One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’. For example, in Chinese, a tap is called: ‘water-dragon-head’ (‘shwei-long-to’). Well, there’s a bit of imagination used there, but I do understand the logic. A tap looks a bit look a dragon’s head. [See picture above]. Put these three nouns together, and it becomes a big noun. However, in English, it’s just called a ‘tap’ (although the Americans may use the word ‘faucet’).

However, English also has many compound nouns, so let’s practise some of them. Match a noun in A with a noun in B to form a compound noun.

I’ll give you all the answers in the next post. By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’. For example, in Chinese, the animal in the above picture is called a ‘long-neck-deer’ (‘chong-jin-lu’). Okay, ‘long’ is an adjective, but it makes the noun ‘long-neck’, which is added to ‘deer’. Hence, a compound noun. But in English, it’s just called a ‘giraffe’.

However, English also has many compound nouns, but the rules abut when to use hyphens (‘-‘) and whether to write them as one or two words are confusing. For example, why is screwdriver one word, but word processor two? In the previous post, I began discussing this, and let’s continue this discussion now.

Sometimes the way we write the compound noun is just about the look of the noun. Parking meter looks good, but parkingmeter just looks wrong (and is wrong). Timetable is one word, but what about car park or carpark? I prefer the second – it looks fine, but many dictionaries prefer the first.

What about seatbelt or seat belt or seat-belt? The dictionaries give the middle one, but they all look fine to me, and are often given as ‘secondary’ spellings.

These rules can vary from country to country (e.g. USA versus the UK), and generation (e.g. old people versus young people).

The conclusion is, don’t worry too much about these. As long as the message is clear, it is fine – even in IELTS Writing. IELTS examiners are trained to judge the ‘communicative efficiency’ of the writing – that is, whether any mistakes make the writing harder to understand, or not. There are terms in the public version of the IELTS Band Descriptors which show this, such as mistakes  ‘do not impede/reduce communication’ or mistakes ’cause some difficulty/strain’.

The good news is that whether you use a hyphen or not in a compound noun, the word/meaning/message is still very clear – that is, if it is a mistake (according to some dictionary), this has no effect on communication. Seatbelt or seat belt or seat-belt  are all fine, and probably the IELTS examiner will not be sure which is ‘correct’. So, don’t worry too much, but try to follow what the dictionaries say.

By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’. For example, look at the picture above. This crazy hairstyle was created by a ‘hairdresser’. In Chinese, a ‘hairdresser’ is called a ‘hair-shape-design-master’ (‘fa-shing-sherji-sher’). Wow, that’s four nouns in a row!

Well, in English ‘hair’ + ‘dresser’ is also a compound noun – but with just two nouns, it’s a bit simpler than the Chinese word, right? And ‘hairstyle’ is another compound noun. Yes, just join the nouns together, and you can often make more words, and English also has many of these. However, there is a little grammar involved with these compound nouns. At the end of the previous two posts, I asked you these questions.

1 Why do some words use hyphens, and others not?

2 Why is ‘rush hour’ written as two words, yet ‘raincoat’ written as one?

The answers are ….. there are no rules, and we just decide on the form of the compound noun over time. For example, when cars were invented, the word carpark became necessary, but it was probably originally written as car park, but over time, people became more familiar with the term, and in some countries, it grew to car-park and then just carpark. However, many dictionaries prefer the first.

Hyphens are sometimes necessary to make the word easier to understand. Brotherinlaw is not as clear as brother-in-law.

But what about ear-ring or earring? The dictionaries give the second, but I much prefer the first, because it’s clearer – it avoids that awkward-looking double ‘r’. I would say this is the same reason we write ‘rush hour’ as two words, to avoid the double ‘h’ of ‘rushhour’.

So, this is getting confusing, right? Let’s explore it further in the next post.

By the way, the answers to the previous post are hair drier, fire engine, sunset, screwdriver, word processor, arrival time, rubbish bin, and signpost.

You can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’. For example, in Chinese, a radio is called: ‘recording sound machine’ (‘lu-ing-ji’). But in English, it’s a radio – however, English also has many compound nouns, so let’s practise some of them. Match a noun in A with a noun in B to form a compound noun.

The answers to the previous post are bookcase, noticeboard, rush hour, seat belt, departure lounge, pocket money, timetable, and raincoat.

I’ll end with a question. Look at the picture at the top of this post. It shows two firemen or firefighters [the second word can include women], but why are these compound nouns written as one words, yet rubbish bin is written as two? Why do we write raincoat as one word and not two?

I’ll give you all the answers in the next post. By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’.

For example, in Chinese, a storm is called: ‘wild-wind-rain’ (‘bau-fong-uwi’). That’s exactly what it is. Just look at the above picture. So, the name is perfectly logical. But in English, we say ‘storm’. But don’t be misled: English also has many compound nouns, so let’s practise some of them.

Match a noun in A with a noun in B to form a compound noun.

The answers to the previous post are: dining room, film star, brother-in-law, income tax, writing paper, washing machine, cheque book, and babysitter. And those two little lines in ‘brother-in-law’ are called ‘hyphens’.

I’ll end with a question. Why do some words use hyphens, and others not?

I’ll give you all the answers in the next post. By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’.

For example, in Chinese, a computer is called: ‘electricity brain’ (‘dien-nau’). It is indeed a brain which uses electricity. That’s exactly what it is, so the name is perfectly logical. But in English, we say ‘computer’. But English does have many compound nouns – just not as many as in Chinese. So, let’s practise some compound nouns.

Match a word in A with a word in B to form a compound noun.

The answers to the previous post are: credit card, table tennis, T-shirt, ear-ring, sunglasses, parking meter, first aid, and pedestrian crossing. 

I’ll end with two questions. Look at the picture at the top of this post. (1) What is it called, and (2) why is it important? You can obviously realise what it is: another example of ‘tree-skin’ … er … sorry, that’s ‘Chinese English’ ….. I mean …. ‘bark’ …. but this bark is not as useless as you think. The answers to (1) and (2) are at the end of the previous post (2 of 10).

By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it creates nouns by combining two simple nouns. These are called ‘compound nouns’.

For example, in Chinese, an ambulance is called: ‘help-protect-car’ (‘jo-hu-chir’). It is indeed a car which helps and protects. That’s exactly what it is, so the name is perfectly logical. But in English, we say ‘ambulance’. But English does have many compound nouns – just not as many as in Chinese. So, let’s practise some them.

In the first post, I asked where the drug ‘quinine’ comes from. The answer is it comes from the bark of the cinchona tree. [See the above picture]. This bark provided the first cure to the horrible disease: malaria – which had killed millions of people. So, there you go. ‘Tree-skin’ … er … sorry, that’s ‘Chinese English’ ….. I mean …. ‘bark’ …. is not as useless as you think.

Here’s another general knowledge question. There is a spice called ‘cinnamon’ – the stuff you sometimes sprinkle on the top of your coffee – but where does it come from?

I’ll give you all the answers in the next post. By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

In the previous 10 posts, I looked at stative verbs – that is, a grammar-based aspect of the English language. Now, let’s move on to vocabulary – but I’d like to look at nouns – specifically, compound nouns.

The first question you may have is … what’s a compound noun? A compound noun takes the form ….

(n) + (n)

…. where the first noun functions as an adjective. For example,

computer virus.

The word ‘computer’ is certainly a noun; so is the word ‘virus’; but computer here is actually an adjective, meaning, ‘about computers’. Similarly, we say …

computer program

computer component

computer language

computer expert

computer studies

computer development

… and others – in fact, so many terms that you might think the noun ‘computer’ is more often used as an adjective.

One of the aspects of the Chinese language which I really like is the way it logically creates such compound nouns. For example, in Chinese, the word for what you can see in the above picture is …

tree skin (‘shu-pi’).

It is indeed the skin of a tree. That’s exactly what it is, so the name is perfectly logical. But in English, we don’t say ‘tree skin’. We say ‘bark’ or ‘tree bark’. Why? I don’t know. We just have that word.

But don’t be misled. English has many compound nouns – just not as many as in Chinese. Compound nouns make up a huge amount of vocabulary in English, so in the next nine posts, we will be learning and practising them.

I’ll end with a general knowledge question. The drug used against the disease malaria is called ‘quinine’, but where does it come from? I’ll give you the answer in the next post.

In the previous posts, I looked at the four sorts of stative verbs. ‘Stative’ means ‘about states’ or unchanging conditions. The four sorts of verbs are verbs of Senses (smell, hear, sense), Ownership (have, contain, belong), Mind (believe, trust, know), Emotion (love, hate, adore). I remember these by thinking ‘SOME verbs are stative’. In this final post on the subject of stative verbs, let’s look at two grammar points.

The first grammar point is that if a verb is used after a preposition, these verbs take the ~ing form, and these verbs can be stative. For example, …

You can achieve more by trusting me. [correct]

I’m interested in knowing more about you. [correct]

I’m worried about my daughter owning a mobile phone. [correct]

I had a student ask me about this in class. The answer is that the V-ing forms here are not verbs; they are nouns/gerunds – or what I call ‘action nouns’ – that is, nouns with an action inside them. Since the meaning is not verbal, stative verbs can be used (as the previous three examples show).

The second grammar point is that there are some verb patterns which similarly use the ~ing form – but again, these forms are known as gerunds or present participles – that is, they are not used as verbs.

I advise owning a mobile phone.

I recommend trusting him.

I now regret smelling that chemical [in the above picture].

That last example is interesting. ‘Regret‘ and ‘smell‘ are both stative verbs, yet one of them has an ‘ing’ form – but now you know the reason why, right?

Okay, with those two grammar points, I now finish with stative verbs. In the next 10 posts, I’ll move from grammar to vocabulary, and from verbs to nouns – specifically, compound nouns.

Make sure you keep reading these posts, and you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

In the previous posts, I looked at the four sorts of stative verbs. ‘Stative’ means ‘about states’ or unchanging conditions. The four sorts of verbs are verbs of Senses (smell, hear, sense), Ownership (have, contain, belong), Mind (believe, trust, know), Emotion (love, hate, adore). I remember these by thinking ‘SOME verbs are stative’.

But in the last three posts, I also mentioned that, when thinking about stative (SOME) verbs, it is not just the meaning of the verb which matters, but also the way it is used, and this can depend on the specific situation.

Let’s look at the verb ‘love’. Isn’t this a verb about the emotion? That’s the E in SOME? So, it must be stative, right? Right!

Darling, I’m loving you. [incorrect]

I’m loving living here. [incorrect]

But the fast-food company, MacDonalds, use the phrase,

I’m loving it.

Hmmm. Why not ‘I love it.’? Well, the company is trying to be cute with English by saying something in a way that is not normal. Perhaps they are trying to give the meaning that right now, as I eat this hamburger, ‘love’ is the feeling I am experiencing about it. Well, that hamburger in the above picture does look pretty nice, and I mentioned in a previous post that English grammar can be flexible. This is just an example of that.

By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

In the previous posts, I looked at the four sorts of stative verbs. ‘Stative’ means ‘about states’ or unchanging conditions. The four sorts of verbs are verbs of Senses (smell, hear, sense), Ownership (have, contain, belong), Mind (believe, trust, know), Emotion (love, hate, adore). I remember these by thinking ‘SOME verbs are stative’.

But in the previous two posts, I mentioned that it is not just the meaning of the verb which matters, but the way the verb is used. But it can also depend on the situation.

Let’s look at the verb ‘smell’. Isn’t this a verb about the senses? That’s the S in SOME? So, it must be stative, right? Right! Look at the picture at the top of this post. It’s a fruit called a ‘durian’, and you probably know that it has a very strong smell. And if someone walked into that room, they would not say …

Mmmm, I’m smelling durian. [incorrect]

Something is smelling bad here. [incorrect]

But if a professional durian inspector was studying two types on the table in front of him, he might explain to an observer ….

Right now, I’m smelling the durian in order to determine the quality. [correct]

As I’m smelling this durian, I’m also counting to five. [correct]

So, when thinking about stative (SOME) verbs, it is not just the meaning of the verb which matters, but also the way the verb is used, and this can depend on the specific situation.

By the way, you can find out more about me at www.aisielts.com .

In the previous posts, I looked at the four sorts of stative verbs. ‘Stative’ means ‘about states’ or unchanging conditions. The four sorts of verbs are verbs of Senses (smell, hear, sense), Ownership (have, contain, belong), Mind (believe, trust, know), Emotion (love, hate, adore). I remember these by thinking ‘SOME verbs are stative’. But in the previous post, I mentioned that it is not just the main meaning of the verb which matters, but the way the verb is used. English often uses verbs flexibly.

Let’s look at the verb ‘think’. Isn’t this a verb about the mind? That’s the M in SOME? So, it must be stative, right? Well, yes and no. Often it is indeed stative.

I am thinking I know the answer. [incorrect]

You are thinking I’m wrong. [incorrect]

But here’s the point. The verb think can also show mental activity or movement inside the mind at a point of time, so in this sense, it is not about state at all.

I’m thinking about what to do tonight. [correct]

He’s thinking right now about how to answer the question. [correct]

Compare the following two sentences.

1 What do you think about him? [correct]

2 What are you thinking about him? [possibly correct]

The first means ‘do you like him or not?’. The second might mean that we are looking at him right now in class, and I am curious to know the thoughts which are happening in your mind.

Similarly, the verbs wonder, consider, speculate, and others, can show mental activity, and take the ‘ing’ form. But the verbs prefer or detect are stative, since they involve no mental activity.

By the way. Look at the picture at the top of this post. That chimpanzee is looking directly at you, and I wonder what is he thinking. [Maybe: “Gee, those human beings are ugly-looking things.”]

Check www.aisielts.com for more information, resources, and advice.

In the previous posts, I looked at the four sorts of stative verbs. ‘Stative’ means ‘about states’ or unchanging conditions. The four sorts of verbs are verbs of Senses (smell, hear, sense), Ownership (have, contain, belong), Mind (believe, trust, know), Emotion (love, hate, adore). I remember these by thinking ‘SOME verbs are stative’.

However, in that last post, I mentioned that there are a few apparent exceptions to this SOME rule – that is, times when stative verbs ARE used with an ‘ing’ in the continuous tense.

Let’s look at the verb ‘have’. Isn’t this a verb about the ownership? That’s the O in SOME? So, it must be stative, right? Yes, right! We can’t say,

I’m having a Rolex watch. [incorrect]

But we do say, …

I’m having a good time. [correct]

Huh? What’s going on here? Well, in the second sentence, have is not about ownership. In that sentence, have means ‘experience’ or ‘do’, which are not stative concepts. For example, …

I’m having breakfast. [correct]

He was having a break. [correct]

They’re certainly having a good time. [correct]

So, when thinking about stative (SOME) verbs, remember, it is not just the usual meaning of the verb which matters, but the way the verb is used, and English often uses verbs flexibly. The next post will give another example of this.

By the way. Look at the picture at the top of this post. You can see three of my girlfriends (ha ha), and they‘re all having a drink.

In the previous four posts, I looked at the four sorts of stative verbs. ‘Stative’ means ‘about states’ or unchanging conditions. To summarise, the four sorts of verbs are verbs of …

the Senses,

smell, hear, sense, detect

Ownership,

have, contain, belong, own

the Mind,

believe, trust, know, realise

& Emotion.

love, hate, adore, admire

I remember these types of verbs by thinking ‘SOME verbs are stative’. Get it? So, how should you say the following sentences.

I’ve been having this watch for years.

I’m not trusting you at all.

He’s hating it when people smoke in front of him.

I am detecting that there’s a problem here.

When I entered the room, I was immediately realising my mistake.

I’ve been loving him from the moment I met him.

So, that’s the SOME rule for stative verbs. However, there are a few apparent exceptions, and the next few posts will look at these.

By the way. Look at the picture at the top of this post. Everything is constantly changing around that man, but not his feeling about surfing: he just loves the sport, right?

In the previous three posts, we studied three kinds of stative verbs. ‘Stative’ means ‘about states’ or unchanging conditions. Let’s move on to another kind. Look at the following 10 verbs, then answer the three questions which follow.

1 Vote

2 Love

3 Copy

4 Run

5 Adore

6 Hate

7 Trust

8 Detest

9 Call

10 Destroy

Question 1

Which verbs are ‘action verbs’ and which ones are about emotion?

Question 2

What’s the grammatical difference between them? Hint: try putting them all in a logical sentence using the continuous tense – that is, using ‘to be ~ing’ for something happening around a point in time. For example, use the pattern: “I am [V]ing ……. right now.”

Question 3

Now, choose the correct tense of the verbs in the following two sentences.

I am hating / hate that politician, so I am not voting / don’t vote for him this election.

I am preferring/ prefer the other man, so I’m glad he is running / runs for president.

Discussion

You probably realised that vote, copy, run, call, and destroy are action verbs, and the others are verbs about emotion. These ‘emotion verbs’ (such as love, adore, hate, trust, and detest) cannot be used in the ~ing form; however, action verbs can, especially when talking about a point in time e.g. right now. [Right now, I am listening to some music].

‘Emotion verbs’ are one sort of ‘stative’ verbs. Students often make the mistake of using them in the continuous tense, but now, you won’t make that mistake, I hope.

By the way. Look at the picture at the top of this post. Maybe you like this guy, but remember, he‘s thinking of eating you.

In the previous two posts, we studied two kinds of stative verbs. ‘Stative’ means ‘about states’ or unchanging conditions. Let’s move on to another kind. Look at the following 10 verbs, then answer the three questions which follow.

1 Run

2 Talk

3 Know

4 Write

5 Trust

6 Study

7 Remember

8 Sit

9 Forget

10 Believe

Question 1

Which verbs are ‘action verbs’ and which ones are about the mind?

Question 2

What’s the grammatical difference between them? Hint: try putting them all in a logical sentence using the continuous tense – that is, using ‘to be ~ing’ for something happening around a point in time. For example, use the pattern: “I am [V]ing ……. right now.”

Question 3

Now, choose the correct tense of the verbs in the following two sentences.

I am knowing / know it, but I still am not believing / do not believe it.

He says he‘s studying /studies at the moment, but I am not believing / don’t believe him.

Discussion

You probably realised that run, talk, write, study, and sit are action verbs, and the others are verbs of the mind. These ‘mind verbs’ (such as know, trust, remember, and forget) cannot be used in the ~ing form; however, action verbs can, especially when talking about a point in time e.g. right now. [Right now, I am writing this post].

‘Mind verbs’ are one sort of ‘stative’ verbs. Students often make the mistake of using them in the continuous tense, but now, you won’t make that mistake, I hope.

By the way. Look at the picture at the top of this post. That cat trusts the dog, but is he making a mistake?