter word, right?  Yet it is a word that causes lots of trouble in English, especially when you want to end your email or letter by asking someone to reply.

You don't think so?  

Alright, which one of the following is correct?
I am looking forward to hear from you.I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Before you get the answer, you have to go back to the past.
Who is the one in the picture?  Your teacher?

Did this happen to you?

At a grammar lesson, your teacher told you a golden rule, which is:

After ‘to’, add nothing, ‘ing’ included, to the verb.



So if this is correct, the answer will be:

I am looking forward to hear from you.

Yet, the correct answer is:

I am looking forward to hearing from you.    

     
So your teacher was wrong.  No, not exactly!

The thing is: she just told you half of the story.



And you are going to learn the other half now.



The second half of the story is an experiment.

An experiment?  Don’t panic.  Well, it is a bit exaggerating.


But what you need to do is just to look forward.  Yes, just look forward.

What do you see?

Correct me if I am wrong.  You see a computer or a smart phone, right?

And what do a computer and a smart phone have in common?


They are all English?  Well, no time for kidding.

They are all things, or if you like, nouns.  

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So what is my point?  Or do I have one?



The point is:

   When you look forward, you see something, right?

   And that something is a noun.

 
So? 

So for now, you have two things: Which two?Look forward + a smart phone

And when you link the two together, you need a word, right?And the word is one of the most troublesome in English, which is:
to

So it becomes:

Look forward TO a smart phone


Well, it is ‘impossible’ to write:
   Look forward a smart phone (WRONG)

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So how does ‘a smart phone’ relate to ‘hearing from you’?
 
Both (a smart phone and hearing) are nouns.

                                             What?

Yes, ‘hearing’ can work as a noun.

How?

Read the following two sentences:

I shop every day.

I do some shopping every day.

The word ‘shop’ is a verb but ‘shopping’ is a noun.

In the sentence, shopping is something, some kind of activity, so it is a noun.

Yes, you are right.  Sometimes when you add ‘ing’ to a verb, it becomes a noun.
 So the tips are:

Looking forward to	+	a thing (a noun)
Hear     +     ing	=	a thing (a noun)

-----> I am looking forward to hearing from you.
__________________________________________The same tips apply to:  

I am looking forward 

to serving you (in the near future).  to meeting you (tomorrow)  to seeing you  (at the meeting)





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Pic sources:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trippchicago/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensutherland/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/departmentofed/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hktang/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dno1967b/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ringkong/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/irinaslutsky/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/

 

Sentences & Emails

How many emails do you have to write every day?

Or you are too busy typing emails that you have no time for this question. Yet, there is one question for you. What is it?


Do you know why the following is wrong?

‘I will reply your email soon’

(Wrong!)

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A. Why It is Wrong


In English, it is weird, if not grammatically incorrect, to reply an email.  That is,

reply + a thing ➡➡➡➡ 
Wrong + Wrong + Wrong

(Well, how many ‘wrong’ do you want?)

Read the two sentences and you’ll know why.  

Persons	Verbs	Things
1. The CEO	plans	the future direction (of our company).
2. Mr. Big	leads	the marketing department.

In the above two sentences, 

the persons (the CEO or Mr. Big) make an effect on something 

(the future direction or the marketing department).

Want a picture explanation?

Look at the picture above. Can you feel the power (or energy) of Mr. Big, the one you can't see his head? If you don't feel the power, check out the eyes of the two juniors. This is what I mean by 'make an effect on'.





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B. What 'make an effect on' is

In other words, 'make an effect on' has three meanings:

a.    that the CEO is ‘over’ the activities, and

b. that both (the CEO and Mr. Big) have some control over something.  

c. that you may be scared of them.

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C. An Extra Example

There is an extra example for you:

They are discussing a plan.

In the sentence, the three men have some control over their discussion.


Why? 

It is a plan they proposed and they can talk about it, or change it the ways they like.




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D. The Sentence Pattern: SVO

If you remember, this is a sentence pattern you have learned at school. What pattern is it? SVO

Subject	Verb	Object
Ms. Talk	made	a speech           (at a meeting)

Yet, your teacher might have forgotten to tell you one thing. There is a special relationship between a subject and an object. By special, I don’t mean they have an affair.

I mean a subject has some control over an object.

In other words, in this pattern one thing is bigger. What is it? The subject is bigger than the object. That is, 

If a subject is a master, then an object is like a servant.  

And do you want to give the relationship a name? What about MS? MS has nothing to do with any company. It means a Master-Servant relationship.




However, in the email, the word ‘I’ is not the master of ‘your email’.  

What does that mean? It means: ‘I’ is not the one who wrote the email. In other words, 'I' write something, but not the email 'I' received.  

It is Mr. Big, not 'I', who wrote the email.   

  

So Mr. Big is the master (subject) of the servant (the email).    





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E. The Rule

So, when using ‘reply’ as a verb, stick to the following rule:

Person	Verb	+ Preposition	Thing
I	will reply	to	your email (soon)

That is, when there is no MS relationship, a preposition is needed.  This is why when you use ‘wait’, you have to add a preposition:

Wait FOR me.    

(Not ‘Wait me’)

  

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F. The Rule Applied

The same rule also applies to:

I will write to you.
(Not 'I will write you)

I will talk to you.
(Not 'I will talk you.)

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Pic Sources:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jesse/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/6829524075/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/6829510801/sizes/z/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawken/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eduardvkurganov/