WRITTEN EXPRESSION

QUESTIONS
THIS PROBLEM REFERS TO IDENTIFYING THE
ERROR IN ENGLISH TEST, THE STRATEGIES ARE:
1. F I R S T L O O K AT T H E U N D E R L I N E D W O R D O F G R O U P S O F
WORDS. YOU WANT TO SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT WHICH OF
T H E F O U R AN S W E R C H O I C E S I S N O T C O R R E C T.
2. I F Y O U H AVE B E E N U N A B L E T O F I N D T H E E R R O R B Y
L O O K I N G O N LY AT T H E F O U R U N D E R L I N E D E X P R E S S I O N S ,
T H E N R E A D T H E C O M P L E T E S E N T E N C E . O F T E N AN
EXPRESSION IS INCORRECT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING IN
A N O T H E R PAR T O F T H E S E N T E N C E .
3. B E S U R E T O AN S W E R E A C H Q U E S T I O N E V E N I F Y O U AR E
UNSURE OF THE CORRECT RESPONSE.
 SUBJECT/VERB AGREEMENT WITH
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE and
EXPRESSIONS OF QUANTITY
THIS PROBLEM IS SO SIMPLE BUT TRICKY

• The boy walks to school

• The children walk to school.
• The key (to the doors) is in the drawer
• The keys (to the door) are in the drawer
(When a prepositional phrase comes between the subject and the
verb, be sure that the verb agrees with the subject)
• All (of my time) is spent in this laboratory
• All (of the books) were interesting.
• The man saw that most of the (fire) in the hills was extinguished.
(All; most; some; half; are expressions of quantity) when one of the
expressions is the subject, the verb agrees with the object.
 MAKE VERBS AGREE AFTER CERTAIN WORDS
THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN DISCUSSED ON THE FIRST
MEETING.

(Certain words in English are always gramatically singular,

even though they might have plural meanings.
• Everybody is going to the theater
• Each of the doctors in the hospital needs to have separate
reception area.
• Every man, woman and child in this line is required to sign
the forms.
The other expressions are :
Anybody, anything, everyone, no one, no body, something,
somebody, each+noun, every+noun
 PROBLEMS WITH PARALLEL STRUCTURE
In good English an attempt to make the language balanced as
possible, is called parallel structure

• I like to sing and to dance

• They are not interested in what you do or what you say (with co.
conjunc.)
• You can cho ose f rom act ivit ie s su ch as hiki ng an d kaya ki ng

• He wants either to go by train or to go by plane

• He wants to go either by train or by plane (with paired conjunction)

• What is written is more easily understood than what is spoken

• To b e r i c h i s b e t t e r t h a n t o b e p o o r ( w i t h c o m p a r i s o n )

•T h e harder he tried, the further he fell behind (The –er, -er

structure)
•T h e m o r e t i m e t h e y h a v e t o p l a y , t h e h a p p i e r t h e c h i l d r e n a r e .
 PROBLEM WITH THE FORM OF THE VERB
HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE

Whenever you see the verb “have” in any of its forms (have, has having,
had) be sure that the verb that follows it is in the past participle form.

• He has taken the test

• Having eaten, he went to school

AFTER WILL, WOULD, OR OTHER MODALS, USE THE BASE FORM OF THE
VERB
• The boat will leave at 3:00
• The students must take the exam

Compare with these:

The boat will be leaving at 3:00 tomorrow
The students must have taken the exam
 PROBLEM WITH THE FORM OF THE VERB
KNOW WHEN TO USE THE PAST WITH THE PRESENT
Sometimes we find the switch from one tense to the other tense form
(combination) in a sentence. At this point, a logical meaning is relied on .

• He took the money when he wants it (wrong)

• He took the money when he wanted it (correct)
• He takes the money when he wants it (correct)
• I know that he took the money yesterday
• I understand that you were angry

USE HAVE AND HAD CORRECTLY

Tom h a d f i n i s h e d t h e e x a m w h e n t h e t e a c h e r c o l l e c t e d t h e p a p e r s .
Mary has lived in Los Angeles for ten years
Mary had lived in Los Angeles for ten years when she moved to San Diego
(Have + Past Participle) – Past up to now – Not with a past tense
(Had + Past Participle ) – before past up to past – not with a present tense
 USE THE CORRECT TENSE WITH TIME EXPRESSIONS
Time expression clearly indicates what verb tense is needed in the
sentence. (you may look the previous explanation of Present perfect tense)

• We moved to Jogjakarta in 1980 (Past tense)

• The phone rang incessantly last night

• We had left there by 1980 (Past perfect)

• W e h a v e l i v e d i n Tor o n t o s i n c e 1 9 8 2 ( P r e s e n t
perfect)
• He has worked very hard lately
 USE THE CORRECT FORM OF NOUN

• On the table there were many dishes (NOT dish)

• The lab assistant finished every test (NOT tests)- Singular/Plural
(Each, every, single, one, a) X (both, two, many, several, various)

• He has seen many foreign films (NOT much)

• He didn’t have much fun at the movies (NOT many)
This problem related to countable or uncountable sign, such as :

(Many, number, few, fewer) X (Much, amount, little, less)

•H e r e c e i v e d l i t t l e n o t i c e t h a t t h e b i l l w o u l d h a v e t o b e p a i d i n f u l l
Uncountable can also refer to abstract ideas, such as security,
friendship, hope, happiness
 MORE PROBLEMS WITH ADJECTIVES
The previous section, We discussed various problems related to both
adjectives and adverbs. Generally when a word end in-ly in English, it
is an adverb, However, there are a few words ending –ly that are
adjectives.

• The manager turned in his weekly report

The other forms of –ly adjectives are:

•C o s t l y early likely daily
•F r i e n d l y lonely hourly northerly
•K i n d l y manly nightly westerly
•L o v e l y quarterly yearly weekly

Federal taxes are yearly taxes which must be paid every April
 PREDICATE ADJECTIVES
Certain adjectives appear only in the predicate of the sentence; that
is, they appear after a linking verb such as be, and they cannot
appear directly in front of the nouns that they describe

• The snake on the rock was alive

• (we can’t say) The alive snake was lying on the rock
•T h e t w o b r o t h e r s d o n o t l o o k a t a l l a l i k e

The other forms of Predicate adjectives are:

•A l i k e l i k e ; s i m i l a r
•A l i v e l i v e ; l i v i n g
•A l o n e l o n e
•A f r a i d f r i g h t e n e d
•a s l e e p s l e e p i n g

The afraid child cried for his mother. become…………?