Indefiniteness

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Articles a and an. When do we use them? When do we use articles in English?

When do we use the? When don't we use the?

A , just like an, is an indefinite article. The, however, is a definite article.

To help us determine whether we use a definite or an indefinite article, we need to look up the meaning of the word indefinite.

Indefinite adj - not clearly expressed or defined.
definite adj - clearly expressed or defined.

So now it is clear that we should use definite articles when we are defining nouns that are clearly expressed while indefinite articles are used when we are defining nouns that are not clearly expressed or defined.

Example:

I would like an apple please.
Which apple? The apple on the table or the apple in the basket?
I would like the apple which tastes best.

In the first sentence, an is used because the sayer didn't care nor did he clearly express which apple he wanted.
In the third sentence, the is used because it is clearly mentioned which apple the sayer was referring to.
And in the last sentence, it is clearly expressed that the apple mentioned is the apple that tastes best.

Allah knows best.

Much and many.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

When do you use much and when do you use many?

Much is used for uncountable nouns while many is used for countables.

Examples:

How much water did you drink last night?
How many glasses of water did you drink last night?

How much of an effort will it take for you to finally do it?
How many times have you attempted and failed?

How much money do you have?

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You can't count money eh? Money is considered uncountable in English.

Allah knows best.

Gaunt

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Gaunt - adj. Pale and exhausted, as because of worry or sleeplessness.

Example:

Ahmad: Salam Abd, you're looking rather gaunt today.
Abd: Salam. I do? Oh, I couldn't sleep last night.
Ahmad: What seems to be the problem?
Abd: You don't want to know.

Allah knows best.
wassalam.

Its Wednesday.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Do you know that Wednesday is pronounced wens-day instead of wed-nes-day?

Go look up in a dictionary.

Allah knows best.
wassalam.

He and him.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Have you ever wondered whats the difference between the words ‘him’ and ‘he’?

They both have the same meaning right?

He and him are both pronouns that are used when referring to a male person in the third person.

So when do we use he and when do we use him?

Observe:

Ali is a 13-year old student. He likes mathematics. His mathematics teacher thinks very highly of him. But his friends, being the malays that they are, are uneasy about this and they systematically bully Ali every day after school. They kick him. They punch him. They even spit on him. Oh Ali, how sad of you to be bullied everyday.

He likes mathematics.

Why is he used here and not him?

They kick him.

Why is him used here and not he?

IF you observed the sentences above, you will realise that in the first case, he is used because we are describing Ali in a so called nominative case, meaning Ali is not the object of a verb,

In the second case, him is used because Ali is the object of the verb kick. Therefore we use the word him instead of he.

So when describing a male in 3^rd person without him being the subject to any verb, we use he and whenever that person is on the receiving end of a verb, we use him instead.

Now that we know the difference of he and him, we should also know the difference between who and whom where in this case, whom is used when the person is on the receiving end of a verb.

Allah knows best.

Penitent

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Word for the day is: Penitent

adjective feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong

e.g. Korea and China share the same position that a summit meeting of the three countries is meaningless unless Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi shows more penitent attitudes toward Japan’s past atrocities.

Allah SWT knows best.

Yam bean.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Yam bean is sengkuang.

Allah SWT knows best.

Be that as it may

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Zidane plays football. Zidane can play football.

Notice that when can is used in the sentence, the verb play loses it s? Can is a verb which I think is called a modal verb.

Other verbs, when used in conjuction with a modal verb, retain its original form. Hence the absence of s in this sentence: He can play football.

Other modal verbs are shall, will, must and may.

Examples:

Shall we go visit them today?
Will they be having rendang?
Must we help?
May it be then.

Allah SWT knows best.

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Have a pleasant Eidulfitri and may Allah accept(worship and good deeds) from you and us.

wassalam.

Close, but no cigar.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

One of the many usages of the word close is to convey the sense of distance between two objects. Another meaning would be to bring two things together to close an opening. ie. Please close the door.

When you close a door, would you say the door is closed or the door is close?

I would say the door is closed. The door may be close to the window but here I would like to emphasise on the fact that you closed the door hence I would say the door is closed.

If you look up in a dictionary, you would find close to be listed as both a verb and an adjective.

Close as a verb is defined as an act of bringing two things together to close an opening while close as an adjective is defined as a short distance between two objects.
(These are my definitions. To get proper definitions go look up in a dictionary.)

So close as an adjective can happily(and properly) be used with the verb 'to be'.
Example: The door is close to the window.

But how do you use the verb as an adjective?

Whenever a verb, when used as an adjective, is used in conjuction with the verb 'to be' it has to be used in its perfect form.

Example:

Close(present), closed(past), closed(perfect)
Present: Please close the door.
Past: He closed the door.
Perfect: He hasn't closed the door yet.
Verb as an adjective: The door is closed.

graduate, graduated, graduated.
Present: (I can't think of an example.)
Past: I graduated from a school here. I think that will be my only graduation in my life.
Perfect: Unlike my peers, I haven't graduated.
Verb as an adjective: (Not used. 'I is/graduated' is not proper English. Use 'I graduated' instead.)

open, opened, opened
Present: Open the door please.
Past: He opened the door.
Perfect: He hasn't opened the door.
Verb as an adjective: (Not used because open is an adjective. 'The door is open' is correct because open is an adjective.)

Confusing? Well as a summary,

'The door is close' is wrong. 'The door is closed' is correct.
'The door is open' is correct. 'The door is opened' is not used.

Have a pleasant Ramadhan.

Allah SWT knows best.

On abbreviations

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful,

This is not an entry about English but rather an entry about the usage of abbreviations in writing.

Abbreviations are used in writing because everyone, truth be told, is lazy. Hence we like to shorten things up.

Be aware that I am not entirely against the usage of abbreviations in writing but they are times when I wish people would stop using it. At least until everyone knows how to use it properly.

It really saddens me whenever a writer uses abbreviations without even trying to mention what the seemingly unpronounceable word actually means.

For example:

The NBA is trying to implement a new transfer system. NBA spokesman, John Every, declined to comment further on the new transfer system rumoured to be favouring teams that suck.

So what is NBA? I do not have a clue. It could be lots of things. It could be National Bakers Association or even Nudist Basking Aphrodites.

That is the problem with abbreviations. If the writer did not write what it actually stands for, people would never know what it is.

The writer could have always written it like this:

The National Basketball Association(NBA) is trying to implement a new transfer system. NBA spokesman, John Every, ....

See how clear it turned out this time? Now we know it is the National Basketball Association and not some National Bakers Association.

So the next time you want to use abbreviations, write a little bit extra to inform the readers what it actually stands for.

Allah knows best.

We specialise in...

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

We do not say we are specialise. Yes you may be specialists, but specialise you are not.

SIMPLE RULE:

'We are' + description.

Example:

We are big.
We are funny.

And not:

We are specialise.
We are rock.

Allah SWT knows best.

Spelling number.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Number is spelled with an N, a U, an M, a B, an E and an R yet it is abbreviated to ‘No.’ Why eh?

Allah SWT knows best.

Vocab Recap

Just a recap on the vocabulary covered by this blog so far:

Sapodilla, julienne, inauspicious, apathetic, grasp the nettle, culpable, curmudgeon, nascent, xenophobia, supercilious, harangue, fawn, destitute, remorse, contrite, decrepit, ominous, assuage, wan, dissemble, sunny, allay, repudiate, cold, purview, tortuous, curdle, assiduous, loquacious, bereavement, portent, venerate, pliant, egalitarian, enmity, selembu, temerity, complaisant and congratulation.

Not bad for a 9-month effort eh?

Congratulations!

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Congratulation

noun - the expression of praise for an achievement or good wishes on a special occasion

Congratulation is a noun, therefore it is used just like any other nouns.

Example: Do we need to buy a congratulation gift for him?

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But if you add an s to congratulation it becomes congratulations. Congratulations, however, is an interjection and is used to express congratulation. So whenever you want to congratulate someone, you say 'congratulations' instead of 'congratulation'.

Example:

1. Congratulations!
2. Congratulatons on your graduation!

Allah SWT knows best.

Fish School

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

What is the plural of fish?

Fish or fishes?

Both terms are correct but are used differently.

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Fish is used when describing a multiple number of fish of the same type.

Example:
I caught 300 fish today.

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Fishes is used when we want to indicate different type of fishes.

Example:
The fishes you can buy here are salmon and tuna. We rarely have mackerel.

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Other nouns(that I know of) that follow this rule are deer and food.

Allah SWT knows best.

Complaisant

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Word of the day: Complaisant

adjective willing to please others or to accept what they do or say without protest

Example from this article:
Bush has been abetted in this power grab by a complaisant GOP Congress and federal courts.

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Not word of the day: Complacent

adjective showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements

Example:
Never ever be complacent. See what happened to Brazil last Saturday?

Word definitions are from Oxford New Dictionary of English.

Allah SWT knows best.

Moratorium

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful,

Word of the day: Moratorium

noun (PL. moratoriums or moratoria ) a temporary prohibition of an activity.

Example:
Norway lodged an objection against the moratorium at its inception, and is allowed to catch minke whales commercially.

Taken from this article.

Allah SWT knows best.

The forgotten S.

Cow eats grass.

Cows eat grass.

In English, the verb that follows a singular noun must have an s at the end of the verb. Its that simple. Well not as simple as Bahasa Melayu though.

In Malay, the verb never changes. Be it singular or plural, the verb stays as it is.

Lembu makan rumput.

Lembu-lembu makan rumput.

See how simple Malay is?

Dodo

noun (pl. -os or -oes) a large extinct flightless bird with a stout body, stumpy wings, a large head, and a heavy hooked bill. It was found on Mauritius until the end of the 17th century.

Phrases:

(as) dead as a dodo
informal - used to emphasize that a person or animal is no longer alive.
- no longer effective, valid, or interesting.

To learn more about Dodo, visit this link.

Temerity

noun[mass noun] - excessive confidence or boldness

Taken from BBC Sport:
e.g. Paulo Ferreira levels the scores after League One Colchester had the temerity to take the lead against Chelsea.

Noun, pronoun or verb?

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful,

• noun - a word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things.
  Example: Book, Cat.
  

• pronoun - a word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g. I, you) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g. she, it, this)
  
  
• verb - a word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g. I, you) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g. she, it, this).
  

Wallahualam.

Selembu.

Taken from The Star Online:

SEREMBAN: A general worker with the Negri Sembilan Veterinary Services Department lost his right leg after being gored by a selembu, at the department’s facility in Jelebu Road here on Jan 19.

Due to the severity of the injuries inflicted by the animal (a cross between a gaur and cow), doctors had to amputate the victim’s leg below his thigh.

Baharudin Hassan, 51, narrated the incident when met at his house in Kampung Jiboi Baru here yesterday.

He said the incident occurred while he was replacing the damaged fence at the animal’s pen.

There were two female and a male selembu in the pen and Roslan Mansor, an assistant veterinary officer, was trying to lure the animals to the adjacent pen.

Baharudin said the facility also housed other animals like deer, camels, Balinese cows, squirrels and birds. – Bernama

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Selembu.

noun - Selembu is a cross between a gaur (Bos gaurus hubbacki) and a cow.

To know more about selembu, go here.

Can or may?

Taken from The New Oxford Dictionary of English:

Is there any difference between may and can when used to request or express permission, as in may/can I ask you a few questions?

It is still widely held that using can for permission is somehow incorrect, and that it should be reserved for expressions denoting capability, as in can you swim? Although this use of can is not regarded as incorrect in standard English, there is a clear difference in formality between the two verbs: may is, generally speaking, a more polite way of asking for something and is the better choice in more formal contexts.

Do you speak English?

Funny video. A bit cruel though.

Basic Grammar - Pronouns

Pronoun

noun a word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g. I, you) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g. she, it, this).

Cold or cool?

Cold

adjective of or at a low or relatively low temperature, especially when compared with the human body

Cool

adjective of or at a low or relatively low temperature

Enmity

Word for the day is: Enmity

noun (pl. -ies) [mass noun] the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something