English for Presentation – Mind Learning Association

How to Make Complex Sentences (1)

George — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 14:08:00 +0000

If you want to speak and write good English, there is one thing you must know how to make. What is it? How to make complex sentences.
There are lots of ways to make complex sentences. One of them is to start with simple sentences. Yes, from SIMPLE to COMPLEX. You don’t believe it. Read the following simple sentence.

Situation	At a presentation
	This will make money (for our company).

The sentence is like a piece of cake, right? Simple and easy. Yet, you can make it complex by changing the first word of the sentence, the word ‘this’. In other words, you can change it to, for example:

What I have just said

Yes, it is so easy that you just change ‘this’ into something like a sentence:

What I have just said will make money (for our company).

So it’s like magic, right? You think the magic was too fast. Don’t worry. Read the following table:

Simple	This	will make money (for our company).
Complex	What I have just said	will make money (for our company).

So the Feel Good tip is: Starting a sentence with ‘Wh’ words.

The tip applies to other ‘Wh’ words too, for example:

When you say something	is important.
How you present your ideas	is the key (to success).

Sentence Patterns for Presentations

George — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 14:59:00 +0000

What happened to you the last time you did a presentation? Did you get tongue-tight? Did you prepare well but did not know what to say? Did you have some big ideas to talk about but ……

Well, if you have a better knowledge of English, if you know more about grammar, or if you understand sentence structures better, will it make a (big) difference?

Well, actually there are 3 patterns, practical and useful, for you:

Pattern 1: that + ‘sentence’

e.g. The CEO suggested that we cut the cost on marketing.

Pattern 2: followed by Verb+ing

e.g. We will consider meeting the deadline (suggested by your company).

Pattern 3: person + to+verb

e.g. The bank manager advised his frontline staff to be polite.

In this post you will learn more about Pattern 1.

Pattern 1 (that + ‘sentence’): When to use it?

So you may think pattern 1 seems easy. But the point is: when to use it? When you have something that is loooooong, when you have an idea, you take this pattern. (Well, of course, make sure your idea is a good one!)

So examples of ideas that are loooong and good may be:

(pic source)

that we are going to change the world

that our company is going to dominate the market

that the product will be a hot item for the next ten years

that we are going to change the way (customers think about smart phones)

Verbs that Go with Pattern 1

Well, you’ve got the gun, I mean the sentence pattern. But you still need one more thing. What is it? Obviously, you need bullets, or verbs that you can use to go with this pattern. There are quite a lot, but for the purpose of business, there are (usually) 6 bullets:

admit accept

suggest promise

explain claim

Grammar for Presentations

George — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 16:31:00 +0000

Directory (2) Grammar for Presentations

Grammar for Presentations (1): Good VS Well + Complex Sentences

Summary: This post is about how to make sentences with linking verbs (i.e. is). Yet, instead of using some difficult, if not dry, grammar terms, the post offers you a funny and interesting way to learn how to make long sentences (if you like, complex sentences). In other words, you will learn the differences between ‘good’ and ‘well’, and then move on to a new method of sentence making: NAP (taking a small rest). Yes, read my lips: take a nap to learn English.

Read the post.

Grammar for Presentations (2): Presentations & If You Don’t Mind

Summary: This post is about how to make your presentation more powerful (and impressive) by using complex sentences. It discusses how to change your simple sentences into complex ones, and one of the big concepts in English: big things come last in a sentence.

Read the post.

Grammar for Presentations (3): Presentations & Complex Sentences

Summary: This post is about how to make complex sentences, a must if you wish to speak and write good English. In other words, you will learn how to make complex sentences by joining two simple ones together. The post also offers an easy way to do it: starting a sentence with ‘Wh’ words such as ‘What I want is (exactly) what you want’.

Read the post.

Grammar for Presentations (4): Baby Verb (1)

Summary: This post is about making sentences in English. You will learn that once you group verbs into two kinds: Baby Verbs (linking verbs) and Non-Baby Verbs (action verbs), things become easier. In other words, this post helps you to improve both your written and spoken English by drawing your attention to the center of a sentence: verbs*. You will also learn that westerners usually do not put Baby

Verbs and Non-Baby Verbs together in a sentence, for example, ‘I am come from my hometown’.

Read the post.

*Why do I claim that the verb is the center of a sentence? The idea is not ‘invented’ by me, but from three books, English Grammar for Dummies by Woods (2010, P.17), Grammar for Teachers by DeCapua (2008, P.121), and The English Verb by Palmer (1987, P.1).

Grammar for Presentations (5): Baby Verb (2)

Summary: This post is about how to agree with someone in English. You will learn that once you group verbs into two kinds: Baby Verbs (linking verbs) and Non-Baby Verbs (action verbs), things become easier. In other words, this post helps you to improve both your written and spoken English by drawing your attention to the center of a sentence: the verb.

Read the post.

Grammar for Presentations (6): Baby Verb (3)

Summary: This post is about how to make sentences in English. You will learn that there is always a ‘gap‘ between your English and English used by westerners (native speakers of English). To bridge the gap, you will learn two ‘new’ terms: Baby Verbs (linking verbs) and the NAP way, a funny way of making sentences in English. By reading the post, your levels of English, both spoken and written, will be enhanced.

Read the post.

If you don’t mind & Presentation

George — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 15:55:00 +0000

Do you want to make your presentation more powerful? Using Powerpoint? Well, maybe, but what if the Powerpoint has no power? There are lots of ways to do it. One of them is to start a sentence with ‘Wh’ words.

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Say, in your presentation, you want to talk about a BIG (city) plan to impress your bosses or teachers, you may say things like: I am going to talk about a big plan. This plan is important to our company.

Well, the messages are clear, and I’m sure your bosses or teachers know what you mean. Yet, there is something missing. What is it? Power. But what about the following sentence? What I am going to talk about is important to our company. Why is it more powerful? Two points.

Point no. 1: Complex sentence

You are using a complex sentence, which probably means your thought is more complex. What’s wrong with using simple sentences? Nothing. But it may give the feeling that what you talk about is simple.

Well, we’re living in a postmodern world where feeling conquers, aren’t we? (You don’t think so. Well, when was the last time you bought things 100% because of their functions?) So, what is my point? Two simple sentences make people feel you are simple-minded, which is exactly what you don’t want. Right?

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Point no. 2: Big things come last.

If you go back to the complex sentence, you may notice that there are three parts:

Which three?

Part 1	Part 2	Part 3
What I am going to talk about	is	important to our company.

And about the three parts, there are three questions for you:

1. Which part is it that contains your main message?

2. Which part is it that tells us the reason why you do a presentation?

3. Which part do you want your bosses or teachers to pay attention to?

If you think Part 3 is the one, you are almost there. Why? In English, there is a rule that messages that are big, important, and significant come LAST. More examples? Think about a situation in which you want to make a polite request at a restaurant. Which one will you say?

a. If you don’t mind, could I have your drink?

b. Could I have your drink if you don’t mind?

(It isn’t hygienic, is it?)

The only difference is the position of ‘ If you don’t mind’, right? But why is there such a difference? If you are the one who asks the question in sentence ‘b’, it means you want to be really polite. Why? The bigger part of your message, ‘ If you don’t mind’, is at the end (of the sentence). So to wrap up, the Feel Good tip is: Safety comes first, but Big things come last.

Pic Sources

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/4200110899/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/6829501333/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/miamism/4018427330/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Baby Verbs (3)

George — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 03:11:00 +0000

You want to improve your English, or Business English, right? But, do the following happen to you? You have learned a lot of vocab, but somehow you can’t use them at your presentations or talk to friends who are westerners. Or, You have tried very hard remembering sentences in English, but when you talk, you still can’t get it right.

Why? There is, I would say, something missing. What is that ‘something’? Believe it or not, It has something to do with babies, and to be exact, Baby Verbs (e.g. is / am / are).

Do you still remember this? What does a baby do all the time? (Hey! What are you looking at? Never seen a baby taking a NAP! Just get back to your English.) Yes, babies take a nap (a small rest) all the time.

What do I mean? I mean you can take a nap to learn English. Take a NAP to learn English? Yes, take a NAP to learn English. And the NAP is something that is missing in your brain. You can use the NAP to speed up your process of learning English.

When you use a Baby Verb (e.g. is / am /are / was / were), just remember that they are followed by NAP. What is NAP? N stands for nouns; A stands for adjectives; and P stands for prepositions. A piece of cake?

Not really! Do you know that you can use ‘A’ at negotiation? How? The word ‘firm‘ is an example. Firm is an ‘N’ (noun), right? But you can use it as an ‘A’. Upon negotiating with another company, you may make an offer by saying:

The offer is firm (for 7 working days).

The steps for making such a sentence are:

Step 1	Take the Baby Verb ‘is’
Step 2	Choose ‘A’ from NAP

The ‘P’ Way. ‘P’ stands for prepositions (e.g. at, on), so you may make sentences like:

The CEO

at the desk
(In other grammar books, ‘at the desk’ is called adverbials, a horrible term, right?)

‘At’ is the P in the sentence. Easy, right?

Yet, if you think teamwork is better than working alone, if you want to make your English more ‘powerful’, you have to focus on teamwork of prepositions. That is, prepositions come in different forms: one-word prepositions or more-than-one-word prepositions. The more-than-one-word prepositions are members of a team: a teamwork of prepositions.

Now, meet a team of ‘P’: Between … And. With this team, you can get a lower price at negotiation. How, read the following case.

Situation	Negotiating prices with another company
	Aim: To get a lower price

Does this happen to you or your company? You get a quotation of prices from another company but find the prices too high. What would you say in response to such a quotation?Your prices are too high. This may be one way of doing it. But it sounds too direct, and not tactful enough, right?

What about employing the team of ‘between … and’? How? You may say to the company: There is a big difference between (your prices) and (those of other competitors). By using the team of ‘P’ (between … and), you are polite but tactful.

NAP is more powerful than you think. In the above you used it at negotiation. But you can also make questions with ‘A’ to challenge others at a meeting. Why do you want to challenge others? To make you stand tall at your office. (Stand tall is American slang: to be proud of yourself). How? Take ‘A’ and a question word (as you are asking a question), ‘why’.

Situation	At a meeting
Aim	To challenge others

Why is this important (to our proposal)?

Can I sum up the steps? Sure.

Step 1	Take a question word ‘Why’
Step 2	Take a Baby Verb ‘is’
Step 3	Take an ‘A’ ‘important’

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This post is adapted from the book:

FeelGoodGrammar: How to Make Sentences in Business English

Buy the book:

Kindle (ebook) Amazon (paperback) Kobo (ebook)

Picture source:

Pic 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skycaptaintwo/101798277/in/photostream/
Pic 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinjllewellyn/6052852063/sizes/q/in/photostream/
Pic 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/belakangtabir/5990355480/in/photostream/
Pic 4: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clarkstonscamp/4855087885/

Baby Verbs (2)

George — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Only Two Ways to Agree (with someone)?

Do you know how many? How many what? How many ways are there for you to agree with your coworkers?

Well, there can be lots of ways, right? But to make English easier, you may group them into 2 ways only. Which two?

To agree with Baby Verbs
To agree with Non-Baby Verbs

Well, what are Baby and Non-Baby Verbs?

A. What are Baby and Non Baby Verbs?

Read the following two sentences. Which one is a sentence
with a Baby Verb and which one a Non-Baby Verb?

1. The starting point for any good discussion is a shared understanding of the aim of a company.

2. In 2001 Apple launched its iPod brand of portable media players.

In sentence 1, the verb is ‘is’, a Baby Verb linking the left and the right as shown below:

1. The starting point for any good discussion

(Baby)

a shared understanding of the aim of a company

Common examples of Baby Verbs include: be, is, am, are, was, were, being, and been.

In the second sentence, the verb is ‘launched’, a Non-Baby Verb showing that a company (Apple) does something to its products (iPod).

2. (In 2001) Apple

launched

(Non-Baby)

its iPod brand of portable media players

Common examples of Baby Verbs include: work, discuss, suggest, think, decide, guess, & develop.

B. Agreeing with Baby or Non-Baby Verbs

So, now you are back to the question mentioned at the beginning of this post. What are the two ways to agree with your coworkers? Before you get to them, there is a question for you. Is the sentence correct? I am fully agree with you.   The sentence is absolutely, definitely, totally WRONG.

Why? ‘Am’ is a Baby Verb while ‘agree’ is a Non-Baby. The two (Baby and Non-Baby Verbs) usually do not come together hand in hand. So, the two ways of saying it are:

a. with a Baby Verb (am),  I am totally with you; and

b. with a Non-Baby Verb (agree), I fully agree with you.

So next time, when you agree with Mr Right, either be a Baby or a Non-Baby.

Further examples (for agreeing) are:

Baby Verbs	Non-Baby Verbs
That is (That’s) not a bad idea.	I can’t agree with you more. (Yes, it means you agree with Mr Right.)
I am (I’m) fond of the idea of building a new team.	You can say that again.

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Baby Verbs (1)

George — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:50:00 +0000

A. When you do a presentation in English, are you afraid that you may do it with wrong grammar? When you chat with a new co-worker, will you say something like: ‘Where are you come from?‘, which is wrong, absolutely wrong.

There is an easy way to make you speak English with confidence. How? You have to focus on one thing, one big thing. What is it? VERBS. Why verbs? Read the following dialogue, which may happen in your office, and you’ll know why.

You: What is your boss like?

Coworker: She likes hot dogs.

B. For non-native speakers (English not your first language), you may think the ‘like’ in the first sentence is a verb, but actually it is ABSOLUTELY not.

When you use ‘like‘ not as a verb, you may have a small talk with your coworkers:

1. What is the weather like? (It’s hot.)

2. What is your boyfriend / girlfriend like? (He / She is wonderful.)

In fact, the ‘like’ in the second sentence is a verb, in the sentence ‘She likes hot dogs’. So what is my point? My point is, if you pay closer attention to verbs, you can speak English with confidence, and feel good about yourself. Am I right?

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C.Well, something more. You can divide English sentences into two groups. Which two? How to do it? Well, according to the types of verbs. What are types of verbs?

They are sentences with Baby Verbs, or sentences with Non-Baby Verbs.

What are Baby Verbs and Non-Baby Verbs?

Read the next post and you’ll know what we are talking about.