The Sunday News
WHENEVER two words look similar or have similar meanings, there may be difficulty. Today we will focus on several pairs of verbs that are often confused. For example, using bring/take/learn/teach, and let/leave.
Bring and take under the following headlines: Present, Past and Participle. Bring, brought, (have) brought; take, took, (have) taken.
Learn and teach: learn, learned, (have) learned; teach, taught, (have) taught. Let and Leave: let, let, (have) let; leave, left, (have) left. Bring involves the action directed toward the speaker. Take indicates action directed away from the speaker. Bring the plate for me please. Take this unpleasant creature away, please!
Learn means to gain knowledge or skill. Teach means to help someone learn. She is learning her lines for a poetry presentation. He taught them about self-hygiene. Let means to allow or permit. Leave means to go away from. They were let to perform in the community hall. The first group left before the announcement of result.
Lie/lay, rise/raise, and sit/set. Lie and Lay – lie, lay, (have) lain. Lay, laid, (have) laid. Rise and Raise – rise, rose, (have) risen. Raise, raised, (have) raised. Sit and Set – sit, sat, (have) sat. Set, set, (have) set.
Lie means to rest in a flat position or to be in a certain place. Lie never has a direct object. Lay always has a direct object. The script was lying on the chair. The actors will lay their props on the floor. (Props is the direct object. Rise means to go upward. Rise does not take a direct object. Raise means to lift or to make something go up Raise always has a direct object.
Thick smoke rises to the sky. She raised the curtains because the room was dark. Curtains is the direct object. Sit means to occupy a seat. Sit never takes a direct object.
Set means to place. Set always has a direct object. Her sister sits next to her in church. He sets the table before a family meal. Table is the direct object.
Adjectives and adverbs: Good/well – Good is an adjective. The adverb is well. Remember these definitions: An adjective is a word used to modify a noun or pronoun. To modify means “to describe or to make more definite. Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns by telling what kind, which one, or how many (how much). John is a good footballer. He plays football very well.
We often use well with past participles (dressed/known et cetera. – well-dressed (not good (dressed) well-known and well educated. But well, is also an adjective with the meaning “in good health”. – How are you today? “I’m very well not I’m very good.
Fast/hard/late – These words are both adjectives and adverbs: Adjective: Bill is a very fast runner: Adverb: Ray can run very fast. Ann is a hard worker, Ann works hard (not works hardly) Adjective L The bus was late today. I got up late this morning. The adverb lately + recently. I have not seen him lately. Hardly has a completely different meaning from hard.
Hardly – almost not. Study this example: George asked Pretty to marry him. She was surprised because they had only known each other for two days. She said we can’t get married now! We hardly know each other. (we know each other very little; we almost don’t know each other).
We often use hardly with can/could: Your writing is terrible. I can hardly read it. (I can read it but only with a lot of difficulty). My leg was hurting. I could hardly walk.
We also use hardly with any/anyone/anything/anywhere. How much money have you got? Hardly any. (= almost none, very little). I’ll have to go shopping. We’ve got hardly any food = almost no food, very little food). The examination results were very bad. Hardly anyone passed. (= almost no-one passed, very few people passed. She ate hardly anything because she didn’t feel hungry. (= she ate almost nothing, she ate very little.)
Note that you can say: She ate hardly anything. Or she hardly ate anything. -We’ve got hardly any food. Or we’ve hardly got any food. Hardly ever = almost never. I’m nearly always at home in the evenings.
I hardly ever go out. Above I made reference to the use of an adjective. We said adjectives modify nouns or pronouns by telling what kind, which one, or how many (how much).
What kind? Blue sky, happy child and loud music. Which one? This book, those rolls, last straw, next step How many? Three pupils, several choices, both answers, many people and How much? Some news, more money, enough time and less trouble.
In different contexts, a word may be used as different parts of speech.
For example the following words may be used as adjectives or as pronouns: all, either, much, some, what, another, few, neither, that, which, any, many, one, these, whose, both, more, other, this, each, most, several and those.
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