expressing certainty

Expressing certainty
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED with FADZILAH AMIN

WHAT is the difference between the following two sentences:-

(i) I will throw a party.

(ii) I will be throwing a party.

2. I find the following passage not quite right, especially the part that is underlined. I am however unable to tell for sure what is wrong, if any. Please help.

“We can master a language if we are determined. Keen interest in a language is another factor that helps a language learner to master a language than those who do not have interest in mastering a language.”

— JT

Sentence (ii) which uses the future continuous tense, expresses more certainty than sentence (i) which uses the simple future tense. In fact, a time is usually mentioned in a sentence using the future continuous tense, e.g. “I will be throwing a party sometime next month.”

2. The word “than” in the second sentence indicates that a comparison is being made. But what is being compared is not stated. A few changes can be made to the second sentence to make it clear and logical. I have typed my suggestions for changes in bold and removed some words I consider unnecessary:

“We can master a language if we are determined. Having a keen interest in a language is another factor that helps some language learners master a language more quickly than those learners who are less interested in it.”

The main change I made is in indicating what is being compared, i.e. the time taken to master a language by keenly interested learners compared to the time taken by those who are not so interested.

Proper pronunication

Could you please define and show me how to pronounce these words:

Encore, enclave, entrée, en passant, entrepot, penchant

— Uncertain

Let me first tell you how I will indicate the British English pronunciations of the words, since some phonetic symbols cannot be printed here. These words are of French origin, but some of them have been somewhat anglicised in pronunciation.

I will indicate the “o” sound as in “got” with an “o”, and the vowel sound as in “rose” with an “oe”. An underlined “o” indicates a nasalised “o”, the way the second syllable of the Malay word “calon” would be pronounced in Kelantanese accent.

An “ei” indicates a vowel sound as in “lay”, while a bolded “e” indicates schwa, the sound in the first syllable of “ago”. An “ae” indicates the vowel sound as in “bat”.

I will also indicate a long vowel sound with a colon ( : ) after the vowel, and the stressed syllable in a word with a single quotation mark ( ‘ ) before it.

encore is pronounced /‘ong-ko:/

“Encore!” is what an audience calls out to a singer or musician in appreciation of his performance and as a request for him to sing another song or play another piece of music. If he obliges, the extra song or piece of music is also called an “encore”.

enclave is pronounced /‘en-kleiv/

An “enclave” is a part of the territory of one country surrounded by the territory of one or more other countries. Ceuta and Melilla which belong to Spain but are on African soil are examples of enclaves (see map). Below is some information from a BBC website about these enclaves:

“Ceuta and Melilla, fragments of Europe on north Africa’s Mediterranean coast, came under Spanish control around 500 years ago. Madrid says the urban enclaves are integral parts of Spain. They are surrounded by Morocco.... The enclaves are surrounded by fences, intended to deter illegal immigrants. But Ceuta and Melilla are nonetheless used by many Africans as stepping-stones to Iberia [Spain and Portugal]”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/4209538.stm

The word can also be used metaphorically to mean “a group of people who are culturally, intellectually or socially distinct from those surrounding them”(Concise Oxford Dictionary) Here is an example of its use:

“It is particularly troubling that American Indian reservations remain enclaves of the poor in one of the richest countries in the world.” (Scott Selk, South Dakota Business Review, June 1 2003)

http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-south-dakota/602480-1.html

entrée is pronounced /‘on-trei/

An “entrée” can mean 1) the main dish in a Western restaurant or formal dinner, or 2) the right of admission (to a social group, for instance).

en passant is pronounced / o ‘paes-o /

“En passant” means “in passing”, i.e. mentioning something briefly while talking about something else. Here’s an example of its use in a sentence:

“While teaching us the life-cycle of a butterfly, our Biology teacher mentioned en passant that his wife had just had a baby, without saying whether it was a boy or a girl.”

entrepot is pronounced /‘on-tre-poe/

The most common meaning of “entrepot” is a commercial centre where goods are brought to be imported or exported. It could be a port or some other place used for this purpose. The word can also mean a duty-free port or a warehouse where goods in transit are temporarily stored.

penchant is pronounced /‘po-sho /

A penchant means an inclination towards something or a liking for something, e.g. “She has a penchant for Bollywood films” or “I have a penchant for Italian food”.