It was vs There was, go out from vs leave

It's been very busy here at Editing Perfection lately, so we've had no time for blog entries.  Today, though, let's take a few moments to look at these small but important items:

It was so much snow that I couldn't go out from the house.

This sentence is clear and easy to understand, but it includes two common errors.  The first one is: 

It was so much snow.

True, we usually start weather expressions with It.  For example, we say:

It's snowing.  It's raining.  It's sunny.

But in this particular case, we'd say:

There was so much snow

meaning on the ground or on the property, just as we would say:

There was so much garbage or There was so much mud

using the construction There is ... , there are ... , there was ... , there were ... , etc.

The second error is using the expression go out from.  I assume this is a direct translation from Polish wyjść z but it doesn't work in English.  Instead of go out from, we usually say leave.  In certain cases, we might say get out of.

There was so much snow that I couldn't leave the house.

or

There was so much snow that I couldn't get out of the house.

Sometimes in informal use we can drop the word that and substitute a comma:

There was so much snow, I couldn't leave the house.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Today, let's look at meals.  In the English-speaking world, we have about six terms to designate certain kinds of regular meals in relation to the time of day.  These are: breakfast, lunch, supper, dinner, tea and brunch.

Generally, these are used without an article (a, an, the), as in the following examples:

It's one o'clock--time for lunch!
I had dinner yesterday with my best friend.
First he has breakfast, then he goes to work.
Would you like to meet Sunday for brunch, say, around 11?
What time do you eat supper?
Who's going to make breakfast?
Come over tomorrow for tea.

We use an article if we are talking about a very specific experience, or a special event, associated with one of these meals.  Examples:

Do you remember the breakfast we had together in New Orleans ten years ago?
I've been invited to a special dinner at the Ritz Hotel.
The lunch I had yesterday was really exceptional.

Breakfast is usually the first meal of the day, no matter what English-speaking country you are in.  Traditionally dinner, similar to Polish obiad, was served in the middle of the day and was the main meal.  In England, tea is a light meal served at the end of the work or school day.  The traditional English sequence was breakfast, dinner and tea.

However, in America the term supper was generally used for the evening meal.

Modern living has introduced some changes in the meal schedule.  With most people working or going to school all day, it is more common for them to take a light meal in the middle of the day and the main meal in the evening.  The light midday meal is usually called lunch, and the main evening meal dinner (although some continue to call it supper).  In the US, most people have lunch between 11 am and 2 pm, depending on their work schedules.

The most recent addition to the meal schedule is brunch.  This is a combination of breakfast and lunch and is usually a big meal (bigger than either breakfast or lunch taken separately) served between 11 am and 1 pm, generally on a Saturday or Sunday.  

In Poland, we often have what is called second breakfast (drugie śnadanie), but in the US this would be called either lunch or a mid-morning snack.  A snack is a small meal taken between normal mealtimes.

The same grammatical rule used for breakfast, etc. is applied to dessert, when we speak of it in a general way and we're not thinking of anything specific.  See these examples:

Okay, we've finished dinner--let's have dessert.
What's for dessert?
Jane never has dessert--she's trying to lose weight.

But:

This cake makes an excellent dessert.
I learned how to make a great dessert from a cooking show.
The dessert I had at Wierzynek was very rich.

First and next

There are three expressions in English that incorporate the word first:


first      at first     firstly


These expressions are often confused.  Each of them has a particular use.


We use first when we are talking about a sequence of events.


First, we opened the door.  Then, we let the dog out.  Finally, we brought the furniture outside.


We use at first to mean something like in the beginning or originally.


At first I didn't like her, but as time went on, I realised she was actually very nice.

Firstly is generally used to indicate the first, most important point in an argument or discussion.


Firstly, I think it's a bad idea.  Secondly, I don't think it will work.  Thirdly, we can't afford it.


Firstly can be replaced by first and foremost or the popular First of all.


Now, as long as we're on the subject ... When we are talking about a sequence of events, we usually use the word then (where Polish would use potem), NOT next or after.


First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage.


Next is more commonly used in instructions, such as recipes or directions how to use a device or piece of equipment:


First, mix two eggs.  Next, heat some water in a pot.  Next, ... 

Politics and Politicians

Something else that often gets confused in the transition between Polish and English is the subject of politics and the people who work in this field (notice that in English we say field and not branch).  Politics is generally treated as an uncountable noun, which means we say politics is (NOT are). It refers to a sphere of activity, usually connected with governing something, such as a country or organisation.  


Like most abstract nouns, we do not use an article (a, an or the) with politics when we are talking about it as a general subject.


I think they're arguing about politics.
There are three subjects one should never discuss in mixed company: religion, sex, and politics.


We sometimes use the when we are talking about a specific kind of politics:


The politics of international environmentalism can be very complex.


The word politic without the s is an adjective, NOT a noun.  It means something (an action or a statement) that seems sensible under the circumstances:


He made a very politic gesture to the Russians.


Or it can be a verb, meaning to engage in political activity. 


The senator is out politicking again.  (Note the added letter k.)


The people who are involved in the activity of politics are called politicians--NOT politics.  Because Polish uses polityk as the word for a person who is involved in this activity, it is very easy to assume that politic is the English equivalent.  But this is a mistake--the word is politician.


I don't trust politicians--they're only interested in money.
A group of German politicians came to Poland for a conference.


The adjective we use to refer to the activity of politics is political.


I think this is really a political question--not an economic one at all.

Relax and Relaxation

Here's another example of confusion between parts of speech--in this case, the verb to relax and the noun relaxation (uncountable).


Polish students often say that something--a vacation, a day in the pool--is a wonderful relax.  However, we cannot use relax as a noun in English.  We need the noun form: relaxation.  Still, we cannot say that something is a wonderful relaxation, because the noun is uncountable and thus a relaxation is incorrect. Normally, then, we say something is a wonderful form of relaxation.


To relax is a regular verb.  We say I relax, you relax, she/he/it relaxes, adding an extra syllable for the -es ending.  The other forms are relaxing and relaxed (the -ed ending is NOT pronounced as a separate syllable).  We can also use relaxed as an adjective.


Here are some examples of sentences we might use:


You work too hard.  You need to relax more.
He has a very relaxed way of teaching, so nobody gets too stressed.
For me, reading is the best form of relaxation.
John?  He's relaxing out in the yard.


This is probably a good place to point out that many nouns end in -ation, such as relaxation, examination, demonstration, etc.  In many cases, these nouns are associated with verbs that end in -ate, such as demonstrate (demonstration) and calculate (calculation).  However, there are also many of these nouns associated with verbs that do NOT end in -ate.  One example is relax/relaxation.  Here are a few others:


perspire/perspiration
organise/organisation
administer/administration
examine/examination

Jeśli chodzi o ...

One of the most common idiomatic phrases in Polish is chodzi o ... or some variation.  Phrases like this are called "discourse markers."  They don't give us new information; instead, they give us cues and clues as to where the speaker is going with his speech--for instance, what the subject is, or what we should pay special attention to.


I have had elementary level students who tried to translate the Polish phrase directly into English:


To chodzi o obiad  ----->  It walks about dinner.


As with most idioms, translation is not the best solution.  There are many better ways to translate the various forms of this expression.  Here are a few of them:


To chodzi o X              It's a question of X   OR   It's about X   
                                       OR  I mean X   OR  I'm talking about X


Chodzi mi o X             (same as above)


O co chodzi?               What's it all about?  


Jeśli chodzi o X ...       If it's a question [matter] of X  OR  If it's about X   OR  If you mean X


Nie o to chodzi            It's not about that  OR  That's not what I'm talking about 
                                      OR  That's not what I mean   OR  It's not a question of that.


Wiesz o co chodzi       You know what I mean  OR   You know what I'm talking about


Here's a short dialog that shows how some of these are used in English:


She:   I need to talk to you.
He:    Okay.  What about?
She:   I'm tired of your games.
He:    What are you talking about?  If it's a question of golf, I'll never give it up.
She:   It's not about golf.  I'm talking about us.  You know what I mean.
He:    If you're talking about my secretary, there's nothing going on ...
She:   It's not a question of something "going on."  It's about honesty.

True vs The Truth

Now that we know the difference between a verb, a noun, an adjective, etc., let's take a look at a confusing issue.


We have two words in English that students often confuse.  One is truth and the other is true.


Using them correctly is fairly easy once we realise that truth is a noun (which can be countable or uncountable) and true is an adjective.


In other words, something can be true (or its opposite, false) just as something can be black or white, large or small, beautiful or ugly.


Is the story about John true? 


But we don't always use the adjective true.  Sometimes we use the noun truth, as in the following examples:


Tell the truth.  (Whatever you say should be true.)


I'm looking for the truth.  (I want to find out what is true in this situation.)


Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?  (This is used in courts of law in the U.S.  When the court "swears in" a witness, it wants that witness to talk about the incident in question--to say what is true, to leave nothing out, and not to add any false statements.)


We cannot say, Tell me the true, or This is a truth story, because we would be mixing up the functions of a noun and an adjective.