How to form verbs from adjectives

In my earlier post, I discussed how nouns could be formed from adjectives. In today's blog, I will talk about the formation of verbs from adjectives.

Verbs can be formed from adjectives by:

1 adding 'en'

e.g. hard -->harden

soft -->soften

weak -- >weaken

broad -->broaden

smooth -- > smoothen

less -- > lessen

rich -->enrich

large-->enlarge

2 adding 'ise'

e.g. real --> realise

legal-->legalise

3 adding 'ify'

e.g. false -->falsify

null -->nullify

4 changing its spelling.

e.g. long -- > lengthen

strong -- > strengthen

Words with same spelling but pronounced differently.

There are certain words in English that are pronounced differently with different meanings. Four examples of these are 'row', 'refuse', ‘lead’ and ‘minute’.

1 'refuse' is pronounced as 're fius' and 'rare fius'.

When it is pronounced as 'refuse', it means ' to say that you will not do or accept something'.

e.g. They refuse to help their selfish neighbour.

When 'rare fius' is the pronunciation of 'refuse', it means 'rubbish'.

e.g. The residents there do not dispose of their refuse properly.

2 'row' has two pronunciations, that is 'row' as in 'arrow' and 'row' as in 'rowdy'.

In the former pronunciation, it means ' a line of things or people'.

e.g I sat in the eighth row when I was watching the movie.

When the pronunciation is the latter, it means 'quarrel'.

e.g. They had a row just now over very trivial things.

3 ‘lead’ can be pronounced as ‘lid’ or ‘led’.

When ‘lid’ is the pronunciation, it means ‘to control a group of people’.

e.g. A capable man was chosen to lead the new organization.

When it is pronounced as ‘led’, ‘lead’ means ‘a kind of dark-grey poisonous metal’.

e.g. The patient suffered from lead poisoning.

4 The two pronunciations for ‘minute’ is ‘minit’ and ‘my newt’.

When pronounced as ‘minit’, ‘minute’ has the meaning of ‘one sixtieth part of an hour’.

e.g. It took him one minute to write to sign the agreement.

When ‘my newt’ is the pronunciation, ‘minute’ means ‘very tiny’.

e.g. Bacteria are minute creatures.

The use of adjectives as plural nouns

In English, adjectives can sometimes be used to denote plural nouns. This can be done by adding 'the' in front of them.

The following are some of these examples:

1 The elderly = old people

2 The poor = poor people

3 The rich = rich people

4 The underprivileged = less fortunate people

5 The young = youngsters

6 The talented = talented people

7 The handicapped = handicapped people

8 The blind = blind people

9 The dead = dead people

The formation of nouns from adjectives

Besides nouns that exist on their own, we can form nouns from other parts of speech such as adjectives. The use of adjectives and their noun forms help to add variety in our essays.

The formation of nouns from adjectives can be done by:

a) adding 'ness'

e.g. fair --> fairness

good ---> goodness

thick --> thickness

b) adding 'ness' after - y + i

e.g. happy -->happiness

ready --> readiness

c) adding 'th' and minus 'e'

e.g. true ---> truth

wide --> width

d) changing its spelling + 'th'

e.g. long --> length

strong --> strength

broad --> breadth

e) adding ‘y’ or ‘ty’

e.g. difficult --> difficulty

royal --> royalty

f) changing their spelling

e.g. high -->height

g) adding ‘ship’

e.g. hard --> hardship

How to use 'bored' and 'boring' correctly

The adjective ‘bored’ means ‘feeling tired and unhappy because something is not interesting or because you have nothing to do.

On the other hand, the adjective ‘boring’ bears the meaning of ‘not interesting or exciting’.

‘bored’ is used:

a) after ‘feel’

Example: I felt bored yesterday because I had nothing to do.

b) before ‘with’ or ‘of’

Example: I was getting bored of listening to the same song,

‘boring’ is used:

a) before a noun.

Example: It was a boring movie and I nearly felt asleep.

b) after a noun

Example: I found the show boring.

How to apply CPR on yourself during a heart attack

How to apply CPR on yourself during a heart attack

I received an email written in Chinese regarding the above matter. As I think it is very useful in saving lives, I will translate it here for readers. Here it goes:

Suppose the time is 5.00 p.m. and you are driving home all alone after a hard day’s work. Somehow or other you feel nervous and uncomfortable. Suddenly you suffer acute chest pain which spreads to your limbs and lower jaw but the nearest hospital is 5 kilometres away and you doubt whether you can make it there.

You have learnt how to apply CPR (Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation) on others but you have not learnt how to do it on yourself to save your own life.

When alone, how do you apply CPR ?

If your heart cannot beat normally and you feel as if you are going to faint, you will have about 10 seconds before you lose you consciousness. You have to use the precious 10 seconds to save yourself.

Don’t panic. This is what you must do.

1 Just cough continuously and forcefully.

2 Before coughing, take a deep breath, then cough hard and for a long time as if you want to cough out the phlegm.

3 Take your breath every 2 seconds and continue to cough hard until help arrives or until your heart beat returns to normal.

How to emphasize something that you have done in English

If you want to emphasize that you really did something in the past, use ‘did’ in front of the verb which describes what you have done.

Example 1
I did come for the meeting. John can testify that I was present because he was with me at the meeting.

Example 2
I did pay the subscription but you forgot to issue me the receipt.

Example 3
I did score a distinction in English when I sat for the School Certificate exam. If you want the proof, I can show you the certificate.

The use of 'to' as an infinitive and preposition

In my earlier post, 'to' is used as an infinitive. For example, 'to' in the following sentence is an infinitive:

He came to visit me when I was ill.

I am going to discuss the use of 'to' as a preposition in this post.

As I mentioned in my post very much earlier, a preposition can be followed by a noun/noun phrase, a pronoun or an ing-verb. The examples below should make this point clear:

Example 1

My grandmother looks after my sister when my mother is at work.

['my sister' behind the preposition 'after' is a noun phrase and 'work' after the preposition ‘at’ is a noun.]

Example 2

The police are still after him.

[The pronoun 'him' is used after the preposition 'after']

Example 3

They kept on trying until they succeeded.

[The word after the preposition 'on' is an ing-verb or a gerund.]

Now look at how 'to' is used as a preposition through the following examples:

Example 1

Diligence is the key to success.

[The noun 'success' is used after 'to'.]

Example 2

The extortionist resorted to force when his victim refused to part with his money.
[It is another case of a noun after a preposition.]

Example 3

They talked to her to calm her.

[The pronoun 'her' is used after 'to' which is used as a preposition here.]

Example 4

I look forward to receiving your letter soon.

[The word after 'to' is an ing-verb.]

Example 5

We resorted to using river water as our drink to quench our thirst.

[Another example of using an ing-verb after a preposition.]

Infinitives

Infinitives are verbs in their basic forms and they are usually placed after 'to'.

In the sentence 'I want to go there.', 'go' is an infinitive.

You can also see infinitives after 'do', 'does', 'did',' will', 'should', 'would',

'must', 'can', 'could', 'don't', 'doesn't', 'won't', 'shouldn't', 'wouldn't', 'can't, 'couldn't', and 'mustn't'.

Examples

1 I do take care of my aged parents.

2 I did come here yesterday but you were not around.

3 She will take up a nursing course.

4 You should learn a foreign language.

5 He would sit here all day when he was free.

6 They must adapt themselves to the new environment.

7 You can have my book.

8 He could run ten miles when he was young.

9 We don't have the necessary tools to dismantle this machine.

10 The reckless driver didn't stop his car when he knocked down a pedestrian.

11 I won't help you unless you promise to work hard.

12 You shouldn't vandalise the public phone.

13 The old lady wouldn't move although the flood water level had reached her waist.

14 You mustn't give lame excuses if you can't complete an assignment.

15 I can't read what he has written.

16 We couldn't complete the work in time.

The following verbs need infinitives too:

suggest, recommend, make, see

Examples

1 In the meeting held yesterday, he suggested that we increase the club subscription.

[Note that although the finite verb 'suggested' is in the past tense, the infinitive 'increase' (present tense) is used.]

2 She recommended that we hire Indonesian maids for the time being.

[The infinitive 'hire' is used here even if the finite verb 'recommended' is in the past tense.]

3 The teacher made the student rewrite his essay.

4 I saw the man take a pen and put it into his pocket.

How to enable task manager

In my earlier post, I shared my knowledge of enabling registry editor in Windows with readers. Today, I would to tell you how to enable task manager in WinXp.

If you press Ctrl, Shift and Delete keys together, the task manager will come out for us to shut down the program we don't want to run. As has happened to me a few times, the message 'Task manager has been disabled by adminstrator' will appear instead and we can't use it. When this happens, execute the following steps to enable the task manager again.

1. Click Start, then click Run
2. Type regedit and click OK.
3. Browse to the following key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
   CurrentVersion\Policies\system
4. In the right pane, look for the value: DisableTaskMgr
5. Right click DisableTaskMgr and select Delete. (When prompted with "Are you sure you want to delete this value", select Yes.
6. Close the Registry by choosing File | Exit

Now, if you press Ctrl, Shift and Delete simultaneously, the task manager should appear on your screen.