FROM each pair of sentences below, choose the one that is correct.

a. He drank two cupsful of water./ He drank two cupfuls of water.

b. Two spoonsful of sugar./Two spoonfuls of sugar.

c. We heard fewer noises here./We heard less noises here.

2. A grammar book states that: “The word ‘since’, when used as a conjunction, must be preceded by a present perfect tense and followed by a past indefinite.” For example:

a. Two years have passed since my father died.

b. It has been many years since they left.

Do we say, “It was five years since he had died”? – Yu Siong

1. The correct sentences are:

a. “He drank two cupfuls of water.”

c. “We heard fewer noises here.”

“Noise” can be a countable or an uncountable noun. Since you use the plural form, i.e. “noises” in this sentence, I assume you are using “noise” as a countable noun and “noises” would refer to different kinds of noise, e.g. human voices, animal noises, the noise of car engines, factory noises, etc. “Fewer” is the correct adjective to go with a countable noun, and the phrase “fewer noises” means fewer kinds of noises, e.g. only human voices and animal noises, but not the noises made by car engines and factories.

However, if you mean that the level of noise is lower “here”, you should use “noise” as an uncountable noun (always in the singular form), with “less” as the determiner before it:

“We heard less noise here.”

In sentence (b), neither structure is a sentence: they are both noun phrases. But “spoonfuls” is the plural of “spoonful”, and so “two spoonfuls of sugar” is the correct phrase to use.

2. We don’t say “It was five years since he had died”, but “It has been five years since he died.”

By the way, it is better for you to use the term “simple past tense” in place of “past indefinite”.

Which word to use

I would appreciate it if you could comment on the following tenses which always confuse me.

a. Your prompt attention to/on the above matter is much appreciated.

b. Your immediate attention on/to the above matter is much appreciated.

c. Please/Kindly forward to us the above documents as soon as possible for us execution.

d. Kindly let us have your advise on/to the above matter in order for us to proceed accordingly. – MOE Chinese reader

What you are asking me to do is not to comment on the tenses in the sentences. You are asking me to choose the correct prepositions in sentences (a), (b) and (d), and the correct word in sentence (c).

In sentence (a), “to” is the correct preposition. Also, the sentence should not be written in the present tense, since you are making a request that has not been fulfilled yet. The sentence should read: “Your prompt attention to the above matter would be much appreciated.

Sentence (b) should be written like sentence (a), except for the word “immediate” in place of “prompt”: “Your immediate attention to the above matter would be much appreciated.”

In sentence (c), “please” should be used, NOT “kindly”. “Kindly” is old-fashioned and was often used when someone was annoyed with someone else. Also, “us” should be replaced with “our”, and “to us” should come after “documents”.

The sentence should then read: “Please forward the above documents to us as soon as possible for our execution.”

In sentence (d), the preposition “on” is the correct one, “advise” (a verb) should be spelt “advice” (a noun), and “kindly” of course must be replaced with “please”. The sentence should then read: “Please let us have your advice on the above matter in order for us to proceed accordingly.”

Simple present tense

I would appreciate your help in determining the rules relating to the simple present tense and the correct answer to the following question:

Khairul and Shareen ______ their homework.

A. do B. did C. doing

I can’t determine whether A or B is the answer. If the answer is A, I believe it is related to the rules of simple present tense, which I am not so clear about.

As for B, the answer sounds correct but does it require a time reference at the end of the sentence, for example. “Khairul and Shareen did their homework (last night)?

What if the person making the statement is unaware of the time and therefore omits it? Can’t B still be the correct answer? Between A and B, which is the best answer and why?

– S. Vanitha

Actually, none of the answers is satisfactory. C is obviously wrong, and B, as you say requires the addition of a specific time at the end of the sentence to make it meaningful on its own.

A sentence with B, however, can be part of a story, e.g. “... After dinner, Encik Ahmad and Puan Fatimah cleared the table and washed the dishes. Khairul and Shareen did their homework. Little Farah watched cartoons on TV ...”

If the sentence describing a past activity stands on its own and the person making it is unaware of the specific time when the activity took place, he should use the present perfect tense and write, for example: “Khairul and Shareen have done their homework.”

The simple present tense is used to talk about something that happens habitually, or a situation that always exists. For example, we can say, based on the above sentence: “Khairul and Shareen do their homework at the dining table.” (meaning that’s the usual place where they do their homework). Or, we can add an adverb before the verb and a couple of words at the end of the sentence, and write: “Khairul and Shareen always do their homework on time.”

An example of a sentence in the simple present tense that talks about a situation that always exists is: “The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.”

Burn notice

What is the correct word to use to alert a child not to go near the iron when his parent is ironing the clothes?

“Boy, be careful of the iron, don’t get ______ by the iron.”

How do you translate “kena” in this sentence: “He kena by the iron/exhaust pipe.” – Claire

The correct word to use to complete your sentence is “burnt”. So the sentence will read: “Boy, be careful of the iron, don’t get burnt by the iron.”

If you child is very young, however, it would be more effective to say:

“Boy, this iron is very hot, it can burn you and that hurts! Don’t come near!”

“Kena” in your next sentence means “was burnt”.

Yet again

Thank you for answering my question about the word “yet” last week (MOE, June 23). However, I am still confused.

In the following sentence, what is the meaning of “yet”?

Yet he may be completely free from those attributes which we have put on him.

Does it mean something positive or negative?– Mr Learner

“Yet” is neither positive nor negative. To put it simply, the meaning of “yet” in the sentences you asked me about is close to the meaning of “but”. Both are conjunctions, which join two statements. For example, you may say:

“My teacher scolds us a lot when we don’t do our work. Yet/But she is very kind when we need some help.”

The second sentence is surprising because a lot of people don’t expect a teacher who scolds her pupils a lot to be also very kind.

The sentence you quote this time comes from Chapter I of a book called What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula, which I managed to find on the Internet. In order to see what “yet” means there, we have to see the previous sentence as well. Let me quote both sentences:

“When, for instance, we meet a man, we do not look on him as a human being, but we put a label on him, such as English, French, German, American or Jew, and regard him with all the prejudices associated with that label in our mind. Yet he may be completely free from those attributes which we have put on him.”

(http://sites.google.com/site/rahulawhatthebuddha/the-buddhist-attitude-of-mind)

In the first sentence, the author talks about how we tend to look at a person, not as a human being first, but as a member of a certain race or nationality. We then label him according to our own prejudices against people of those races or nationalities. Let me give some examples of common prejudices: the beliefs that an Englishman does not make friends easily, a Frenchman flirts with a lot of women, a German man always thinks he is right, an American man talks too much and a Jewish man always thinks of making more money.

In the second sentence the author says something against putting labels on people. He says that when we meet someone of a certain race or nationality, we may be surprised to find that he is not what we expected him to be. (Let me give an example: we might meet an American man who is quiet and shy.) The author uses “yet” at the beginning of the second sentence in order to introduce our possible surprise at finding the opposite of what we expected.

I hope this answer will make the meaning and function of “yet” clearer to you.

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