Meet Lester Lim of Dunman High School, the Inspiring Teacher of English (ITEA) 2021 Leadership Award recipient speaks to Eugene Loh on CNA 938's Singapore Stories on how he encourages his students to love the language.

[Singapore Stories] Mr Lester Lim [2021 Winner]

Meet Edwin Pang of Xinmin Primary School. The Inspiring Teacher of English (ITEA) 2022 Teaching Award recipient speaks to JK on POWER98 LOVE SONGS on how to get kids to love the language.

[POWER98 LOVE SONGS] Mr Edwin Pang [2022 ITEA Winner]

Some dictionaries may have the same meaning for both of these words but there are some subtle differences and connotations between these two words.
More resources on www.goodenglish.org.sg.

Hope Or Wish

If you’re taking leave from work, remember to tell your colleagues that it’s your “day off” and not your “off day”. “Mary was late for work because the bus broke down and now her computer refuses to work. I guess she’s just having one of those off days.” You would be a lot happier having a “day off”. We hope you get to take a break and enjoy a day off soon!
More resources on www.goodenglish.org.sg.

Day Off Or Off Day

Someone approaches you at the MRT station and asks if you could help him to “fill up” a quick survey form. What’s the better way to say it?
More resources on www.goodenglish.org.sg.

Fill In Or Fill Up

Do you often hear your mother or grandmother say they are “going marketing tomorrow morning”?
More resources on www.goodenglish.org.sg.

Marketing

The word “compile” is a verb. The word “compilation” is a noun. Notice the difference in vowel sounds? The verb, “compile” (com-pile) is pronounced with a long vowel. For the noun, we do not say compilation (com-pile-lay-shun), instead, we say compilation (com-pi-lay-shun). While the words have same base word, they have quite different pronunciations. 

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Compile & Compilation

Although some words are spelled the same way, they may not sound the same.

P-R-E-S-E-N-T can be pronounced as pree-zent (verb) or pr-air-zent (noun). The two words mean different things. Present is a verb and it means ‘to offer something’ while present is a noun to mean ‘a gift’. 

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Present & Present

The plural form of woman is women, where the letter ‘a’ is replaced with an ‘e’. Although the second vowel in the word is different, the pronunciation is the same. Instead, the letter ‘o’ takes on a different sound in its plural form. The singular form is pronounced “woman” (wu-men) while the plural form is pronounced “women” (we-men), with a short “i” sound. 

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Woman & Women

You tell your friend that you have made a reservation at her favourite restaurant for Wednesday (wen-nes-day). You cannot help but notice your friend frowning at you. You realise that you’ve just mispronounced the word Wednesday. 

While Wednesday is spelled W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y, it is pronounced as Wednesday (wennz-day), with two-syllables, not three. 

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Wednesday

There are some words that look the same but sound and mean different things. These words are called homographs. 

T-E-A-R can be read as tear, a verb to mean ‘pulling something apart’. It can also be read as tear, a noun to mean ‘a drop of water from one’s eyes’. 

So next time, before you read something aloud, be sure to know its context to avoid mispronouncing a word.

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Tear

At a restaurant, you intend to order a dish spelled S-A-L-M-O-N. How do you pronounce the name of the dish correctly? 

Although there is a letter “L” in the word, it is not pronounced. The “L” is silent. Therefore, S-A-L-M-O-N is pronounced as sammon. Now you may order your salmon dish confidently!

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Salmon

Some words in the English language can be tricky to pronounce. A word is not necessarily pronounced the way it is spelled. 

For example, the word subtle is spelled S-U-B-T-L-E. While there is the letter b in the word, it is silent. Therefore, we do not pronounce the b-sound. S-U-B-T-L-E is pronounced subtle (suttle). 

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Subtle

It is a wonderful day and you feel happy! There are many ways in which you can express how happy you are. 

You may say that you are glad, elated, cheerful, delighted, overjoyed and ecstatic. 

You may also express your happiness with idioms such as ‘over the moon’, ‘on cloud nine’, ‘like a dog with two tails’ and ‘happy as a flea in a doghouse’. 

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Happy

Empathy and apathy may sound very similar but they have different meanings. 

To say, “Clara has great empathy for Alex who had recently loss his mother in a car accident” means that Clara understands and shares Alex’s emotions.  

When we say “The student has apathy towards the class”, it means that the student has a lack of interest in what is being taught in class.  

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Empathy vs Apathy

Some words sound so similar that people often pronounce and hear them incorrectly. 

One common area where this difference is found is in the length of the vowels.

Consider these pairs: sheep (the animal)/ship (like the Titanic), beat (to hit something)/bit (as in past tense of bite)

Although the words sound similar, they are actually pronounced slightly differently. One has a longer vowel sound than the other.

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Minimal Pairs: short and long vowels

Have you ever heard someone tell you to “drive slower”?

Firstly, you should probably heed that person’s advice. Secondly, the statement is, strictly speaking, grammatically incorrect.

The correct way of saying it would be “drive more slowly”.

Whether we use “slower” or “more slowly” depends on whether the word is referring to a noun or a verb. Verbs would require “slowly” while nouns would require “slower”.

E.g. “I drive (verb) more slowly than Sam”, “a tortoise (noun) is slower than a hare”.

Nevertheless, “drive slower” is still acceptable in informal situations, so do listen to your friend and slow down!

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Slower or more slowly

“Feedback” is a common word in the work place and over email communication.

The correct usage of feedback is to pair it with a verb, such as “to give feedback”, “to provide feedback” or “to offer feedback”. In these examples, “feedback” acts as a noun.

As such, “feedback” should never be used as a verb.

To say, “Tom feedbacked that the proposal was badly done” is an incorrect way of using “feedback”. Instead, one should say, “Tom gave feedback that the proposal was badly done”.

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Feedback

“Each”, “every”, and “all” – which is singular and which is plural? This is a tricky question since these three words are used in similar ways.

“all” is always plural when used with nouns and pronouns, since you are referring to the total number of things in a group.

E.g. “All of us are going to the mall”

On the other hand, “each” and “every” refer to all of the things in a group, but considered individually.

E.g. “Each of the students is required to attend.”

E.g. “Every member is important.”

We hope this helps all of you, and that every one of you succeeds in improving your English!

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Each, every, all: Plural or Singular?

There are two types of nouns – singular, and plural. The verbs that are used together with these nouns thus also need to be singular and plural respectively.

Singular verbs usually have an –s attached to it. “want” is plural, but “wants” is singular.

Therefore we say,
“The students want to play”, because “students” is plural.
But we say,
“David wants to play”, because “David” is only one boy.

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Subject-Verb Agreement

“Overarching” means comprehensive or all-embracing.

However, many people pronounce this word incorrectly, saying “overarking” instead.

The fact is, the ‘ch’ is not a hard ‘k’ sound, but a soft ‘ch’ sound like in arch.

It should therefore be pronounced “overarching”.

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Overarching

‘x’ and ‘s’ might seem like they produce the same sound, but they don’t.

‘x’ tends to be pronounced with a hard sound, as in eks. On the other hand, ‘s’ is pronounced more softly, as in es.

Therefore, we “aspire to greatness”, but “the eggs expire tomorrow”. We “drink an espresso”, but “drive on the expressway”. Parents control “every aspect of their child’s life”, and “expect good grades”.

Pronounce your letters clearly, lest you convey the wrong message!

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‘x’ vs ‘s’

There are a few ways to use the word “would”. Two main ways include 1) would as a past tense of will, 2) and to describe an imaginary or unreal situation.

An example of the first would be when we say “Cheryl said that she would be late.”

An example of the second would be, “If I had a million dollars, I would buy a bungalow”, because this is an imaginary situation. In this case, “will” would be acceptable, but “would” is more accurate.

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Would

The word “put” is extremely versatile. It can take on different meanings depending on what preposition it is paired with.

“put in” can mean to spend time at an occupation. E.g. “David puts in 8 hours a day at the office.”

“put away” can mean to discard, or remove. “Put away such negative thoughts.”

“put on” means to dress oneself in something or adopt a certain behaviour. E.g. “Jacob put on his best suit and his best behaviour for the dinner.”

This versatility may be confusing, but it is also what makes English fun!

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Put + preposition

Did you know that the word which describes someone working with you is often mispronounced as KER-league? 

The word should be stressed on the first syllable “KAW” instead of “KER”. Therefore, the correct pronunciation should be “KAW-league”.

So remember, the next time you use this word to refer to your colleagues, be sure to pronounce it correctly.

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Colleague

Tips of the Day #2

[938 Now] Ms Arafah [ITEA 2015 Winner]

[938 Now] Mr Patrick Sum [ITEA 2013 Winner]

[938 Now] Ms Michelle Tan [ITEA 2017 Winner]

[938 Now] Mdm Kogilavani [ITEA 2017 Winner]

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