Reviewing Your Message about Guests
2023-06-09
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1A few weeks ago, we asked our readers and listeners to write about having guests over.
2Many of you wrote in using the words you learned. One reader, Gerardo, wrote to us about his cousin Peter's visit.
3In this week's Everyday Grammar, we will comment on Gerardo's message.
4And we will give some grammar suggestions.
5I usually am very fond of guests.
6Two weeks ago, I suddenly met my cousin Peter near the bus station.
7We have not seen each other for ages.
8He came to the cita for just three weeks.
9So I invited him over for drinks last week-end.
10He was short of time but he finally accepted.
11On Saturday, we spent time catching up talking about those beautiful days we played games and eating in the countryside when we were very young.
12We had dinner together and then he left.
13Let's start with the first two sentences.
14I usually am very fond of guests.
15Two weeks ago, I suddenly met my cousin Peter near the bus station.
16Gerardo uses the adverb "usually," which means "generally" or "under normal conditions."
17While this is a good adverb to use, we suggest placing the adverb after the auxiliary or helping verb "be."
18I am usually very fond of guests.
19The adjective "fond" is a great descriptive word. It is stronger than "like" but a little less strong than "love."
20Lastly, in these two sentences, we have "suddenly met."
21The adverb and verb combination are a good way to describe the chance meeting.
22In American English, we have a phrasal verb that is widely used in everyday speech for that chance meeting, "run into."
23"Run into" means to meet someone by chance or without planning.
24I am usually very fond of guests. Two weeks ago, I ran into my cousin Peter near the bus station.
25Let's move onto the next three sentences.
26We have not seen each other for ages.
27He came to the cita for just three weeks.
28So I invited him over for drinks last week-end.
29There are only a few small changes we need in these three sentences.
30Since Gerardo is writing in the past tense throughout the paragraph, we suggest keeping the past tense in the third sentence by using the past perfect.
31The past perfect is:
32Helping verb "had" plus the past participle of the verb.
33We had not seen each other for ages.
34In the fourth sentence, there is a small spelling error.
35We can change "cita" to "city."
36He came to the city for just three weeks.
37In the fifth sentence we will add a comma after the word "so."
38"So" in this case is an introductory word or transition.
39We add a comma after introductory words of this kind to show that the main part of the sentence follows.
40And lastly in that sentence, we can remove the hyphen (-) between the words "week" and "end" and combine them as a one-word compound noun.
41So, I invited him over for drinks last weekend.
42Let's look at the sixth sentence.
43He was short of time but he finally accepted.
44We suggest changing two things in this sentence.
45First, we suggest changing the preposition "of" to "on."
46While both "short of" and "short on" can mean similar things, "short on" means there is less time than expected or wanted, while "short of" means a lacking of something.
47Plus, "short on time" is used more often in American English than "short of time."
48Our final observation is that we need to add a comma between "time" and the conjunction "but."
49These are two separate sentences combined with "but," so we need a comma.
50He was short on time, but he finally accepted.
51We will continue with the final part of Gerardo's paragraph and suggest some organizational tips later.
52Today, we looked at Gerardo's message about his cousin's visit.
53We thought about adverb placement, commas and verbal tense.
54We learned a new phrasal verb "run into."
55We even looked at the small differences between "short of time" and "short on time."
56We will continue with Gerardo's message in a few weeks.
57Thank you, Gerardo, for sending your writing to us.
58I'm Faith Pirlo.
59I'm Bryan Lynn.
60And I'm Dorothy Gundy.
1A few weeks ago, we asked our readers and listeners to write about having guests over. Many of you wrote in using the words you learned. One reader, Gerardo, wrote to us about his cousin Peter's visit. 2In this week's Everyday Grammar, we will comment on Gerardo's message. And we will give some grammar suggestions. 3Gerardo's Message about his Guest 4I usually am very fond of guests. Two weeks ago, I suddenly met my cousin Peter near the bus station. We have not seen each other for ages. He came to the cita for just three weeks. So I invited him over for drinks last week-end. He was short of time but he finally accepted. On Saturday, we spent time catching up talking about those beautiful days we played games and eating in the countryside when we were very young. We had dinner together and then he left. 5Review of Gerardo's Message 6Let's start with the first two sentences. 7I usually am very fond of guests. Two weeks ago, I suddenly met my cousin Peter near the bus station. 8Gerardo uses the adverb "usually," which means "generally" or "under normal conditions." While this is a good adverb to use, we suggest placing the adverb after the auxiliary or helping verb "be." 9I am usually very fond of guests. 10The adjective "fond" is a great descriptive word. It is stronger than "like" but a little less strong than "love." 11Lastly, in these two sentences, we have "suddenly met." The adverb and verb combination are a good way to describe the chance meeting. In American English, we have a phrasal verb that is widely used in everyday speech for that chance meeting, "run into." 12"Run into" means to meet someone by chance or without planning. 13I am usually very fond of guests. Two weeks ago, I ran into my cousin Peter near the bus station. 14Let's move onto the next three sentences. 15We have not seen each other for ages. He came to the cita for just three weeks. So I invited him over for drinks last week-end. 16There are only a few small changes we need in these three sentences. Since Gerardo is writing in the past tense throughout the paragraph, we suggest keeping the past tense in the third sentence by using the past perfect. 17The past perfect is: 18Helping verb "had" plus the past participle of the verb. 19We had not seen each other for ages. 20In the fourth sentence, there is a small spelling error. We can change "cita" to "city." 21He came to the city for just three weeks. 22In the fifth sentence we will add a comma after the word "so." "So" in this case is an introductory word or transition. We add a comma after introductory words of this kind to show that the main part of the sentence follows. 23And lastly in that sentence, we can remove the hyphen (-) between the words "week" and "end" and combine them as a one-word compound noun. 24So, I invited him over for drinks last weekend. 25Let's look at the sixth sentence. 26He was short of time but he finally accepted. 27We suggest changing two things in this sentence. First, we suggest changing the preposition "of" to "on." While both "short of" and "short on" can mean similar things, "short on" means there is less time than expected or wanted, while "short of" means a lacking of something. Plus, "short on time" is used more often in American English than "short of time." 28Our final observation is that we need to add a comma between "time" and the conjunction "but." These are two separate sentences combined with "but," so we need a comma. 29He was short on time, but he finally accepted. 30We will continue with the final part of Gerardo's paragraph and suggest some organizational tips later. 31Closing thoughts 32Today, we looked at Gerardo's message about his cousin's visit. We thought about adverb placement, commas and verbal tense. We learned a new phrasal verb "run into." We even looked at the small differences between "short of time" and "short on time." 33We will continue with Gerardo's message in a few weeks. Thank you, Gerardo, for sending your writing to us. 34I'm Faith Pirlo. 35I'm Bryan Lynn. 36And I'm Dorothy Gundy. 37Faith Pirlo wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English. 38______________________________ 39Words in This Story 40cousin - n. a child of a person's uncle or aunt 41grammar - n. the whole system and structure of a language 42fond - adj. feeling or showing love or friendship 43phrasal verb - n. grammar: a group of words that functions as a verb and is made up of a verb and a preposition, an adverb, or both 44paragraph - n. a part of a piece of writing that usually that begins on a new line and often is made up of a few sentences 45tense - n. a form of a verb that is used to show when an action happened 46introductory - adj. providing information about something that is about to begin 47phrase - n. a group of two or more words that express a single idea but do not usually form a complete sentence 48clause - n. (grammar) a part of a sentence that has its own subject and verb 49hyphen - n. a punctuation mark - used to divide or to compound words, word elements, or numbers 50What do you think of this story? We want to hear from you. Write to us at learningenglish@voanews.com or leave us a comment below. 51We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: 52Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here.