Do you want to stand out at a meeting? Do you want to impress your coworkers? So you probably have to make suggestions, right? Now read the following suggestions.
If you say something like the above, your co-workers will laugh at you. So to save your face, there is a Feel Good Tip for you: Be really really careful when two verbs come together! In other words, in English it is absolutely wrong to say:
Instead, I will introduce you the concepts, the concepts of finite and non-finite verbs, but with less threatening terms: Big Verbs and Small Verbs.
What are Big Verbs & Small Verbs?
Although men think that sizes matter, in the world of English it is different. Big Verbs are not bigger in size. They are big because they come first in a sentence, pretty much like a first born child in a family. In other words, a sentence is like a family, in which a first born child is privileged. (What is ‘privileged’? Having special rights.)
| Big Verbs | Small Verbs | |
| We came here to introduce our product. | came | to introduce |
| This post introduces you concepts in grammar. | introduce(s) | X |
So in the sentence, ‘Our company planned expanded our market share’ is wrong as there are two Big Verbs coming together.
| Big Verb (1) | Big Verb (2) | ||
| Our company | planned | expanded | our market share. |
If you still remember the problem of two cars running to each other, Big Verbs and Small Verbs come to solve them. You may just add ‘to’ before the second verb (expand) to solve it, as shown below:
to + expand ————————-> to expand (Small Verb)
So to get the ideas of Big Verbs and Small Verbs, you may visualize sentences. Whenever you read a sentence, try to look for the first verb (Big Verb) and then the second verb (Small Verb). For example, the following sentence will be something different.
Well, peace forever? Not so soon. More about Big and Small Verbs are to come.
Big Verbs
Big Verbs usually come in two forms: be and non-be verbs. For example, the big verb (is) in the following sentence is a grandchild of ‘be’
| Big Verb (Type 1) | Small Verb | ||
| Be | |||
| The aim of this report | is | to discuss | the potential of China market |
So you may imagine ‘be’ is a grandfather or grandmother who has lots of grandchildren, such as:
Be (Grandparents)
b. non-be verbs
The big verb in the following sentence is ‘decided’.
| Big Verb | Small Verb | ||
| Non-be Verb | |||
| Our company | decided | to renew | the contract with Apple. |
The case of Suggest
However, why is it wrong to say ‘I suggest to enter the China Market‘? What is the problem with putting ‘Suggest’ and ‘to enter’ together? You’ll get the answer in the next post of Small Verbs.
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