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01-Book01+Idea+units+&+Fluency Unlocked
01-Book01+Idea+units+&+Fluency Unlocked
Kev Nair
Idea Units and Fluency
1
Note: The Fluent English Dictionaries do not form part of Fluentzy: The
English Fluency Encyclopedia. They’re separate publications – meant for those
who want to specialize in fluency-oriented vocabulary. For details, visit www.
fluencybookz.com.
4
B1
Idea Units
and Fluency
“How units of ideas help speakers
achieve fluency”– THE HINDU.
Fifth Edition
TM
TM
For Uma
Contents
A one-pointed aim, 13
Phrases, 48
Phrases as idea units, 50
Don’t let a few grammatical terms scare you, 51
Word knowledge and word mastery, 52
Clauses, 53
Independent clauses, 53
Non-independent clauses, 54
No complicated grammatical stuff, 56
KEV Nair
Kochi, 2007.
12
Abbreviations
sb somebody
sth something
sw somewhere
S Subject (Grammatical Subject)
13
A one-pointed aim
The Fluentzy series is a set of 20 short books. And all these
books have a single aim — a one-pointed aim: To help you gain
a priceless skill: The skill of fluency in advanced spoken English
— the skill that gets your words to flow readily and easily when
you speak English. Especially, when you speak in detail, at length
— when you describe something, explain something, tell a story,
argue, make a presentation, make a speech in public.
Importance of theory
You know, the various books in this series consist of theory as
well as practice materials. That is, they’re made up not only of
practice-materials, but of theory, too.
By ‘theory’, I mean the detailed and basic practical aspects of
the things you should know (in order to become fluent) — and
not a set of abstract ideas. The theory parts teach you the nuts
and bolts of fluency development, the rules and principles that
form the basis of the fluency skill.
So the parts containing theory are very important. They tell
you what you should practise, why you should practise those
things, how you should practise those things, and all other
details of principles. Understand the theory, and you’ll be half
way through to your goal.
Non-detailed study
Before starting detailed study, do a non-detailed study. That
16 How to make the best use of the Fluentzy books
is, first you should spend some time trying to get a general
understanding of everything in all the books in the series (or
in the set of fewer books out of them that you’ve purchased).
Go through all the books — once or twice. Read through them
quickly, without making any attempt to study any particular
portion thoroughly. This would give you the overall picture of
the fluency-building system covered by the Fluentzy series of
books. A general idea. And whenever you take up a particular
part for intensive study later, this general idea would act as a
helpful background.
First, go through Books 1 to 4 (in that order) – and Books 13
to 15. Then, go through Books 5 to 8 (in that order) – and Books
16 and 17. Then, go through Books 9 to 12 (in that order) – and
Books 18 to 20.
When you do the non-detailed study, use a pen or pencil,
and mark every part that strikes you as particularly helpful or
interesting.
Detailed study
Once you’ve finished the non-detailed study, you can pick up
each individual book for detailed study. Now, as far as possible,
you should spend a definite length of time every day, reading and
learning from the books, and doing drills and exercises. Can you
spend two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening
every day – seven days a week – till you finish a round of detailed
study of all the books in the series? That’d be ideal.
Ideally, you must complete each book in about four days’
time. You can then spend the remaining three days of the week
on extra practice and revision. Organize the periods you plan to
spend on the books accordingly.
Am I asking too much of you? Perhaps many of you are
already working hard on other things. For those learners, it may
be a bit difficult to find much time every day for this sort of
How to make the best use of the Fluentzy books 17
intensive study and practice. I’m sure they’ll work out on their
own a different schedule that suits them. For example, even if
they cannot devote sufficient time to their study for a few days
at a stretch, they’ll find a way of compensating for the lost time
on some other day — by spending extra hours on that day. But
the best plan would be to spend regular hours every day on the
learning activities. Otherwise, for many learners, the progress
would be a bit slow. But remember this: Slow progress is better
than no progress at all. So feel free to work out your own
timetable.
Learning in bursts
Some learners may not like to study at a regular pace, or may not
be able to do that, because of the type of jobs they have. They
may like to work in short bursts. That is, they may like to spend
a few days at a stretch learning from several books at once and
with great effort. Then they may like to relax their efforts for a
few days or for a few weeks. Then they may again work with
another burst of activity.
As far as fluency training is concerned, this sort of learning
in bursts is not a bad plan at all. You see, each burst of learning
activity adds to your fluency skill, and a series of such bursts
have a cumulative effect. Interim improvements are extremely
important, you know.
So, as far as fluency training is concerned, even during the
periods when you’re not studying, you’re actually learning. You
see, once you learn from a book about a few stumbling blocks to
fluency, this is what happens: From then on, you start becoming
aware of their presence in every real-life speech situation that
you come across. Till then, you haven’t been noticing them, but
from then on, you start noticing them. And you start dealing
with those stumbling blocks — by putting to practical use the
fluency techniques that the book has taught you. From each of
those situations, you’ll be learning about the nicer aspects of the
18 How to make the best use of the Fluentzy books
Regular study
Recommended reading
Books by Erle Stanley Gardner, James Hadley Chase and John
Grisham are ideal from this point of view. These authors would
keep you soaked in the living part of modern-day English. This is
the kind of English that you’ll find to be of the most general use.
Of course, books even by these authors contain here and
there vocabulary items and usages that are dated. Any book by
any author is almost certain to contain a certain percentage of
dated elements. But what these authors repeatedly expose you
to is that part of the English language that has achieved some
sort of permanence over the last 100 years or so, and not those
parts that only had a short life or will only have a short life. These
authors would get you immersed in English that is neither too
old nor too modern.
22 How to make the best use of the Fluentzy books
***
F luenc y, only through idea units 25
Chapter 1
then notice this truth: Fluent speech flows out mostly in bursts
of word clusters. As far as individual words are concerned,
they make their appearance in this flow of word clusters only
occasionally. And during each burst (of word clusters), fluent
speakers normally present a chunk of 2 to 10 words — with most
of the chunks consisting of 4-6 words each. (In a long stretch
of speech, the largest number of chunks tend to be 5-word
chunks).
And when they’re speaking even at the slow-to-normal rate,
fluent speakers produce as many as 120-150 words per minute
(grouped into fewer than 20-30 chunks). And when they’re
speaking at a faster rate, they produce as many as 200-300 words
per minute (and sometimes, even more than 300 words).
Would anybody be able to speak at these rates, if they spoke
by choosing individual words? Of course not. Isn’t that quite
obvious? Fluent speakers are able to speak at these rates, only
because they speak mostly by choosing groups of words, that
too, tried-and-tested ones — rather than by choosing individual
words. If they were to speak mainly by choosing individual words,
they would have had only less than 1/5 to 1/2 of a second to
choose each word. And they would have had to construct speech
by choosing 2 to 5 words per second — in 2 to 5 separate word-
selection efforts. This is something impossible for anybody to do.
Not even for the most articulate of native speakers of English!
Is there any wonder people who are word-oriented, rather
than word-group-oriented, find it impossible to be fluent?
***
32 Ready-to -assemb le u nits
chapter 2
Ready-to-assemble units
Let me tell you something very important. It’s about what we’ll
call ready-to-assemble units. Once you learn about them, you’ll
have a clearer idea of what an idea unit is.
Before I tell you more, just keep this in mind: Most of the
idea units that articulate native speakers of English use are ready-
to-assemble units (that can be assembled into an idea-unit chain
or complex). As for the remaining idea units they use, generally
speaking, they make them up either by assembling short ready-to-
assemble units or by joining one or two short ready-to-assemble
units with single words.
The point I’m coming to is this: You should master ready-
to-assemble units of frequent utility, and you should learn how
to let ready-to-assemble units work for you. You should learn to
assemble them into idea units and into chains and complexes of
idea units. That is the only way to achieve true fluency. The only
way. Make no mistake about it.
Let me explain.
There’s a basic fact about fluent English you should be very
clear about. It’s this: Whether you’re going to be able to speak
English fluently or not depends a lot on a simple fact: Do you have
a good command of a type of word groups that can be described
as ready-to-assemble word groups? They’re word groups that are
ready-made or ready-built. So when you use them, you don’t
have to do the work of building them on the spot (by finding
and combining the words they consist of – into a grammatically
correct combination on the spot). Thus they save you a lot of
trouble. And they save you time – yes, they generate a good
amount of time for you – which you can utilize for planning how
to go on speaking.
Ready-to - assemb l e units 33
effort on their part. (You’ll soon notice that this is what happens
to you yourself, once you’ve progressed through the kind of skill-
building practice that the Fluentzy books get you to do). These
are word groups like speech initiators, fixed and semi-fixed
expressions and phrases, collocations, everyday idioms, etc. Here
are a few examples:
abandon a plan, accidents happen, apply early, avoid a
pitfall, bear a grudge, beat a drum, big reward, confusion
arises, a cup of tea, develop a fault, eat heartily, firm
intention, How about...?, How would you like...?, I’m
dying to know..., temperature drops, It looks delicious, It
takes all sorts (to make the world), It’s going to turn cold,
It’s not as bad as all that, make your voice heard, open
secret, out of all proportion to..., really mean (sth), solid
achievement, spotlessly clean, stiff competition, take the
lead, terribly ill, That’s the whole point, the law of the land,
the question of the hour, There’s no sign of him, There’s
nothing wrong with..., This will hurt me more than it hurts
you, thoroughly dishonest, What’s so special about that?,
wrongly assume (sth), You can bet your life that...
These example word groups can be grouped into three
categories:
1). Some of these word groups are complete clauses. So they
can be used as whole (complete) idea units — complete
clausal idea units.
Eg: It looks delicious, It takes all sorts (to make the world),
It’s going to turn cold, It’s not as bad as all that, That’s the
whole point, There’s no sign of him, This will hurt me more
than it hurts you, What’s so special about that?
2). Some are phrases that can be used as complete idea
units — complete phrasal idea units. They can also be used
as sections (segments) of longer idea units (especially, of
clausal idea units).
Ready-to - assemb l e units 35
explanations is only to help you see this one point from different
angles. Remember this: A mere superficial understanding of this
point won’t do. Your understanding of this one point must be deep
and thorough — so that there would always be an internalized
feeling in you of how important ready-built word groups are.
Ready-built word groups would then become the backbone of
your oral English. Every detail and every bit of explanation would
help you deepen your understanding.
Now let’s take a look at some of the very useful types of
ready-built word groups. Here’s a small collection:
by accident, achieve your aim, in action, out of action, take
advantage of somebody/something, break the agreement,
go it alone, reach an agreement, as always, answer the
door/the phone, within arm’s reach.
go bad, have/take a bath, to the best of my knowledge/
ability, you bet, better off, that’s better, a bit of a problem,
bit by bit, for a bit, you’ll only have yourself to blame, at
full blast, break a promise, out of breath, by air, by bus, by
car, by force, by himself/herself, etc., by plane, by train.
in that case, certainly not, in charge, take charge, under the
circumstances, under no circumstances, come true, come
to a conclusion, as far as I am concerned, take a chance,
by chance, how come?, out of control, cover the cost, at all
cost(s), a course of action, go to court.
keep a dairy, out of date, these days, in dead trouble, make
no difference, get into difficulties, down the road, get
dressed, on duty, off duty.
from beginning to end, in the end, excellent value (for
money).
fair enough, in fashion, out of fashion, fast asleep, on fire,
open fire (on the crowd, etc.), put a fire out, set fire to
something, at first, go up in flames, in a flash, fall flat, on
foot, for free, free of charge, free time, fresh air, have fun,
38 Ready-to -assemb le u nits
***
42 Idea units : Yo ur key to fluenc y
chapter 3
simple sentences that are short can occur as idea units and they
often do.
But first let’s look at word groups that can only function
as idea units in spoken English, but not as sentences in written
English.
Suppose you ask a person, “When did you come?”, and
suppose he replies: “Just now”. Then in that context, doesn’t this
group “Just now” make sense? And isn’t this word group “Just
now” a grammatically acceptable combination of words? And so,
in that context, isn’t this word group an idea unit? Just see! In the
context we’ve just now seen, the addressee doesn’t need to reply:
“I came just now”. The addressee need only reply, “Just now”, and
the idea would be clear. This is because the words ‘I’ and ‘came’
are understood from the context.
But is the word group “Just now” a ‘sentence’ — as a sentence
is usually understood in written English? It isn’t hard to tell. No.
This group is not a sentence. You see, as it is generally understood
in written English, a sentence is a group of words that contains
a verb — or a subject and a verb. But the word group “Just now”
doesn’t contain a verb. And it doesn’t contain a subject, either. So
it isn’t a sentence. But haven’t we seen just now that this group is
an idea unit, when the context is clear?
But let me ask you: Even if the context is clear, is this word
group a sentence? No, it’s not. You can tell this even if you know
nothing about the grammatical definition of a sentence. Yet
haven’t we seen that you can use it in speech— to do the work
of a ‘sentence’?
Now let’s take the word “Tomorrow”. Is this word a sentence?
No. Of course, not. It’s only a word, and not a sentence. But
haven’t we already seen that a single word like this can be used as
an idea unit? Haven’t we seen that it can be used in conversations
— to do the work of a full ‘sentence’?
44 Idea units : Yo ur key to fluenc y
Importance of context
So don’t you see? There’s a great advantage on the conversational
side of a language. You can make the context to help you speak.
You see, in speech, your hearers understand several things even
if you don’t use words to say those things. The factor that makes
your hearers understand these ‘unsaid’ things is the context.
By ‘context’, I mean everything that helps you make the
meaning of an idea unit to be clearly understood: The verbal
or linguistic context (= the things you say before and after that
idea unit), the situational context (= the place, time, attending
circumstances, etc.), the shared knowledge (= the things that
both you and your addressee know about each other, about the
world in general, about the topic of the conversation, etc.) and
the body language.
As there’s always the context to help you in speech, you don’t
have to make up and say full sentences on many occasions. And
even if you do make up a full sentence, you don’t have to express
everything fully and clearly in that sentence. And you don’t have
to hunt up and use ‘right’ words in order to make your meaning
graphically clear and detailed through words alone. And often,
you don’t have to complete your sentences at all, but can leave
them half-finished and start another one. And you don’t even
have to start your utterance in a sentence-form. All that you need
to do is to just utter what stands out in your mind — just utter
the bite-sized word groups that readily occur to you through
association of ideas. If what you utter doesn’t make the idea
complete, the context would.
For example, take a look at the following strings of idea
units:
1. I like him + Hard-working + Polite + Always cheerful
(You don’t always have to say like this: I like him, because
he is hard-working, polite and always cheerful).
46 Idea units : Yo ur key to fluenc y
example, the speaker has left the word group “I never thought
the bill would come to...” unfinished. But it’s clear from the
context that what the speaker wanted to say was something like
this: “I never thought the bill would come to so much”. In the 3rd
example, the speaker has left the word group “And for a long...”
unfinished. But it’s clear from the context that what the speaker
wanted to say was something like this: “And for a long time”.
So when the speaker’s meaning is clear to the hearers from
the context, the speaker can leave a word group unfinished and
start the next one. Actually, a speaker can do this under other
circumstances, too. We’ll take up this topic for detailed study
later.
***
48 Types of idea units
chapter 4
1. Phrases
You see, there are 5 types of phrases in English:
• Verb Phrase (VP). • Noun Phrase (NP). • Adjective Phrase
(Adj. P). • Adverb Phrase (Adv. P). • Prepositional Phrase
(Prep. P).
You’ll be learning about the various types of phrases from the
fluency development angle later. But for the time being, let’s take
a general look at what phrases are like.
In general, we can say that a phrase is (a) a single content
word, or (b) a small group of words that stand together as a
unit of meaning — with a content word as the main word in
the group. Generally speaking, a content word is a verb, noun,
adjective or adverb.
A phrase normally occurs in speech in two ways: Either it
occurs as an idea unit by itself or it occurs as part of an idea unit
(that is, as a constituent element in a short independent clause
— a clausal idea unit). And mind you, in modern grammar, even
a single content word is treated as a phrase.
Eg: very tall, very happy, rather dull, quite comfortable, actually
hot, comparatively cheap, dreadfully ill, equally correct,
extremely busy, relatively mild, really amazing, terribly
sorry, large enough.
All that is needed is this: You should have a feel for what a
phrase is — no matter what its name. You should have a clear
understanding of what a close group of words is: A close group
of words that go together and form a unit.
The easiest and quickest way of developing this feel is to train
yourself with the word groups you’ll be getting in the various
Books in this series. Go through them silently several times. And
utter them aloud several times.
So don’t let the names of different types of phrases scare
you.
And the phrase training you get through the various books in
this series will help you achieve a real mastery over the essential
words. Yes, essential words — because a serious problem with
educated learners is this: A lot of the words they’ve spent time
in learning are not essential words. This is because those are not
‘production’ words, ‘speech-production’ words. No. They’re just
recognition vocabulary or reception vocabulary. If you want to
produce English on your own, you should have a mastery not of
just a set of random words (or of words belonging to the reception
or recognition vocabulary), but of speech-production words.
That’s why phrase-training is going to be extremely important.
2. Clauses
In general, a clause is a combination of different types of phrases
in a certain order. So it is a grammatical unit that is one rank
higher than a phrase. Broadly speaking, there are two types of
clauses:
• Independent clauses. • Non-independent clauses.
***
Why can ’t we speak in ‘ sentences ’? 61
Chapter 5
and so help them move smoothly from one segment to the next or
from a group of segments to the next. In this way, fluent speakers
produce a series of speech-segments as a stream.
Here’s an example of a series of speech-segments lined up
end to end:
She’s had two job offers + and she can’t decide + which
one to accept + because both the companies + you know +
both offer a generous salary + and the working conditions
are good + at both places + and she’ll have to give a reply
+ by this Saturday + and her father says + her career
prospects would be better + in the first company + but her
friends say + that’s not so + and they want her to join the
second company + though she’ll have to be miles away +
from home + if she joins the second company + but her
mother wants her + to reject both the offers + because...
So an idea unit is nothing but a bite-sized speech-segment:
A short group of words that is uttered as a single unit. And each
unit usually carries one strand or unit of information.
Strands of information
Now, what exactly is a strand of information? This is something
that is difficult to define or state in precise terms. But I can give
you a general idea. You see, a strand of information is a one-
component thought, a one-component idea that the speaker has
in mind — a thought or idea that only has a single component
or a single ingredient. Thus, if a thought or idea has more than
one component part, each component part can be treated as a
separate unit of information.
In practical terms, a strand of information is nothing but
what the speaker himself chooses to present as one thin piece of
information to his addressee. That is, the speaker has the freedom
to decide how much of a thought or idea he must present as
a single unit of information. Of course, he’ll have to limit the
64 Why can’ t we speak in ‘ sentences ’?
Other spots
Here’s an important thing you should note: There are no rigid
rules that say that you can only split up a stream of speech
at grammatical junctions or at boundaries of ‘whole’ clauses
and ‘whole’ phrases — or at the boundaries of fragmentary
grammatical units. No. There are no such rigid rules.
This is an important thing to understand. And once you’re
clear about it in your mind, you’ll realize that you have a lot of
freedom in marking off one idea unit from the next. And once
you understand this clearly, your speech-production-stress would
instantly get relieved to a great extent.
In fact, when you speak spontaneously (that is, without any
prior planning or preparation), your idea units can form their
Why can ’t we speak in ‘ sentences ’? 69
boundaries at virtually any point. Yes, even at points that are not
boundaries of ‘whole’ clauses and phrases or of ‘incomplete’ or
‘non-whole’ clauses and phrases. Your idea units can form their
boundaries at virtually any other point — at any other point you
choose according to your communicative convenience.
***
70 H ow to divide speech into idea units
chapter 6
‘and’
• He saw smoke + and he raised an alarm. • She did
well at the interview + and she got the job. • Sales have
improved + and we’ll be able to make some profit this
year. • He opened the door + and (then) he flicked a
light-switch on. • Life is splendid + and we’re quite happy
here. • He’s a bit reserved + and she’s very outgoing. • He
works hard + and (yet) they’re not satisfied. • Give him
some money + and (then) he’ll do it for you. • Let him
apologize to her + and she’ll forgive him.
‘or’
• We can go for a film + or we can go to the museum. •
You have to do a lot of learning yourself + or you can’t be
a good teacher. • He must have killed her + or he knows
who killed her. • That must be an old car + or that’s not in
good condition. • You can call him back + or you can leave
a message. • You must be very careful + or you’ll make
mistakes. • He doesn’t like this job + or that’s what he said.
‘but’
• She saw him + but she didn’t smile at him. • He
panicked + but she remained calm. • Our income
hasn’t increased much + but our expenses have gone up
considerably. • I am all for this campaign + but I’m against
the way it’s being planned. • I’ll wait for you + but you
should hurry up. • I can explain it to them + but I don’t
know if they’ll understand me correctly.
Polysyllabic adverbs
Eg: • Actually + I’ve just had my lunch. • Admittedly + they
were against the proposal. • Apparently + he didn’t like
the idea. • Basically + he’s against political ideologies like
these. • Briefly + that’s all I’ll be able to do. • Certainly +
this is a very important event in his life.
• Clearly + his work isn’t good. • Cleverly + she avoided
all those difficulties. • Confidentially + they’re not satisfied
with her work. • Definitely + he deserves some reward. •
Essentially + you should have a clear idea of the procedure
you should follow. • Evidently + he isn’t interested. •
Foolishly + we decided to change the plans. • Frankly + I
didn’t like it. • Fundamentally + our legal system is quite
sound. • Honestly + that music affected me deeply.
• Ideally + we should ask the opinion of each one of them.
• Maybe + he doesn’t want to do the job you’ve given
him. • Naturally + they couldn’t believe what they heard.
• Obviously + she’s having a fine time. • Officially + the
news hasn’t been confirmed. • Plainly + they don’t want
to give you a friendly welcome. • Perhaps + this is the best
time to sort out the dispute.
• Personally + I like it very much. • Possibly + many of
the passengers are badly hurt. • Privately + I didn’t like
it. • Probably + her feet were wet. • Really + you should
consider yourself lucky. • Rightly + they decided to call
off the strike. • Seriously + this job needs a lot of skill and
knowledge. • Curiously (enough) + he wasn’t disappointed
at all. • Funnily (enough) + I ran into that man again
in the street. • Oddly (enough) + the bag was empty. •
Strangely (enough) + they haven’t even sent a reply yet.
• Fortunately (for me) + I am on good terms with them. •
Hopefully + they’ll come to an agreement soon. • Luckily
(for her father) + that bus was going to Pune. • Mercifully
+ it was not a serious accident. • Thankfully + it didn’t
H ow to divide speech into idea units 79
Prepositional phrases
• As a rough estimate + it may cost a million. • From
what I know about him + he won’t hesitate to betray his
friends. • In all fairness + they tried their best to help us.
• In all frankness + I won’t trust him for a moment. • In
short + that portrait was a fraud. • In practice + rules like
these are more often broken than obeyed. • In theory +
these things may appear possible. • On paper + that’s our
only task. • He failed the driving test once again + to his
great disappointment. • To my knowledge + he’s a very
courteous man. • To my misfortune + that was a holiday.
• To my regret + they refused my offer. • To everybody’s
surprise + he got promoted within a year. • With assistants
like them + you’ll be able to get any job done easily. •
Without some help from them + we won’t be able to
complete the project in time. • Without a bank loan + we
won’t be able to buy a car.
to-infinitive clauses
• To be fair + he must get all the credit. • To be frank + I
don’t think this dress suits you at all. • To be honest + we
don’t have enough money for all this. • To judge from what
he said + he seems to be an authority on this subject. • To
be precise + this happened on the 15th of July (+ last year).
• To put it frankly + I didn’t expect him to behave like that.
80 H ow to divide speech into idea units
***
Segmentation practice 83
Chapter 7
Segmentation practice
By now, I’ve given you certain guidelines, and those guidelines
showed you the points where you could divide a stream into
chunks. Go through the guidelines once again.
Now remember two points:
First, the knack of segmenting – dividing – a stream into
idea units is not difficult to get into. The training you’ve had
so far must have helped you pick it up by now. I’m now going
to give you some more material for the segmentation practice.
Go through the practice material given below. They’ll give you a
lot of training in dividing up long stretches of speech into idea
units.
Second, in a long stretch of speech, there will often be more
than one point where the division can be made. And it’s normally
up to you to decide where exactly to make the divisions. In
general, you’re free to split up a long stretch at any one or more
of those points. The only thing you must not forget is this: You
must divide a long stretch of speech into idea units. And you
must divide them into idea units of manageable lengths. (As you
know, a manageable unit is one that contains, on an average, 5 or
6 words and, in any case, not more than about 9 words).
Now let’s go for the practice material. Say each word group
aloud – several times. Here we go:
• Strictly speaking + it’s a work of little value. • Besides +
the mark of the wound still shows. • Fortunately + it was nice
to the taste. • I’m off to Bombay + tomorrow. • I heard someone
coming + stamping loudly + and you know + a shiver went
down my back. • I’ve sent it to her + by post. • Of course + they
made friends again + after the quarrel. • Now that I’ve come here
+ I’d like to see them all. • To quote him + you have a strong
84 S egmentation practice
will. • He’s a doctor + now. • Look at it for some time + and it’ll
make your eyes water. • Sometime soon + you should meet him
+ and give it back. • It’s quite good + really. • Oddly enough +
this bucket could hold more water + than that one. • Actually +
there was no money on me. • Maybe + the water spread on the
floor. • He told me + it was made of a sort of plastic. • From now
on + don’t tell him more + than you can help. • That’s all + for
today. • I’ll be there + by tea-time. • This is Anita + my sister.
• Fortunately for us + that was news to him. • If you ask me +
there could be no mistaking + what he had seen. • I heard it +
and my heart skipped a beat. • He has only brought a few + this
time. • Definitely + it was only imagination.
• Seriously speaking + it’s a lazy habit to go to bed + so
early every day. • From what she told me + I can’t see any harm
in that. • Technically + it hardly matters at all. • There’s Anita
+ over there. • He was standing at attention + and didn’t look
friendly at all. • In my opinion + it’s too costly. • As you know
+ he’s in poor health. • Thank you + for your help. • If you tell
her + she’ll tell them. • She hit him + so he struck her back. •
For goodness sake + keep quiet a minute. • He has a cat + and
it lives in his bedroom. • By the way + when’ll it be finished? •
Apparently + he fell heavily. • Personally + it weighed heavily on
my mind. • Curiously enough + she didn’t pour out the coffee. •
During the day + he has his business to attend to. • I’m leaving
+ the day after tomorrow. • Let’s not do it + that way. • Plainly
+ it’s more blue than green. • I’m boss + here. • It’s a bit chilly
+ today. • With most children + play is more important + than
study. • He gripped her shoulder hard + and shook her. • He tells
me + it’s not available. • What’s more + they had lost all hope
of winning.
• Frankly + there was no one in the restaurant + to serve
us. • The trouble with him is + he’s too ambitious. • Even more
important + you must sleep more than you do. • On top of it all
+ he was very quarrelsome. • You can have it + if you like. • It
Segmentation practice 85
couldn’t fall asleep. • Those people + left nearly a week ago now.
• Somehow + he raised my hopes.
• To be frank + it’s immensely valuable to us. • Anyhow +
they’re all in the secret now. • Generally speaking + they take
no pity + on the losers. • It rained all day + last Sunday. • A
big lorry piled high with fire-wood + passed this way. • It’s a
shame + he can’t continue. • Last of all + we put them in a
big heap. • He has no patience with you + I’m sure. • She has
dropped it + all over the place. • What’s even more remarkable
+ it struck fear into their hearts. • It’s so tiring + by bus. • When
he’s feeling good + he likes to hop and skip. • I’m not sure + yet.
• First of all + can the room hold + all the people? • Hopefully
+ that settles the matter. • By any chance + did anything remain
of the house + after the fire? • It’s a nuisance + having to wait
so long. • Many times + the string came undone. • Not a single
fine day + this week. • I like it + here. • To her displeasure +
they moved nearer to the light. • Your handwriting is quite good
+ really. • By then + it had quite gone out of my mind. • Until
then + everything was coming along fine. • I should perhaps +
have tried some other method. • Evidently + he didn’t see the
inside of it.
• In all frankness + is that of any value? • Personally + I
don’t like her manners at all. • To start with + we separated the
small ones. • I’ve just been talking to him + in the other room.
• The man sitting opposite me + laughed a real sneering laugh.
• Next + I heaped them up together. • It’s the absolute truth +
I swear it. • It’s useless + meeting him again. • Surprisingly +
I didn’t hear the clock strike. • When I retire + I would like to
live there. • In that circus + there are wonderful elephants. • To
my misfortune + it was slippery + and I lost hold of it. • The
cheapest chair + costs 75 rupees. • As far as I’m concerned +
I rather liked it. • Putting it bluntly + there’s nothing settled.
• If you understand me + he’ll remain like this + all his life. •
After a time + it comes easy. • His steno + is first class. • We’ll
88 S egmentation practice
***
90 Embedding and Lining up
chapter 8
Roundabout connectivity
You see, what the writer of the sentence has done is this: He
92 Embedding and Lining up
Straight connectivity
In natural speech, the things that come straight out of your mind
(and your mouth) would be simple idea units — each containing
one strand of information, and each said as one utterance. And
they would appear as a chain of railway coaches that are all
connected together end to end. So in natural speech, you’d say
something like this:
“We had a huge mass of data to analyze + And it was
impossible to analyze all that data by hand + And
somebody told our boss + we needed a computer to do the
job + That was somebody who had come from the US +
Embedding and Lining up 93
***
V+N Clu sters 95
chapter 9
V+N Clusters
I’ve already introduced you to a special type of word groups, and
I’ve called them ready-built word groups.
Now, among the ready-built word groups, there’s a very useful
category of word groups called collocations. Yes, collocations.
Let me tell you what a collocation is.
A collocation is a combination of words — but a special
kind of combination. It is a combination of words that combine
together habitually. As a matter of habit. That is, the words that
combine to form the combination have a tendency to occur
together with a certain amount of regularity. So just keep this
in mind: A collocation is not a chance combination or a random
combination, but a habitual combination, a typical combination.
Here are some examples of collocations:
1). Verb+Noun:
run a department, call an election, do the dishes, fight the
flames, take a trip, take a break, have dinner, make lunch,
run a risk, shrug your shoulder.
2). Noun+Verb:
bomb explodes, culture spreads, engine runs, focus shifts,
luck improves.
3). Adjective+Noun:
my big brother, consistent manner, funny joke, a huge
construction.
4). Noun+Noun:
car key, chair leg, pay packet.
5). Adverb+Verb or Verb+Adverb:
seriously harm, sincerely hope, fit badly, shiver violently.
6) Adverb + Adjective:
96 V+N Clu sters
Group 1
change the oil (every 5000 kilometres), avoid an accident,
cause an accident, have an accident, close an account, begin an
action, bring an action (against sb), control an activity, feed an
addiction, build an addition, deliver an address, enjoy a big/
great advantage, enjoy an advantage, gain an advantage, have
an advantage, answer an advertisement, place an advertisement,
break an agreement, conclude an agreement, have an agreement
(with sb), form an alliance, call an ambulance, double the
amount, draw an analogy, find an answer, get an answer, give an
answer, guess the answer, have an answer, demand an apology,
change the appearance (of a building), approve an application,
grant an application, break an appointment, adopt an approach,
begin the final approach, clear an area, accept an argument,
cause an argument, have an argument, enter the army.
confirm an arrangement, have an arrangement, consider
an aspect, discuss an aspect, foil an attempt, attract the waiter’s
attention, clear the attic, adopt a more responsible attitude, adopt
a positive attitude, adopt a wait-and-see attitude, have a (bad/
good) attitude, have a (positive/negative) attitude, convince the
authorities, contrast A and/with B, expect a baby, find a babysitter,
fold the corners back, carry a bag, check the contents (of a bag),
achieve a balance, find a balance, catch the ball, hit a ball, break
a barrier, create a basis, establish a basis, form a basis, clean
the bath, charge a battery, fight a battle, fight a losing battle,
V+N Clu sters 97
Group 2
commit a crime, attract a crowd, bring a crowd, draw a crowd,
force a passage through the crowd, break a cup, drop a cup,
close the curtains, draw the curtains, beat the deadline, break
the deadlock, close a deal (with sb), conclude a deal (with sb),
cut a deal (with sb), die a natural death, die a painful death,
die a sudden death, die a violent death, close a debate, clear a
debt, announce a decision, challenge a decision, avenge a defeat,
accept a demand, call the fire department, fit the description,
give a description (of sb/sth), fight the desire, forget the details,
draw a diagram, follow a diet, discuss the difference, explain
the difference, cause a difficulty, face a dilemma, cook a good
dinner, face the opposite direction, conclude a discussion,
end a discussion, have a discussion, hold a discussion, catch a
disease, cause a disease, contract a disease, control a disease,
develop a disease, fight a disease, draw a distinction (between
two events), gain distinction, ask a doctor, become a doctor, call
the doctor, answer the door, close the door, force a door, get the
door, break the door down, design a dress, beat a drum, have a
duty (to do sth), get an education, give an education, have an
education, achieve an effect, counteract the effect, examine the
effect, experience the effect, feel the effect, have an effect, call an
election, fight an election, hit the enemy, force an entry, affect the
environment, create an environment, damage the environment,
destroy the environment, commit an error, contain an error,
correct an error, attempt an escape, have a lucky escape, have
a miraculous escape, have a narrow escape, celebrate an event,
hold an event, connect the two events, draw a parallel between
two events, conduct an exercise, cover sb’s expense.
describe an experience, enjoy an experience, have an
experience, conduct an experiment, accept an explanation,
V+N Clu sters 99
Group 3
close the lid, have a full life, call the lift, define a limit, extend
a limit, draw a line, form a line, develop a link, establish a
link, find a link, earn a/your living, arrange a loan, establish a
location, find a location, force a lock, cast a look, handle the
mail, form a majority, get a majority, have a majority, die a poor
man, assist the manager, head a march, carry a mark, hit the
mark, finish the match, discuss a matter, cook a meal, catch the
meaning, discover the meaning (of sth), explain the meaning
(of sth), develop the means, find the means, adopt a measure,
announce a measure, approve a measure, arrange a meeting,
V+N Clu sters 101
sb, discuss a contract with sb, discuss a problem with sb, drink a
toast to sb, enlist the help of sb, exert a strong influence on sb,
expect a call from sb, expect a letter from sb, expect a visit from
sb, explain the problem to sb, explain the situation to sb, face a
challenge from sb, file a suit/lawsuit against sb, fix the blame on
sb, aim a blow at sb/sth, aim a kick at sb/sth, assume the mantle
of sb/sth, bear a close resemblance to sb/sth, bear a (passing/
striking) resemblance to sb/sth, bear little/no relation to sth,
bear a similarity to sb/sth, cast a spell on sb/sth, catch a glimpse
of sb/sth, clear a space for sb/sth, focus the camera on sb/sth,
cause a scene, describe a scene, film a scene, develop a scheme,
gain a scholarship, build a school, enter a school, find a suitable
school, hit the screen, cross the sea, conduct a search, create a
sense of reality, develop a sense of humour, experience a sense of
relief, attend a service, change the sheets.
The thing to do
The thing for you to do now is to read what I’ve said so far in this
Book — not once, but several times.
The aim should not be to learn anything by heart. No. The
aim should be to understand the principles. Yes, to understand
them. Get to know the “why”s — get to know the reasons behind
the principles. Then your progress would be faster. But don’t get
too worried over the principles. You’ll get to know them gradually
— as you go through the various Books in this series. What is
more important now is to read everything this Book says. And
to let your mind remain with those things. Your mind will then
start working, consciously and unconsciously, and ultimately
everything will sink in, and you’ll understand them fully.
Actually, there’s only one major point you should understand
from all that I’ve said so far. Only one major point: You should
produce speech, idea unit by idea unit — and not word by word
or sentence by sentence. All else are matters of detail, and they’re
104 V+N Clu sters
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