I do not watch television very often. The other day, I tuned in to a local television station and watched an entertaining show. It was quite interesting as some senior citizens were showing off their talent in singing, dancing and playing musical instruments. Then it was interval for commercial ads. Before that the male and the female comperes said, "Very Enjoy" in unison. This could be the tagline of the show. I was shocked at the blatant violation of English grammar when they uttered these two words.
According to English grammar, the words that can be placed after 'very' is an adjective or an adverb except for specific phrases such as 'at this very moment' . Hence the following sentences are wrong:
1 It was a very enjoy show.
2 It was very enjoy watching the show.
3 This is a very excite game.
4 I very love you.
5 She very hates maths.
The above sentences can be corrected as follows:
1 It was a very enjoyable show.[enjoy is a verb whereas enjoyable is an adjective]
2 It was very enjoyable watching the show.[enjoy is a verb but enjoyable is an adjective]
3 This is a very exciting game. [excite is a verb and exciting is an adjective.]
4 I love you very much.[love is a verb while very much functions as an adverb.]
5 She hates maths very much. [hates is a verb and very much acts as an adverb.]
Students learn through imitation and they may not realise that it is wrong to say "very enjoy". In fact, mass media such as television and radio do have great influence on the public including students. As such, television stations should be more careful in the use of English. The wrong use of the language will impress upon the mind of students making them do the same mistake or mistakes in their essays.
I hope this post will alert those responsible for the show so that such a mistake will not occur again.
Happy studying English along with me.
1 comment:
yeah, they don't seem to mind about that mistake. however, they're quite particular with the way Mandarin is spoken...
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