Do you want to enhance your written English? Do you want to speak better English? If you do, you have to have a ‘feel of sentences‘. How do you ‘feel’ it? Look at the picture and you’ll get the answer:
You have to visualize a sentence to locate the Big Verbs and Small Verbs. (Want the grammar terms? Well, Big Verbs are finite verbs and Small Verbs are non-finite.)
The Technique of Visualization
What technique is it? Read the following sentence:
Protesters urge Hong Kong to protect Snowden.
The Big Verb comes first and the Small Verb comes next. Now visualize the sentence and it becomes: Protesters urge Hong Kong to protect Snowden. The Big Verb is urge and the Small Verb is to protect.
And there is one more thing to help you consolidate your ‘feel’ of sentence structures. What is it?
Small Verbs come in two shapes. Which two shapes? Read on.
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Shape 1: with a head
We have decided to renew our contract with Goooogle.
It is important to submit your report before the deadline.
As you can see from the above examples, ‘renew’ and ‘submit’ are Small Verbs because they come after the two Big Verbs (have decided and is). Moreover, they have to come with a head ‘to’, so that they are in a funny shape: to + verb. So, when you visualize the two sentences, they become:
We have decided torenew our contract with Goooogle.
It is important tosubmit your report before the deadline.
Want examples to be used at your office or school? When you present your brilliant idea, you may start with:
I am here totalk about how to change the world.
I aim totalk about how to change the world.
.
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Shape 2: with a tail
Other Small Verbs are lucky. They come with something beautiful, a mermaid. Oh sorry, I mean, a tail. What tail is it? Read the following sentences:The CEO suggested cutting the budget on advertising.
There is no reason for giving up the plan now.
So the tail is: verb + ing.
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In a word, the two special shapes for Small Verbs are: Shape 1: with a head ( to+verb), e.g. You are here tolearn sentence structures; Shape 2: with a tail (Verb+ing), e.g. We suggest visualizing a sentence.
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However, you may ask a question, probably a bigger one: How do you know which shape to choose? Or some even bigger questions may pop up in your mind:
Why are certain verbs followed by to+verb?
Why are certain verbs followed by to+verb?
(i.e. agree to finish it)
Why are certain verbs followed by verb+ing?
(i.e. suggest finishing it)
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Pic Sources
http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/6829510801/sizes/z/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/owally/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photowu/
