Matilah Manglish #2

This will be a pretty long post since there are so many things that need fixing, but here goes!


"if some one to be learn how to speak english He/ she have to be spread islam and preaching the name and message of Allah to non muslims who does not know about the best religion islam.


The correct version :


" If someone has learned how to speak English, he or she has to spread Islam and preach the names and messages of Allah S.W.T to non-Muslims, who do not know about the best religion there is; Islam. "


1. The sentence should start with a capital letter.


2. 'some one' means a few ones and is not the same as 'someone', which means an unspecified person.

3. 'to be learn' : there's no such thing as 'to be learn'. There's 'to learn' and 'be learned', which has the same meaning as 'be educated'. Example - "It is only proper that a gentleman be learned of some basic table manners."

4. 'english' : should start with a capital E because it is a proper noun.

5. 'He/she' : the word 'he' with a capital H is used to refer to God, so in this case it shouldn't start with a capital letter.

6. 'she have' : 'she' is a singular noun so it should be 'has' not 'have' which is used for plural nouns.

7. 'to be spread' : 'to be ____' is the form you use when declaring motive or purpose. Example - 'I try to be honest.' 
For today's sentence, the writer should have used ' to ____(insert verb)'.

8. 'islam' : Islam is a proper noun so it has to be spelled with a capital 'I'.

9. 'preaching' : The writer shouldn't have used the continuous form of this verb because the 'doer' has not yet started the action. It should be in the simple present tense; preach.

10. I've changed 'name' to 'names' and 'message' to 'messages' seeing as how Allah S.W.T. has a lot of names and messages.



11. 'non muslims' : This should be spelled as 'non-Muslims'. The word 'Muslim' is a proper noun so it has to be spelled with a capital M.


12. 'who does' : It should be 'who do' because in this sentence the word 'who' is referring to the non-Muslims and they are considered a plural noun so here we use the '(singular noun) does' and '(plural noun) do'.


13. The last part of the sentence ended a bit weirdly, in my opinion, so I altered that too. 


There's a lot that can be learnt in this post but what I would like you to do is to think of one sentence which uses the semicolon ( ; <--- this). I swear that it's just not used enough.


Remember, think before you tweet and polish before you post.
Class dismissed.

Matilah Manglish #1

I've decided to start a new series of posts where I basically correct people's grammar, spelling and punctuation. I get really pissed when I see people tweet or post statuses that have crappy grammar. Yes, I am the feared Grammar Nazi. 


Hopefully, using this series of posts I can not only release my pent-up stress but also help whomever reads my blog learn a few things. 


The sentences that I will use will come from the Internet such as tweets, Facebook status updates and maybe even from other blogs. My aim is to right some wrongs not to embarrass anyone so all the sources will not be disclosed.


Today's lesson : 


"Broken English sometimes can be a conversation killer." 


The wording of this sentence is what needs fixing. I think it would sound and look better if it had instead been written as :


" Broken English can sometimes be a conversation killer. "


As you can see, I've merely switched the positioning of the word 'sometimes' and 'can'. In the first form, the sentence sounds stunted because when you read it, you'll read it like this :


" Broken English / sometimes / can be / a / conversation killer. " 
( the '/' indicates where you would pause when reading )


When reading a sentence, the pauses should happen  preferably after every two, three or four words and the flow of the sentence at the beginning will set the tempo for the rest of the sentence till it finishes. By placing the word 'sometimes' before the word 'can', the flow of the sentence will sound like this :


" Broken English / can sometimes / be a conversation killer. "


People who are used to giving speeches or MC-ing an event usually talk in 2/3/4 words parts to make sure that the audience can clearly catch the words and comprehend what is being said.


Furthermore, the second form of the sentence places stress on the word 'sometimes' making it clearly evident that broken English is not always the cause of conversations dying out. 


Hopefully, after reading this post, you'll be able to see how arranging words in a certain order can give off different affects to the reader or listener.


Remember, think before you tweet and polish before you post.
Class dismissed.