Syntax Trees: We strive to ensure that ... (Analyzing Business English sentences)

"We strive to ensure that our patrons experience the best visits possible"

 This business English sentence is a little bit long, but if we break it into pieces, it becomes easier to understand. 

S = NP VP
Most English sentences consist of two parts: a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP), so the first step is to find the NP and VP. Our first verb is strive, so this is the beginning of the VP. Strive is followed by to and a second verb ensure. In a verb group (VGP) only the first verb carries a tense, so we use to to show that the second verb has no tense.

Syntax-Tree-1 [S [NP We] [VP [VGP strive to ensure] [S’ that our patrons experience the best visits possible]]]

More details appear below:

Verb Sequence in Finite Verb Phrases-3 (perfective)

The "grammar sandwiches" (HAVE__EN, BE__ING, BE__EN) in a verb phrase interlock with each other.

Verb Sequence in Finite Verb Phrases-2

Even if there are two, three or even four verbs in a finite verb phrase, the tense always combines with the first verb morpheme (morphemes are written in capital letters):

Verb Sequence in Finite Verb Phrases-1

Simple English finite verb phrases (helping verbs and a main verb) may seem a little complicated, but they have a clear structure. Four kinds of verbs can appear before the main verb (#2~#5):

#1
Simple English finite verb phrases only have one tense, and the tense always goes on the very first verb in the verb phrase. If #2~5 are missing, the tense goes directly on the main verb:

PAst tense: Henry walked to school yesterday

Your First Composition: Talk About Yourself (Spoken)

Your spoken self-introduction should last three to four minutes.

Section by Section

(1) Beginning of your speech: Name and age, where you're from, which year and department you're in (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior: Applied English Studies Department) and (maybe) a summary of what is in Section Two

(2) The main part of your speech (the most interesting details: these are things that make you different from other people)

(3) The conclusion (summary of what you just said)

How to Practice Speaking:

Third Year in College is NOT Third Grade 大學三年級不是小學三年級！

When introducing themselves in English, many Taiwanese college students say something like this 用英文自我介紹的時候，許多大學生會說這樣的句子：
"I'm in the third grade" OR "I'm a third grade student" =『我是三年級（學生）』

They don't realize that this sounds rather strange to American ears. How can a twenty-year-old only be in third grade? How strange! 可是美國人聽了會覺得很奇怪，『明明是二十歲左右，怎麼可能還在讀小學三年級呢？好奇怪！』

The problem is that "third grade" refers to elementary school, not college. This is because the first twelve years in American schools (sometimes called "grade school") are numbered in two different ways, 6-3-3 and 4-4-4:

The 6-3-3 system is an older system which is not so common now.

Grade	Name
1st~6th	elementary school
7th~9th	junior high school
10th~12th	senior high school

Most schools in the US now follow the 4-4-4 system

(but there are variations, such as 5-3-4 or 6-2-4)

Grade	Name
1st~4th	elementary school
5th~8th	middle school
9th~12th	high school

What about college students? 大學生該如何正確地自我介紹呢？

Write About Yourself: First Composition

Write About Yourself

 

Special note for Chinese students:

 

When they introduce themselves, English-speaking people normally don't talk a lot about their families, so please DO NOT start by saying things like this:

"I live with my mother, my father, my brother and my sister. My father is a teacher. My mother is a housewife. My brother is a high school student ..."

This sounds very boring: introducing your family is NOT a self-introduction.

Some subtopics to inspire you (but don't feel you have to only write about these subtopics):

Personality (shy, outgoing ...)

Achievements (cooking, computers ...)

Likes/Dislikes

Hopes/Plans

Appearance

Where you live

What you speak (Hakka, Japanese etc.)

Use your imagination (imagine you are describing yourself online to a beautiful girl/handsome guy: you want them to be interested in you). Try to be humorous, if possible.

Step 1: Free writing

Write as fast as you can for ten minutes without stopping: double-spaced in pen

Don't criticize yourself, don't erase anything and don't try to fix any mistakes

Don't worry about correct grammar, spelling or word choice
When you finish, your page will look like a mess

That's OK!

tóngshì (tonal spelling = torngshyh) 同事 = coworker, NOT colleague

英漢字典不可靠，請不要害自己。中文同義詞不是定義！

學英文要查英英學習字典才有效！

Here is how a well-known online English-Chinese so-called "dictionary" ("glossary" would be more accurate) explains "colleague" by using synonyms instead of real definitions:

tóngshì (tonal spelling = torngshyh) 同事 

其實，Colleague 不是一般人說的“同事”！

同事 = coworker, NOT colleague, 上面連英式音標（DJ）都不對

The above explanations are misleading because they give Chinese learners the mistaken impression that anybody you work with can be called a torngshyh. This is not the case.

Doctors/lawyers/professors and other people with specialized training and advanced skills (the typically also earn high salaries) usually call each other “my colleague.” In an ordinary work environment, you might occasionally call somebody a "colleague" to show special respect, but a person who works with you in the same office/school/factory etc. is more commonly called a "coworker.”

English-Chinese or other bilingual dictionaries often do not give you complete or correct explanations of word meaning. Learner's dictionaries (designed for people who grew up speaking a different language) are much more reliable. These dictionaries define words much more clearly and completely because they explain grammar and pragmatics (what to say or not say in social situations), point out connotations, collocations and related words, and provide you with real native speaker sentences. Here are definitions of COLLEAGUE provided by two learner's dictionaries:

Cursive Letter Family "r, z, e, s, x"

"r, z, e, s, x" is a mixed group.

The video below shows you how to join "s" and "e":

Cursive Letter Family: "n, m; v, w, y"

The "n, m; v, w, y" family has round tops:

The video below shows you how to connect "w" and "n":

Cursive Letter Family: "l, b, f, h, k"

The "l, b, f, h, k" letter family uses big loops. Every letter starts like an "l":

The video below shows you how to join "a" and "l". Notice that this writer's "l" looks malnourished (營養不良!): it doesn't have enough "meat" on its bones!

Cursive Letter Family: "i, j, p, t, u"

Cursive Letter Family: "i, j, p, t, u"

Here is how to write t+i, American style:

Cursive Letter Family: "c, a, d, g, q, o"

There are five basic families of cursive letters. The letters in each family usually start the same way.

This is the "c, a, d, g, q, o" Family. The elegant letters that appear below (but not the video) were made using Cursif Lignes, a French cursive font created by Christophe Beaumale (a ZIP file). You can download and install this font on your own computer to make your own exercises.

The "c" family

The video below shows you how to connect "o" and "u":