• Home
  • Admission
    • Canada
    • United States
    • United Kingdom
  • Learning
    • Teachers
    • Courses
    • Student Journals
    • Testimonials
    • Testimonials in Chinese
    • Bill's English Clinic
  • Study Tours
    • US University Tour
    • US High School Tour
    • UK University Tour
    • CA University Tour
    • Australia Music Festival
    • Study Tour Testimonials
    • Photos
    • Q & A
  • Activities
    • Shaolin Kung Fu Club
    • Teach Seniors Tech!
    • BMO Marathon Run
    • Volunteering
  • Events
  • Contact
    • About IWE
    • Careers
  • 中文
IWE Study | College Planning & Learning Centre & Study Tours

Parallelism

2/28/2019

0 Comments

 

Bill Situ

English and ESL Instructor

In English grammar, parallelism means using the same grammatical structure for the various phrases in a sentence.

Here is an example of a sentence that lacks parallelism:

     Jason plays football, lifts weights, and wrestling.

In this example, Jason is the subject of all three highlighted verbs. However, the last verb, wrestling, does not follow the same form as the first two, plays and lifts. To correct this, we will change the verb form of wrestling:

     Jason plays football, lifts weights, and wrestles.

Now this sentence is fully parallel.
0 Comments

Adjectives As Compliments Need a Verb Before It

2/21/2019

0 Comments

 

Bill Situ

English and ESL Instructor

The complement of a sentence sometimes might just have an adjective along with a modifying adverb. However, many students do tend to express this improperly:

     Jack very smart.

     This test quite difficult.

     The fight very violent.


Before the adjective, there always needs to be a verb like "be", "become", or "get":

     Jack is very smart. ("Is" is the conjugated form of "be".)

     This test gets quite difficult.

     The fight becomes very violent.


Now the above expressions are fully grammatical.
0 Comments

Using Verbs in the Subject of a Sentence

2/15/2019

0 Comments

 

Bill Situ

English and ESL Instructor

Sometimes, we might need to use a verb in the subject of a sentence. However, it is never proper to just use the verb in the base form when it appears in the subject:

     Run is very good for one's health. (Subject = "run")

     Do research is necessary for this assignment. 
(Subject = "do research")

     Go to school is something I do everyday. 
(Subject = "go to school")

Instead of using the base form, we need to use the gerund form. A gerund is a verb form that combines the present participle with the "ing" ending. If we change the highlighted verbs above into the gerund form, they would look as follows:

     Running is very good for one's health.

     Doing research is necessary for this assignment.

     Going to school is something I do everyday.


Now the sentences are grammatical!
0 Comments

    Bill Situ

    Bill Situ is an instructor at IWE Study and Consulting Inc. He specializes in English and ESL.

    Archives

    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Home​
Admissions
CA Schools
US Schools
UK Schools
Learning
Teachers
Courses


Study Tours
US University Tour
US High School Tour
UK University Tour
CA University Tour
AUS Music Festival

Testimonials
Gallery

FAQ


Events
Free Tech Lessons for Seniors

BMO Vancouver Marathon 
Volunteering

News

Contact
About IWE
Careers



IWE Study & Consulting Inc. © 2013 |  Suite #130, 5611 Cooney Road, Richmond, BC, Canada  V6X 3J6  | Created by Rio Ye