Reviewing Your Message about Guests, Part 2
2023-06-16
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1A few weeks ago, we asked our readers and listeners to write about having guests over.
2Many of you wrote us using the words you learned.
3One reader, Gerardo, wrote to us about his cousin Peter coming for a visit.
4In this week's Everyday Grammar, we continue reviewing Gerado's message and give additional suggestions about grammar.
5On Saturday, we spent time catching up talking about those beautiful days we played games and eating in the countryside when we were very young.
6We had dinner together and then he left.
7Let's start by making these last sentences into their own paragraph.
8Line seven now becomes line one of the new paragraph.
9On Saturday, we spent time catching up talking about those beautiful days we played games and eating in the countryside when we were very young.
10Gerardo starts this sentence off strongly with a transition.
11He uses the preposition "on" and the day of the week "Saturday" to tell us exactly when he met his cousin.
12Earlier, he said that he had invited his cousin over for the weekend.
13Moving from general to specific information helps readers understand the order of events. Gerardo uses a comma after the transition! Great job, Gerardo!
14We have a few suggestions for this sentence.
15There should be a conjunction between the gerunds "catching up" and "talking." We can use the conjunction "and."
16The sentence is also very long.
17We can break it up into two sentences.
18Think about moving from general to specific information as you write.
19The phrase "when we were very young" is a more general phrase that describes the time Gerardo and his cousin were discussing.
20We can add that information to the end of the new first sentence.
21On Saturday, we spent time catching up and talking about those beautiful days when we were very young.
22That leaves this part of the sentence:
23...we played games and eating in the countryside...
24From this, we can create a new sentence:
25We would play games and eat in the countryside.
26We suggest changing the verbs here.
27In the new sentence, we added the modal verb "would." It is the past tense form of "will."
28We use "would" to show repeated actions in the past.
29We often use it when telling stories. It is used more in writing than casual speaking.
30After the modal verbs, we use the base form of the other verbs.
31So, "play" and "eating" change to their base forms.
32This shows attention to the details of writing in the form of something called parallelism.
33Parallelism is the method of using similar forms to organize and structure a sentence, so it is easy to understand.
34Let's look at the final sentence.
35We had dinner together and then he left.
36We suggest just two more changes.
37We can add a transitional phrase to the first part of the sentence.
38This will separate the time Gerardo and his cousin were remembering and the rest of their evening together.
39Since they were "catching up," we can use the past tense of this phrasal verb and the preposition "after" for the transitional phrase.
40Lastly, we should add a comma between "together" the rest of the sentence.
41After we caught up, we had dinner together, and then he left.
42Today, we reviewed the rest of Gerardo's message about his cousin's visit.
43We broke apart a long sentence into two.
44We added a conjunction, a comma, and transitions.
45We learned how to structure our writing better with parallelism in verbs. We even learned about "would."
46Thank you, Gerardo, for sending your writing to us.
47I'm Faith Pirlo.
48I'm Bryan Lynn.
49And I'm Dorothy Gundy.
1A few weeks ago, we asked our readers and listeners to write about having guests over. Many of you wrote us using the words you learned. One reader, Gerardo, wrote to us about his cousin Peter coming for a visit. 2In this week's Everyday Grammar, we continue reviewing Gerado's message and give additional suggestions about grammar. 3Gerardo's message about his guest 4On 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 by making these last sentences into their own paragraph. Line seven now becomes line one of the new paragraph. 7On Saturday, we spent time catching up talking about those beautiful days we played games and eating in the countryside when we were very young. 8Gerardo starts this sentence off strongly with a transition. He uses the preposition "on" and the day of the week "Saturday" to tell us exactly when he met his cousin. Earlier, he said that he had invited his cousin over for the weekend. 9Moving from general to specific information helps readers understand the order of events. Gerardo uses a comma after the transition! Great job, Gerardo! 10We have a few suggestions for this sentence. There should be a conjunction between the gerunds "catching up" and "talking." We can use the conjunction "and." 11The sentence is also very long. We can break it up into two sentences. Think about moving from general to specific information as you write. The phrase "when we were very young" is a more general phrase that describes the time Gerardo and his cousin were discussing. We can add that information to the end of the new first sentence. 12On Saturday, we spent time catching up and talking about those beautiful days when we were very young. 13That leaves this part of the sentence: 14...we played games and eating in the countryside... 15From this, we can create a new sentence: 16We would play games and eat in the countryside. 17We suggest changing the verbs here. In the new sentence, we added the modal verb "would." It is the past tense form of "will." 18We use "would" to show repeated actions in the past. We often use it when telling stories. It is used more in writing than casual speaking. 19After the modal verbs, we use the base form of the other verbs. So, "play" and "eating" change to their base forms. This shows attention to the details of writing in the form of something called parallelism. Parallelism is the method of using similar forms to organize and structure a sentence, so it is easy to understand. 20Let's look at the final sentence. 21We had dinner together and then he left. 22We suggest just two more changes. We can add a transitional phrase to the first part of the sentence. This will separate the time Gerardo and his cousin were remembering and the rest of their evening together. 23Since they were "catching up," we can use the past tense of this phrasal verb and the preposition "after" for the transitional phrase. 24Lastly, we should add a comma between "together" the rest of the sentence. 25After we caught up, we had dinner together, and then he left. 26Closing thoughts 27Today, we reviewed the rest of Gerardo's message about his cousin's visit. We broke apart a long sentence into two. We added a conjunction, a comma, and transitions. We learned how to structure our writing better with parallelism in verbs. We even learned about "would." 28Thank you, Gerardo, for sending your writing to us. 29I'm Faith Pirlo. 30I'm Bryan Lynn. 31And I'm Dorothy Gundy. 32Faith Pirlo wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English. 33________________________________________________________________ 34Words in This Story 35cousin - n. a child of a person's uncle or aunt 36grammar - n. the whole system and structure of a language 37paragraph - 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 38conjunction - n. (grammar) a word that joins together sentences, clauses, phrases, or words 39gerund - n. (grammar). the -ing form of a verb that acts like a noun 40phrase - n. a group of two or more words that express a single idea but do not usually form a complete sentence 41modal verbs - n. (grammar) verbs that are used to express possibility, ability, or necessity. 42tense - n. a form of a verb that is used to show when an action happened 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 44___________________________________________________________________ 45What 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. 46We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: 47Each 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.