Thursday December 8, 2011

Word order

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED by FADZILAH AMIN

I KNOW it is common to say, “These are my father’s dictionaries.” But is it better to say, “These dictionaries are my father’s”. The latter would be similar to “These dictionaries belong to my father”. – Charles

Neither sentence is better than the other. But each sentence emphasises a different thing. If, for example, you were to show your friend round your family’s study room, and the friend asks: “What are those thick books on the table near you?”, you can answer: “These are my father’s dictionaries.” But you won’t be able to answer him with: “These dictionaries are my father’s.” The latter would be the answer to a question like: “Whose dictionaries are these?”

In other words, the first sentence identifies the books as dictionaries, with “my father’s” qualifying the noun “dictionaries”. The second sentence, however, emphasises the ownership of books already identified as “dictionaries”.

Do/Did you know

When emphasising facts and figures, do you start with, “Do you know that ...” or with “Did you know that ...”? Or are both correct? – Belallang

I answered a question similar to this in February last year, but your question is more specific.

It is better to begin with: “Did you know that ...?” Suppose the fact/ figure you want to come up with is that the population of the world has recently reached seven billion. So, you say to someone or some people: “Did you know that the population of the world has recently reached seven billion?” The response to this could be EITHER: “Yes, I did – I heard it on the TV News.” OR “Really? I didn’t know. I thought it had just passed the six billion mark.”

If you say “Do you know that the population of the world has recently reached seven billion?”, you may get this kind of response: “Yes I do now, because you’ve just told me. But I didn’t before.”

What’s a fig leaf?

I have some understanding of the phrase “fig leaf” with regard to works of art but remain unsure how it is used here in a Yahoo! News report.

What Iraqi would publicly demand that Iraq accommodate the highly unpopular American demands for immunity for US troops when Washington was going to leave behind a force incapable of doing anything to preserve Iraq’s fragile and increasingly strained peace? Why take the heat for a fig leaf? – sm

“A fig-leaf” can be used metaphorically to mean something that is used to cover (usually insufficiently) something shameful. It is similar to a face-saving device. My interpretation of the quotation is that the “fig leaf” refers to the United States’ attempt to conceal its abandonment of Iraq, by leaving a token military force behind, supposedly to help preserve the peace, which it can’t do anyway, given the circumstances.

So why should the Iraqi government subject itself to pressure from its own people (“take the heat”) by giving immunity to those US troops, in return for a face-saving device disguised as help (“a fig leaf”)?

I would like to make it clear that I am not expressing my own political opinions here, just interpreting someone else’s.

Writing dates

I would like to ask about how to write a date in an essay. Sometimes I see “on the 20 of October 2011” and at other times, it is “on October 20, 2011”. What is the difference between the two forms? – Ghufran

If you are using British English, you put the day before the month, e.g.

“He was born on 20 October 1985.”

OR “He was born on 20th October 1985.”

OR “He was born on the 20th of October 1985.”

If you are using US English, you put the month before the day, e.g.

“He was born on October 20, 1985.” (a comma is usually used here to separate the numbers in the day from the numbers in the year).

OR “He was born on October 20th 1985.”

OR “He was born on October the 20th 1985.”

Mind Our English

Thursday December 8, 2011

Word order

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED by FADZILAH AMIN

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