07 Book07

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Kev Nair
Packing of Information in Speech
Prof. Kev Nair was born in Kerala, South India, in 1949.

He’s an eminent scholar of international repute. He’s a first class
LL.B. and a first class LL.M. And he was ranked first in university
in both the LL. B. and LL. M. exams.
• “Nair was the first person in the world to give shape to the
area of study now known as ‘English fluency development’
and to systematize it into a distinct teachable subject... So he
is better known as the father of fluency development.”
– General Knowledge Today.
• “He had been researching since 1971, and the results... led
him to new discoveries... ”
– THE HINDU.
• “Prof. Kev Nair is regarded the world over as the father
of fluency lexicography... Fluency lexicography came into
existence as a separate branch of dictionary writing with
the publication of Prof. Nair’s Dictionary of Active Fluency
Combinations in 1986.”
– Competition Success Review.
• “A renowned English language lexicographer”
– The New Sunday Express.
• “One of the world’s most respected English language
scholars...Perhaps more innovative in method than Roget and
more modern in approach than Fowler, Prof. Kev Nair is... one
of the foremost Indian scholars who wield great influence
on the thinking of the English-educated people around the
world.”
– General Knowledge Today.
• “A towering English language expert”
– Competition Success Review.
• “Prof. Kev Nair... has... reached out to thousands – judicial
officers, professionals, top executives, scholars – who need
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that comfort and ease in speech with his specialised fluency

techniques.”
– The New Indian Express.
Prof. Nair is a lawyer by profession. He lives with his wife and
children in Kochi, Kerala, an enchanting place on the earth.
3
Fluent English Dictionaries1 by Kev Nair

• A Dictionary of Active Fluency Combinations.
• A Dictionary of Fluency Word Clusters.
• The Complete Fluency Words.
• A Dictionary of Essential Fluency Phrases.
• Core Fluency Thesaurus.
• Comprehensive Adjectival Fluency Dictionary.
• Narrative Fluency Dictionary.
• Thesaurus of Phrasal Verbs.
• Thesaurus of Descriptive English.
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.
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Books by Kev Nair making up

Fluentzy: The English Fluency Encyclopedia
• B1: Idea units & Fluency.
• B2: Speech Generation & Flow Production.
• B3: Teaching your Tongue & Speech Rhythm.
• B4: Key Speech-initiators & Speech-unit Patterns.
• S1/B13 & S2/B14: Fluency in Functional English (Vols. 1 & 2).
• S3/B15: Fluency in Telephone English & Sectoral English.
• B5: How to Deal with Hesitation.
• B6: Oral Training in Fluency Vocabulary (Vol.1).
• B7: Packing of Information.
• B8: Impromptu Speech-flow Techniques.
• S4/B16: Fluency Building & Mouth Gymnastics.
• S5/B17: Fluency in speaking about people.
• B9: Fluency in Asking Questions.
• B11: Fluency & Moment-to-Moment Speech-production.
• S6/B18 & S7/B19: Fluency in Topicwise English (Vols. 1 & 2).
• S8/B20: Fluency & Pronunciation.
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B7
Packing
of Information
in Speech
“Teaches you methodically how to pack
meaning and content into speech...”
– The New Sunday Express.
Fifth Edition
Prof. Kev Nair
TM
TM
Adult Faculties Council
6
For Uma
Packing of information in speech.

Copyright © Prof. K. E. V. Nair @ KevNair 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000, 2008.
First published 1982.
4th edition 2000 (11 impressions).
5th edition 2008.
Prof. K. E. V. Nair @ KevNair has asserted his right to be identified
as the author of this book in accordance with the Copyright Act, 1957.
All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this book shall be copied or
reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
manner whatever, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission, in writing, of the
publisher, except in the case of brief quotations or as expressly permitted
by law.
All quotations from this book shall credit the author, Prof. KevNair.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade
or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form
of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a
similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on any acquirer
or the subsequent purchaser.
Any violation of these terms and conditions will invite civil and criminal
proceedings and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Published in India by Mrs. Uma V. Nair, Adult Faculties Council,
DP Lane, Elamakkara PO, Kochi-682 026, Kerala.
Printed in India by Ayodhya Printers Ltd., Elamakkara PO,
Kochi-682 026, Kerala.
Adult Faculties Council’s websites:
www.fluentzy.com; www.fluencybookz.com.
Phone: (91)(0484) 2538449, 2408361.
Fax: (91)(0484) 2408361.
E-mail: info@fluentzy.com.
Price: Rs.175.00
7
Contents
Packing of information, 13
Chapter 1: Techniques of information-packing, 13
Subordination and co-ordination, 14

Matrix clause first, 15
Nature of information-packing and fluency, 16
How to avoid dense packing, 19
1. Clause-connecting subordinators, 19
Simple Subordinators (for finite subordinate clauses), 19
Complex Subordinators (for finite subordinate clauses), 20
Correlative subordinators (for finite subordinate clauses),
21
2. Clauses introduced by wh-elements, 21
Prepositional clauses, 23
3. Inversion of initial elements in a clause, 23
4. Special subordinate constructions, 23
4.1 Non-finite clauses, 23
(i) “to-infinitive” clauses, 24
(ii) Bare infinitive clauses, 25
(iii) “-ing participle” clauses, 26
(iv) “-en participle” clauses, 27
4.2 Verbless clauses, 28
5. Phrase-internal clauses, 29
(i) Finite Relative clauses, 29
(ii) Comparative clauses, 30
8
(iii) Non-finite relative clauses, 31
Chapter 2: Complex phrases, 33

Noun phrases, 33
Pre-modification and Post-modification, 34
Modification and complexity, 34
How to avoid modification, 36
Exceptional cases, 38
1. Re-reference, 38
2. Classifying function, 38
‘Adjective + noun’ combinations — Pre-modification, 39
Objective and subjective adjectives, 40
Comment adjectives, 41
Comment adjectives as describer complements, 43
‘Noun + Noun’ combinations, 44
Pre-modification, 44
Post-modification, 45
3. Conventional pre-modifiers, 45
4. Non-specific modification, 46
5. Intensifiers and downtoners, 47
Fluency and word-modification, 47
Chapter 3: Secondary Phrases, 49

Adjective phrases, 49
How to avoid modification, 52
1. Intensifiers, 53
2. Downtoners, 54
3. Adjunct adverbs, 55
4. Colour adjectives,56
5. View-point adjuncts, 56
Adverb phrases, 57
Prepositional phrases, 59
9
Chapter 4: How to avoid complexity, 62

Embedded noun-phrases, 63
Specific and non-specific words, 64
Chapter 5: Composing speech and speaking at the

same time, 66
Mental assessment and planning, 66
Control of speech delivery, 69
Inevitability of loose packing, 69
Speech composition features, 70
Listeners’ point of view, 71
Looseness vs. conciseness, 73
A test, 74
Conclusion, 75
Chapter 6: Core-word Clusters 1, 76

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Preface to the 5th edition
Here’s the latest edition of this book.

In this edition, I have added extensive collections of word
combinations in which the key word is one of these six everyday
verbs: hold, keep, look, make, set, take. You’ll find these
combinations enormously useful in packing what you say with
information, ideas, facts and opinions.
Do you have any comments and suggestions? Do write to me care
of the publishers.
KEV Nair
Kochi, 2008.
12
Abbreviations
fml formal
infml informal
sb somebody
sth something
sw somewhere
S Subject
13
chapter 1
Packing of information
The extent of your fluency in spoken English depends on an
important factor: The way you pack information in your speech.
That is, the way you pack words within your idea units, as well
as the way you pack idea units within your speech. If you pack
information densely, you will find it difficult to be fluent. If you
pack information loosely, you will find it easier to be fluent. This
is the general principle of information-packing.
This principle is of great importance for fluency-development.
So we must take it up immediately. We’ll only be able to get a
clear idea of this principle if we do one thing: We must look at
a basic point of difference between spoken English and written
English. This all-important difference is this: Written English
normally packs information densely. But spontaneous spoken
English always packs information loosely.
So here’s a fundamental principle you should always
remember: Never pack information in speech the way you pack
information in writing.
Techniques of information-packing
How does written English pack information densely? How does
spoken English pack information loosely? These things happen in
the following ways:
A. Written English uses a tight syntax. But spoken
English uses a loose syntax. (‘Syntax’ is the grammatical
arrangement of words). And so written English relies
more on a ‘hierarchical arrangement’ of clauses called
subordination than spoken English does. Spoken English
relies far less on subordination. What spoken English does
14 Packing of information
is to rely far more on an ‘equal arrangement’ of clauses

called co-ordination than written English.
B. Written English uses heavily-modified, complex phrases
freely. Spoken English does not.
C. Written English goes in search of the ‘right’ words and
uses ‘specific’ and ‘non-general’ words wherever possible.
Spoken English does not do so. Spoken English prefers non-
specific and general words.
Subordination and co-ordination

We can connect two clauses by one of these methods:
1) Co-ordination; or
2) Subordination.
In co-ordination, we connect two clauses by the conjunctions
and, and then, or, but, so, yet, nor, neither, either... or, and neither...
nor. (Or, sometimes we just utter two independent clauses next
to each other — without using a co-ordinator between the two).
In subordination, we connect clauses by conjunctions like
after, although, when, etc. (There are, of course, other methods
of subordinating a clause, and we’ll look at them later in this
Book).
You see, co-ordination is far more helpful than subordination
in speech-production. The reason is this: If you connect two
clauses by co-ordination, the clauses continue to remain
structurally independent, and one clause does not become a
burden on the other by becoming structurally dependent on it.
This sort of ‘equal arrangement’ is not a tight arrangement (as
subordination is), and so, it makes the speech-production process
quite flexible.
E.g. I was coming from the office + and I saw an elephant.
Here the clauses ‘I was coming from the office’ and ‘I saw an
elephant’ are both independent clauses, because neither of them
Packing of information 15
is a constituent element of the other. But if we connect the two

clauses by subordination, the clause that has been subordinated
becomes a constituent of the other clause, and becomes embedded
in it — by becoming fixed there firmly and deeply. And the clause
that has been subordinated loses its independent status.
E.g. As I was coming from the office + I saw an elephant. (Or, I saw
an elephant + as I was coming from the office).
Here the clause that’s been subordinated is: ‘as I was coming
from the office’. (It’s been subordinated by making it start with the
subordinator ‘as’). This is not an independent clause, because it
cannot stand alone as a sentence. The subordinating conjunction
‘as’ has forced it to become a constituent element of the matrix
clause ‘I saw an elephant’. Thus subordination has brought
about an ‘unequal’ arrangement, and has created a hierarchical
order — with the matrix clause having superior status (because
it can stand alone as a sentence) and the subordinate clause
having inferior status (because it cannot usually stand alone as
a sentence).
On the other hand, in co-ordination, the clauses that are
linked together continue having equal status, because they
continue to remain independent.
Matrix clause first

You see, the idea units in spontaneous speech are not made up
before we start speaking. No. They’re made up as we speak on
and, that too, under pressure of time. So speakers don’t have the
time to hierarchically arrange their clauses into matrix clauses
and subordinate clauses. What they normally find easier to do
is this: Utter independent unit after independent unit, and leave
them independent and of equal status — through co-ordination.
But don’t be under a wrong impression. In spontaneous
speech, nobody can avoid subordination completely. No. This is
because, in certain situations, grammar, usage or even common
sense gives you no choice.
Now suppose that a construction that occurs to you

spontaneously is a subordinate one and that it tends to become
involved or complicated — making it difficult for you to keep up a
flow of speech. Then you can avoid the problems of subordination
in four ways: (i) Convert the subordinate construction into a co-
ordinate one; (ii) Leave the subordinate clause half-finished,
and start uttering a new independent clause in its place; (iii)
Reconstruct the subordinate clause differently, by introducing it
with a simple subordinator — rather than in any other way. (iv)
Reconstruct your utterance, by uttering the matrix clause first
and the subordinate clause next.
The fourth point is very important. You see, written English
often prefers the order ‘subordinate clause first and matrix clause
next’.
E.g. As I was coming from the office + I saw an elephant.
But spoken English prefers the order ‘matrix clause first and
the subordinate clause next’.
E.g. I saw an elephant + as I was coming from the office.
This is the natural order. You know, you can avoid a lot of
problems that subordination brings up by this simple trick: Utter
the matrix clause first and the subordinate clause next.
Note 1: In writing as well as in speech, co-ordination is more frequent than
subordination. But between writing and speech, you’ll find the percentage of
co-ordination far more in speech than in writing.
Note 2: If the speech is formal, the percentage of subordination would be more
than if it is informal. In fact, the less formal the speech becomes, the less the
percentage of subordination and the more the percentage of co-ordination.
Nature of information-packing and fluency

You see, when you connect one clause to the next by co-
ordination, you feel a sense of completeness at the end of each
clause. You have a feeling that there’s no syntactic compulsion
to continue in a rigidly-fixed direction. You do not feel under
any syntactic pressure to construct the next clause in a particular

way. No. In fact, you have a feeling of considerable syntactic
freedom, and you feel free to construct it in a way that suits your
convenience.
But what happens in subordination is entirely different:
E.g. As I was coming from the office + I saw an elephant.
Here the subordinate clause ‘As I was coming from the office’
has been placed first, and so this is a tight arrangement. If you
follow this tight arrangement, you feel a sense of incompleteness
at the end of the subordinate clause. And there’s then in you a
sense of restraint and a sense of being tied down to something.
This is because your mind is burdened by a thought: “Now that
I’ve uttered a subordinate clause, I’ll have to utter a matrix clause
too, and I’m bound to construct it in a way that the subordinate
clause dictates, and not in a way that I find convenient”. That
is, after uttering ‘As I was coming from the office’, you don’t feel
that your responsibility for the utterance is over. There’s a sense
of syntactic compulsion weighing down on your mind, asking
you to continue in a rigidly-fixed direction. You’re now under
considerable syntactic pressure to construct the next clause in a
pre-determined way. And you don’t have any syntactic choice —
as when you use co-ordination.
So at the end of the subordinate clause that’s been placed
first, you tend to lose your speech-composition balance, and
you tend to falter, and you find it difficult to continue. In fact,
subordination tends to make you lose not only your speech-
composition balance, but also your speech-delivery balance.
Mind you, when you utter the subordinate clause first, there’s no
sense of completeness at the end of that clause. So your organs
of speech are in stretched (and uncomfortable) positions towards
the end of the subordinate clause. And they try to complete the
subordinate clause and to start the matrix clause from their
stretched and uncomfortable positions — and not from their
normal or relaxed positions. Naturally, you find it difficult to
speak with a flow. Your speech tends to falter and comes to a

stop.
You see, this does not happen in co-ordination.
That’s why, if you employ subordination, it’s generally better
to utter the matrix clause first, and the subordinate clause next.
Do this as far as possible. You see, when you do that, a lot of the
syntactic pressure on your mind gets relieved. This is because
at the end of the matrix clause (which you utter first), you have
several syntactic options for the next idea unit. Subordination
then becomes just one of those several options. And when you
follow this order, your subordinate arrangement becomes a lot
similar to a co-ordinate arrangement, because the structure of
the subordinate arrangement would then be:
Independent clause + Connector+ Independent clause.
The only difference then between the two types of
arrangement is this: In co-ordination, the connector is a co-
ordinating conjunction, and in subordination, the connector is a
subordinating conjunction.
Now listen. Suppose that you happen to start your utterance
with a subordinate clause (rather than with a matrix clause).
And suppose that you run into speech-composition difficulties.
Then you can get over the difficulties by leaving the subordinate
clause unfinished. You see, this kind of unfinished units and
incomplete structures are quite common in naturally-occurring
speech. A main reason is this: When your organs of speech are
already in stretched positions, you’ll find it necessary to relieve
them of the pressure on them. So you give up the structure half-
finished. Then your organs of speech would immediately come
back to their normal positions, and they become relaxed and free
of the pressure on them. The organs of speech can then start the
next utterance from these relaxed positions.
How to avoid dense packing

Now what makes a clause a subordinate clause? You see, a clause
becomes a subordinate clause, if you do one of the following
things to construct it:
1) Start a finite clause with a ‘subordinator’.
2) Start a finite clause with a wh-word.
3) Construct a finite clause with initial clause elements
inverted.
4) Adopt a special subordinate construction.
5) Get a relative clause embedded in a noun phrase.
1. Clause-connecting subordinators
This is the chief method of subordination that connects one
clause with another. When a finite clause is introduced by one of
the following subordinating conjunctions, that clause becomes a
subordinate clause:
Simple Subordinators (for finite

subordinate clauses):
 after, although, as, because, before, however, if, once,
since, that, though, till, unless, until, when, where/
whereas (formal: avoid), while.
 as far as, as/so long as, as soon as, as if, as though, (just)
in case, rather than, so (that).
E.g. • I phoned him + after you had left. • The boss doesn’t like
her + although she’s a good worker. • He resigned + because he
wanted to start his own business. • I had shown the report to
him + before the meeting started. • If she calls again + tell her
I’m out of town. • All our problems will be over + once we get
this contract. • I haven’t seen him + since he retired. • He’s been
working there + since he was fifteen. • They didn’t choose him
+ since he didn’t have much experience. • I believe + (that) he’s
innocent. • I’m sure + (that) he’s quite satisfied with your work.
• I have a feeling + (that) things are going to be all right. • I
didn’t criticize his work + though I wasn’t satisfied with it. • He

had to wait outside + till/until the meeting was over. • You won’t
be able to pass the exam + unless you study well. • Don’t speak
to him + when he’s not in a good mood. • Some people want
the government to take a tougher line with terrorists + where/
whereas others feel that the government has been too harsh.•
That’s a large hotel + while this is a small house. • While he’s a
good worker + he often gets involved in quarrels. • While I was
leaving + the phone started ringing. • He’s still their managing
director + as far as I know. • As long as you keep your car in good
condition + it won’t give you any trouble. • Ask him to give me
a ring + as soon as he gets back. • The waiter acted + as if/as
though he owned the place. • Carry an umbrella + in case it rains.
• They’ll have to store food + in case there’s a shortage. • He
decided to catch a plane + rather than miss the job interview. •
Bring him along + so (that) he can meet everybody.
Complex Subordinators (for finite

 assuming (that), considering (that), even if/though,
ever since, except (that), given (that), if ever, if only,
the instant (that), the minute (that), the moment (that),
not that, now (that), on condition that, only if, provided
(that), seeing (that), supposing (that).
E.g. • We’ll have to start work next month + assuming (that) we get
the contract. • Our team did very well + considering (that) the
opponents were world champions. • She wants to get married to
him + even if her parents won’t let her. • I’ve been waiting here
+ ever since he went in. • I don’t remember anything + except
that somebody shouted, ‘Fire!’. • The performance of their firm
is not too bad + given (that) they entered this field only last year.
• If ever anybody has been arrogant + he is. • He’d meet them
occasionally + if only to listen to their complaints. • He started
running + the instant (that)/the minute (that)/the moment (that)
he saw those policemen. • We don’t want him as our cashier any
longer + not (that) we don’t trust him or anything. • We can give
them some more money + now that they’ve completed a major
part of the work. • We gave the contract to them + on condition
(that) they must complete the work in two months. • I’ll do it
+ only if/provided that you pay me in advance. • They started

teasing her + seeing (that) she was very shy and nervous. •
What’ll happen + supposing (that) the boss comes to know about
all this?
Correlative subordinators (for finite

 so... (that), whether/if... or (whether/if...)
E.g. • He was so angry + that he started shouting at us. • I don’t
know + whether/if he’s going to stay + or whether/if he’s going
to leave. • They don’t care + if he gets well or not. • Find out +
if they’re going today or tomorrow. • I don’t know + if all this
is going to be easy + or difficult. • Whether he comes here + or
whether he goes there + he’s not going to get it. • Whether they
like it or not + we’re going ahead with the plan.
Important: As far as possible, avoid subordinators that have not
been given in the lists — like the ones given below. They’d make
your speech formal.
excepting (that), granted (that), in that, in order that, the
instant when, the minute when, the moment when, such that,
the time that, the time when.
Note: Subordinate clauses introduced by the simple subordinator ‘that’ belong
to a category of clauses called nominal clauses. This is because such a clause can
perform the same functions as a noun phrase within a clause. (For example, it
can act as the Subject element). Subordinate clauses introduced by other simple
and complex subordinators belong to a category of clauses called adverbial
clauses. This is because these subordinate clauses can perform the same func-
tions as an Adverbial element within a clause.
2. Clauses introduced by wh-elements

When a finite clause is introduced by a wh-element, that clause
becomes a subordinate clause. Here are the common wh-
elements:
 how, what, whatever, when, whenever, where, wherever,
which, whichever, who, whoever, whom (formal: avoid),
whose, why.
E.g. (1) • That was + how it happened. • He told me + how he did

it. • What caused him to resign + is still a mystery. • What he’ll
do + is another question. • Tell me + what this is for. • She gave
him + what money she had. • I’m not sure + when he’s going
to come. • I don’t know + where his house is. • That’s where
he’s hidden all that money. • Where he comes from + is Delhi. •
Now’s when you should act. • I didn’t know + which to choose.
• The problem is + who will make the arrangements. • I didn’t
know + who that was. • Let’s find out + whose house it is. • He’s
not at all worried + why all this has happened. • Nobody knows
+ why he resigned. • Why he left the company + is still a mystery.
• They can appoint + whoever they like. • Whoever rang the bell
+ was in a hurry. • You can pick out + whichever you like. •
Whenever you want to do it + is fine with us. • Wherever he lives
+ is his home. • You can’t imagine + how nice it was. • You don’t
know + what problems she had to face. • I can’t begin to tell you
+ how beautifully she sang. • It’s amazing + how much trust
they have in him. • It’s surprising + how he managed to win the
election. • You should tell him + what an enormous crowd came
to the show.
(2) • You can do it + however you like. • I couldn’t
convince them + however I tried. • We won’t be able to get
there before dark + however fast we drive. • Whatever I do
+ I can’t control my thoughts. • You can come and meet us
+ whenever you like. • He enjoys himself + wherever he is.
Note 1: The wh-clauses in the examples at para (1) are nominal clauses —
because they perform the same function as a noun phrase. The wh-clauses in
the examples at para (2) are adverbial clauses— because they perform the same
function as an Adverbial.
Note 2: Never use the following wh-words to introduce your clauses (even
in writing): howsoever, whatsoever, wheresoever, whom, whomsoever, whosoever.
They’ll make your speech (and writing) stilted.
Note 3: The wh-words in this section have been called ‘elements’, because
they function as clause-elements inside the ‘wh-clause’. Thus, for example, the
wh-element ‘what’ is the Subject element in the wh-clause ‘What caused him to
resign’. You’ll find the words when and where listed separately as subordinators
also, because those words often function not only as wh-elements, but also as
subordinators.
Prepositional clauses
When a wh-clause occurs after a preposition, the combination
becomes a prepositional clause (= preposition + a noun
clause).
E.g. • They haven’t told you the whole story + of what actually
happened there. • The boss wants a report + on how effective
our new marketing strategy is. • I’m so happy + about what has
happened. • There’s no doubt + about who did it. • Don’t spend
the money + on whatever you like.
3. Inversion of initial elements in a clause

Sometimes in very formal written English, the positions of
the Subject element and the ‘operator’ are interchanged — in
order to make the clause a conditional clause without using the
subordinator if. When this Subject–operator inversion happens,
that makes a clause a subordinate clause.
E.g. • Had I seen him + I would have told him. • Were he your boss +
you wouldn’t have dared to do it. • Should you need any help +
get in touch with me.
Here’s another type of inversion:
E.g. • He’s a mechanic + as is his brother. • He works with the XYZ
company + as does his brother.
Here’s yet another type of inversion:
E.g. • Busy as I was + I attended the party. • Attractive that she was
+ he didn’t like her. • Angry though he was + he didn’t shout at
them.
Avoid all these inversions. Yes. Avoid them.
4. Special subordinate constructions

They’re of two types: Non-finite clauses and Verbless clauses.
4.1 Non-finite clauses

Non-finite clauses are of four types: (i) ‘to-infinitive’ clauses; (ii)
‘bare infinitive’ clauses; (iii) ‘-ing participle’ clauses; and (iv) ‘-en
participle’ clauses.
Out of these four types, ‘to-infinitive’ clauses and ‘-ing
participle’ clauses are the most frequent ones. Of course, ‘-en
participle’ clauses are also not rare. But ‘bare infinitive’ clauses
only occur rarely.
Here’s an important point about non-finite clauses in
general: Whenever a co-ordinate alternative is available, you
should avoid all types of non-finite clauses — whether they’re
introduced by a subordinator or not. If this is not possible, choose
the natural order “Matrix clause first”.
(i) “to-infinitive” clauses:

In to-infinitive clauses, the verb element is in a form that follows
the word ‘to’. In other words, these are clauses that start with the
word ‘to’.
(a) Without subject:
E.g. The right thing would be + to give it back.
You can convert this into a co-ordinate arrangement as
follows:
Give it back + That would be the right thing.
(b) With subject:
E.g. The right thing would be + for you to give it back.
follows:
You give it back + That would be the right thing.
(c) ‘Anticipatory It’ construction (With subject):
E.g. It would be better for you + to give it back.
follows:
You give it back + That would be better.
In the word groups at (a), (b) and (c), the to-infinitive
clause is ‘to give it back’. In certain circumstances, such a to-

infinitive clause can be introduced by certain subordinators. For
example, in the examples in (b) and (c) above, you can see that
the subordinator ‘for’ introduces the ‘to-infinitive clause’ (‘for you
to give it back’).
The subordinators that introduce to-infinitive clauses in
this way are:
 as if, as though, in order, whether.
 for (you/me/us/him/her/them), with (you/me/us/him/
her/them), without (you/me/us/him/her/them) .
(ii) Bare infinitive clauses

These are virtually to-infinitive clauses minus the word ‘to’.
E.g. • What she did was + (to) slap him across his face. • What he’s
planning to do + is (to) resign. • All he did + was (to) ask her
for a loan. • Rather than mail it to him + go and give it to him in
person. • Sooner than wait for another day + let’s start now.
Often you’ll be able to convert these subordinate arrangements
into co-ordinate arrangements (and convey the intended meaning
by placing the accent on the appropriate word):
• She slapped him + across his face. • He’s planning +
to resign. • He asked her for a loan + and that was all he
did. • Go and give it to him in person + and don’t mail it to
him. • Don’t let’s wait for another day + Let’s start now.
(b) With subject:
E.g. Rather than you do it yourself + get somebody else to do it.
follows:
Don’t get somebody else to do it + Do it yourself.
Note this: Always avoid bare infinitive clauses.
(iii) “-ing participle” clauses:

These are clauses that start with an ‘-ing’ word (like Being,
Finding, Having, Looking, etc.).
E.g. Finding him there + she ran away.
follows:
She found him there + and she ran away.
(b) With subject:
E.g. Raju having come out + it was my turn to go in.
This is a very stilted kind of subordinate arrangement. You
can convert this into a co-ordinate arrangement as follows:
Raju had come out + and it was my turn to go in.
An -ing participle clause can be introduced by certain
subordinators.
E.g. • While going through it + she made some corrections.
Here the -ing clause is ‘going through it’. The subordinator
that introduces it is ‘while’. This is a subordinate arrangement.
You can convert this subordinate arrangement into a co-ordinate
arrangement as follows:
She was going through it + and she made some
corrections.
Here are two more examples of -ing participle clauses
introduced by subordinators, and their co-ordinate equivalents:
• With all of them distracting her + she couldn’t read. [=
They were all disturbing her + and she couldn’t read). •
Without anything prompting him + he won’t help them.
[= Is there anything to prompt him? + Without that + he
won’t help them). • We’ll leave + after meeting him. [=
We’ll meet him + and leave). • He was a bit aggressive +
although trying to be polite at the same time. [= He was a
bit aggressive + but he was trying to be polite at the same
time).
The subordinators that introduce -ing clauses are:

 after, although, as if, as though, before, even if, if , on,
once, since, though, through, unless, until, when, whenever,
whether, while.
(iv) “-en participle” clauses:

These are clauses that start with a past participle. (E.g. ‘given’,
‘taken’ ‘mistaken’, ‘granted’, ‘disgusted’, ‘kept’, ‘made’, etc.).
E.g. Disgusted with their behaviour + he left the place immediately.
follows:
He was disgusted with their behaviour + and he left the
place immediately.
(b) With subject:
E.g. Shaken by the accident + he couldn’t even speak properly.
follows:
He was shaken by the accident + and he couldn’t even
speak properly.
An -en participle clause can be introduced by certain
subordinators.
E.g. When asked to explain what happened + she remained silent.
Here the -en clause is ‘asked to explain what happened’. The
subordinator that introduces it is ‘When’. This is a subordinate
arrangement. You can convert this subordinate arrangement
into a co-ordinate arrangement (depending on who asked her to
explain what happened) as follows:
He asked her to explain what happened + and she
remained silent.
The subordinators that introduce -en clauses in this way
are:
 although, as, as if, as soon as, as though, even if, if, once,
though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever,
whether, while.
4.2 Verbless clauses

A verbless clause is a clause that has no verb element — either
finite or non-finite. Let’s look at a few examples. In these
examples, verbless clauses have been given in italics:
E.g.• Whether good or bad + I’m going to keep it. • Too anxious to do
it + he started at once. • Bring them along + if possible. • There
were about 100 people + many of them old men.
You can convert these into co-ordinate arrangements as
follows:
• It may be good or bad + but I’m going to keep it. • He
was too anxious to do it + and he started at once. • Is it
possible to bring them along? + Then bring them along. •
There were about 100 people + and many of them were
old men.
A verbless clause can be introduced by certain
subordinators.
E.g. • Though a bit confused + he answered the questions properly.
• With everybody away + I was alone there.
Here the verbless clauses are ‘a bit confused’ and ‘everybody
away’. And the subordinators that introduce them are ‘Though’
and ‘With’. These are subordinate arrangements. You can convert
them into co-ordinate arrangements as follows:
• He was a bit confused + but he answered the questions
properly.
• Everybody was away + and I was alone there.
Here are the subordinators that can introduce verbless
clauses:
 although, as, as if, as soon as, as though, even if, if, once,
though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever,

whether, while, with, without.
5. Phrase-internal clauses
So far, we’ve been looking at subordinate clauses that function
as a constituent element of a matrix clause. (That is, as a ‘clause-
within-clause’ or as a sub-clause attached to a matrix clause).
Let’s now look at subordinate clauses that function not as
a constituent element of a matrix clause, but as part of a noun
phrase within a matrix clause. (That is, as a ‘clause-within-
phrase’).
(i) Finite Relative clauses

You know, a relative clause doesn’t directly get connected to a
matrix clause, in the way other subordinate clauses (clauses
introduced by subordinators) do. Instead, it embeds itself deep
inside a matrix clause — as a post-modifier within a noun phrase
inside a matrix clause. (As you know, noun phrases occur within
a clause as the Subject element or the Object element or the
Describer Complement).
Here are the various types of relative clauses:
(a) Finite relative clauses with ‘that’, ‘which’ or ‘who’ as the
Subject.
E.g. • They own [a factory that manufactures cement]. • We’ll have
to help [those who helped us]. • This is [the medicine which cured
the injury].
Note that the word that can often take the place of which
and who.
E.g. those that/who helped us, the medicine that/which cured the
injury.
(b) Finite relative clauses with that, which or who as the
Object.
E.g. the house (which/that) they’ve built, the person (who) we met
there.
Note: The words ‘which’, ‘that’ and ‘who’ can normally be omitted from this
type of a relative clause. Notice also the difference between (a) and (b).
(c) Finite relative clauses with ‘which’ as the Meaning
Completer.
E.g. He’s an expert + which I’m not. • I’m not an expert + which he is.
(d) Finite relative clauses with a preposition plus ‘which’,
‘that’ and ‘who’ as the Adverbial (= A).
E.g. • She’s the girl (who/that) he went out with. (A = with + who/
that). • All this happened + the day (that) we had our annual
conference (on). (A = on + that). • Let’s not do it + the way
(that/in which) they did. (A = that/in which).
Note: Note that you can normally omit the words within brackets.
(e) Finite relative clauses can sometimes have ‘whose + a
noun’ as the Subject, as the Object, or as part of the Adverbial
(that is, as the meaning completer in a prepositional phrase).
E.g. • a man whose honesty (= S) is not in doubt. • a man whose
honesty (= O) I don’t doubt. • a man with whose help (= A)
we can carry out the project.• the person whose house we stayed
in. (Here, in + whose = A).
(f) Finite clauses with ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘that’ as the
Adverbial.
E.g. • the place where we used to work, the house where
they live now. • the day (when/that) we met, the year
(when/that) our son started school.
Note 1: Note that the word that in a relative clause functions differently from
the subordinator that. The word that in a relative clause relates a word to a
clause, while the subordinator that connects a clause to another clause.
Note 2: (i) Avoid all constructions using ‘of which’ and ‘of whose’. (ii) Avoid
‘whom’.
(ii) Comparative clauses

Here are the various types of common comparative clauses.
They act as Meaning Completers within noun phrases, adjective
phrases and adverb phrases occurring within clauses. (These are

noun phrases occurring within clauses as the Subject element
or the Object element or the Describer Complement, adjective
phrases occurring within clauses as the Describer Complement
and adverb phrases occurring within clauses as the Adverbial
element).
(a) Finite clauses introduced by ‘than’.
E.g. • More people than I had expected + came to the meeting.
• She’s a better cook + than her sister (is). • He’s far more
competent + than I imagined. • Don’t give him more work +
than he can handle. • He’s less interested in these things + than
Sheila (is). • He’s more seriously involved in the plot + than we
thought. • She’s healthier + than her sister (is). • That’s a larger
room + than this (is). • Today we began work earlier + than we
used to (do). • She likes you more + than (she likes) Anil. • That
was a more detailed plan + than I thought (it would be). • She
could do it more easily + than others (could). • He’s more hard-
working + than he’s intelligent. • He’s seen more movies + than
you’ve read novels.
(b) Finite clauses introduced by ‘as’.
E.g. • She’s as good a cook + as her sister (is). • He isn’t as/so
competent + as I imagined. • He isn’t as/so much interested in
these things + as Sheila (is). • He isn’t as/so seriously involved
in the plot + as we thought. • She’s as healthy + as her sister
(is). • She likes you as much + as (she likes) Anil. • That was
as detailed a plan + as I thought (it would be). • She could do
it as easily + as others (could). • He’s as hard-working + as he’s
intelligent. • He’s seen as many movies + as you’ve read novels. •
Nobody has as/so many friends + as Sharon (has).
Note: Note that when the matrix clause is negative, you can replace ‘as’ by ‘so’.
(iii) Non-finite relative clauses

(a) to-infinitive relative clauses
E.g. • The best man to do the job is Anil. • This is not the time to
quarrel. • She was the first girl to come and the last girl to leave. •
That’s the best place (for you) to stay. • The time (for us) to act is
now. • There’s plenty to do.
(b) -ing participle relative clauses

E.g. • This is a job involving a lot of work. • The man standing at the
door is her father. • Who’s that boy sitting next to her?
(c) -en participle relative clauses
E.g. • That was the first article written by him. • Some of the films
produced by him have been huge successes.
Important: Don’t be under the impression that you have to become good at
identifying a clause as a noun clause, adverbial clause, etc. — or at composing
examples ‘clause-name-wise’. No, that’s not necessary at all. No. All you need to
do is to try and get a clear idea of the patterns that subordinate clauses take.
***
Complex phrases 33
chapter 2
Complex phrases
Written English often uses heavily-modified noun phrases,
adjective phrases, adverb phrases and embedded prepositional
and noun phrases. But spoken English tends to avoid heavily-
modified and embedded phrases.
Noun phrases
The structure of a noun phrase is as follows:
(Determiners) + (Pre-modifiers)+ Noun+ (Post-modifiers) or
(Meaning completer)
The elements Determiners, Pre-modifiers, Post-modifiers and
Meaning completer have been given within brackets, because
they may or may not be present in a given noun phrase. They’re
optional elements, and the speaker may choose to omit them from
the phrase. Noun is the only obligatory element — the element
that cannot be omitted from a noun phrase.
Thus, a noun phrase can normally have the following nine
patterns:
1. Noun: (E.g. members). 2. Pre-modifier(s) + Noun:
(E.g. honorary members). 3. Determiner(s) + Noun: (E.g.
some members). 4. Determiner(s) + Pre-modifiers +
Noun: (E.g. some honorary members). 5. Noun + Post-
modifier(s): (E.g. members of our club). 6. Determiner(s)
+ Noun + Post-modifier(s): (E.g. some members of
our club). 7. Pre-modifier(s) + Noun + Post-modifier(s):
(E.g. honorary members of our club). 8. Determiner(s)
+ Pre-modifier(s) + Noun + Post-modifier(s): (E.g. some
honorary members of our club). 9. Determiner(s) + Pre-
modifier(s) + Noun + Meaning completer: (E.g. a more
active member than me)
34 Complex phrases
Pre-modification and Post-modification

The pre-modifiers in a noun phrase are:
(i) Adjective phrases (E.g. good players; extremely good
players); or
(ii) Nouns (E.g. tennis players).
The post-modifiers in a noun phrase are:
(i) Prepositional phrases (E.g. a house in the village); or
(ii) Clauses: (a) Finite clauses, especially relative clauses.
(E.g. the man who spoke to you); (b) Non-finite clauses.
(E.g. a man waiting to see you); or
(iii) (Sometimes) (a) Adverb phrases (E.g. the room
upstairs); (b) Postpositive adjectives, that is, adjectives that
the speaker uses after a noun, rather than before it. (E.g. the
heir apparent).
Occasionally, instead of a post-modifier, some nouns may
have what is called a ‘complementation element’. That is, they
may need more words to complete their meaning. We’ll call
this group of extra words a meaning completer, and not a
post-modifier, because modifiers are needed not to complete the
meaning of the noun, but to modify (= limit or add to) that
meaning.
E.g. • a better suggestion than that. • the best novel that I ever read.
• his ability to do it. • his lack of confidence.
Modification and complexity

Let’s take a noun ‘girl’, and use it in two simple word groups:
• I saw [a girl]. • [A girl] opened the door.
Suppose that the girl was beautiful. Now these word groups
can become:
• I saw [a beautiful girl]. • [A beautiful girl] opened the
door.
Complex phrases 35
Now ‘girl’ is a single-word phrase, and ‘a girl’ and ‘a beautiful

girl’ are multi-word phrases. As for the phrase ‘a beautiful girl’, it’s
a modified phrase, because the word ‘beautiful’ modifies the noun
‘girl’. Here the modifying word ‘beautiful’ comes before the noun
‘girl’, and so ‘a beautiful girl’ is a ‘pre-modified’ phrase. Suppose
that the girl was tall. Now the word groups can become:
• I saw [a tall, beautiful girl]. • [A tall, beautiful girl]
opened the door.
Now suppose that the girl was shy and was ten years old.
Now we can rewrite the word groups in this way:
• I saw [a ten-year old, shy, tall, beautiful girl].
• [A ten-year old, shy, tall, beautiful girl] opened the door.
The words ten-year old, shy, tall and beautiful come before,
and modifies, the noun girl. The phrase ‘a ten-year old, shy, tall,
beautiful girl’ is a heavily pre-modified noun phrase, because the
noun ‘girl’ has been modified heavily and all the modifying words
come before ‘girl’. Mind you, there are four units of modification in
this phrase — one unit is ten-year old, another unit is shy, another
unit is tall, and another unit is beautiful. We’ll call a phrase
‘heavily-modified’ if it has more than one unit of modification.
Just as pre-modification, there can be post-modification also.
In post-modification, the modifying words come after the noun.
Let us take the noun ‘girl’ again. The phrase ‘a girl with long
hair’ is a post-modified phrase, because the modifier (= ‘with
long hair’) comes after the word ‘girl’. (Here the post-modifier
is a prepositional phrase), This post-modified phrase becomes a
heavily post-modified phrase in the following sentence:
•I saw [a girl with long hair parted in the middle]
The modification has become heavy, because we’ve added a
second unit of modification ‘parted in the middle’ to the first unit
of modification. In written English, you will come across noun
phrases that are both pre-modified and post-modified. Here are
three (extreme) examples:
36 Complex phrases
• I saw [a ten-year old, shy, tall, beautiful girl with long

hair parted in the middle]. • [A ten-year old, shy, tall,
beautiful girl with long hair parted in the middle] opened
the door. • [A very important thing that I want you to find
out] is its price.
You see, ‘a very important thing that I want you to find out’
is a heavily-modified noun phrase. (Note that, here, the post-
modifier is a clause). Here the noun ‘thing’ is the head of the
phrase: A head is the one word in a phrase that you cannot
dispense with. You can dispense with any other word, but not the
head. If you dispense with the head, the phrase has no existence.
In the earlier phrases ‘a girl’, ‘a beautiful girl’, ‘A ten-year old,
shy, tall, beautiful girl’ and ‘an extremely beautiful girl’ with
long hair parted in the middle’, the head was the word ‘girl’.
How to avoid modification

Now, this is what happens in spoken English: In spoken English,
heavily-modified noun phrases are normally not used. You’ll
rarely find heavily-modified phrases like ‘A ten-year old, shy,
tall, beautiful girl with long hair parted in the middle’ or ‘A very
important thing that I want you to find out’ in naturally-occurring
speech. Mind you, they’re quite a mouthful.
In general, naturally-occurring speech does not favour even
a single unit of modification. No. Native speakers of English tend
to use noun phrases that are as short as possible. In fact, they tend
to use single-word noun phrases as the Subject element in their
clauses. That is, they tend to begin their clauses not with a multi-
word noun phrase, but with a single-word noun phrase. With a
long, heavily modified noun phrase as the Subject element, even
a very fluent speaker would find it difficult to speak without
faltering. So most often, native speakers of English use pronouns
like I, We, He, She, It, You and They as the Subject element in their
clauses. If this is not possible in a particular speech context, they
use an unmodified noun phrase as the Subject element. They only
Complex phrases 37
use a modified noun phrase as the Subject element if this is also

not possible in the speech context. Even then, they tend to use a
noun phrase that is post-modified rather than pre-modified. And
they shorten their noun-phrase-Subject-element to the maximum
extent possible.
Here are three sentences with heavily-modified noun phrases
as the Subject elements:
• [A ten-year old, shy, tall, beautiful girl] opened the door.
• [A ten-year old, shy, tall, beautiful girl with long hair
parted in the middle] opened the door. • [A very important
thing that I want you to find out] is its price.
You can shorten a noun phrase by omitting modifiers from
the phrase and by retaining the ‘head’ alone. You can then use
the modifiers separately elsewhere in the speech-stream. Thus,
the head would first appear in a separate idea unit — without
modification. And the modifying units would appear, one each,
in separate idea units: One modifying word would appear in one
idea unit — without modification. One or two modifying words
would appear in another idea unit. In this way, the modifiers get
distributed.
For example, take the sentence “A very important thing that
I want you to find out is its price”. Here’s one way of converting
this into idea units:
I want you to find out one thing + Find out its – price +
That’s very important.
Now take the sentence “I saw [a ten-year old, shy, tall,
beautiful girl with long hair parted in the middle]. Here’s one
way of converting this sentence into idea units:
I saw a girl + A beautiful girl+ She was tall, too + And ten
years old, perhaps + And very shy + And she – she had
long hair + And she had parted it + Parted it in the middle,
you know.
You see, what a modifying unit does is to describe or classify
38 Complex phrases
something — or to add to or restrict the meaning of the head.

What you should do is to utter each unit of description, each
unit of classification and each unit of meaning-restriction as a
separate idea unit. Yes, let there be a separate idea unit for each
modifying unit like ‘beautiful’ or ‘important’ or ‘long hair’.
Exceptional cases
As a rule, modified noun phrases are not used as a matter of course
in naturally-occurring speech. But there are five exceptional
cases, and these exceptional cases allow modified noun phrases.
Not heavily-modified ones, but simply-modified ones. Here are
these exceptional cases:
1. Re-reference
You can use a modified noun phrase when you re-refer to a person
or thing in speech. Suppose that you’ve already referred to a girl
in your speech. You’ve already said that she was beautiful, that
she had long hair and that she had parted her hair in the middle.
But you do not know her name, and so can’t refer to her by name.
Suppose that you then introduce one or two more girls into your
narrative. And suppose that you do not know their names, either.
Now the narrative continues.
Suppose that you now want to say something about the
first girl again. You can now re-refer to her as ‘the girl with long
hair’. (You see, you cannot always refer to her as ‘she’, because
your narrative includes more than one girl, and the word ‘she’
can refer to any one of them). Now remember this: The phrase
should be made as short as possible. If possible, don’t let there
be more than one unit of identification in the phrase.
2. Classifying function
Suppose that you want to refer to a person or thing in speech
— but not by name. Now, everybody and everything can be put
Complex phrases 39
into some category or group for the purpose of identification.

And so, one way of referring to anybody or anything in speech
is this: Distinguish that person or thing from others belonging to
that group.
You can do this by adding a unit of pre-modification or post-
modification to the noun that refers to that person or thing.
Let’s first look at classification by pre-modification. A unit
of pre-modification that classifies a noun would normally be a
descriptive word, and this descriptive word would always be an
adjective or another noun. In other words, you can refer to a
person or thing by an ‘adjective + noun’ combination or by a
‘noun + noun’ combination.
‘Adjective + noun’ combinations — Pre-

modification:
Here are a few examples of ‘Adjective + noun’ combinations:
E.g. a medical shop, dry fruits, solid food, a direct flight, an old lady,
rough ground.
The words ‘medical’, ‘dry’, ‘solid’, ‘direct’, ‘old’ and ‘rough’ in
the above phrases are descriptive (= defining) adjectives. That
is, they factually describe the headwords — by referring to a fact
that helps you distinguish the people and things represented by
the heads from others of their groups. Note that these adjectives
refer to a fact, and not to an opinion. Note this point carefully.
The modifiers that you use in an ‘adjective + noun’ combination
must, as far as possible, be words that factually describe people or
things. They must not be words that make a comment on people
or things or words that express your opinion about them. This is
an important point.
Here’s a list of common classifying adjectives:
 actual, agricultural, alternative, annual, available,
canned, central, chemical, civil, commercial, communist,
conservative, cultural, daily, democratic, direct, domestic,
40 Complex phrases
double, east, eastern, economic, educational, electric,

empty, external, female, financial, foreign, free, full,
general, golden, historical, human, industrial, inevitable,
intellectual, internal, international, legal, local, magic,
male, medical, mental, military, modern, moral, national,
natural, negative, north, northern, nuclear, official, open,
original, personal, physical, political, possible, potential,
private, professional, public, raw, religious, revolutionary,
rich, royal, rural, scientific, separate, sexual, single, social,
solid, south, southern, standard, straight, theoretical,
traditional, urban, west, western, wooden.
E.g. her actual words, agricultural land, an alternative plan, an annual
event.
Exercise: Make up word groups like these, using the words in the list. Use
your dictionary. This exercise would get you to have a deeper understanding of
these words. It’d help you make these words become items that you can actively
use, and thus they’ll stop remaining as items that you just know. And it’d give
you a deep awareness of the way words of different types work together to
express your meaning.
Objective and subjective adjectives:

You see, adjectives are of two types. (But note this: The distinction
we’re going to make cannot always be very clear-cut, and
you’ll find that certain adjectives can appear to belong to both
classes).
Some adjectives define or describe a person or thing (that is,
the head in a noun phrase). We can call them ‘objective adjectives’,
because they give factual information, rather than information
based on personal opinions or feelings. The words ‘medical’,
‘dry’, ‘solid’, ‘direct’, ‘old’ and ‘rough’ in the examples we saw
above are ‘objective adjectives’. Most adjectives that we looked at
as classifying adjectives are also objective adjectives.
Here are a few more adjectives that we can call as objective
adjectives:
 armed, big, blocked, boiled, broad, broken, classified,
Complex phrases 41
cooked, dark, dead, deep, dried, dry, fat, furnished, fixed,

flat, heavy, hidden, hard, hot, infected, licensed, large,
light, loaded, long, loose, loud, muddy, narrow, old, paid,
painted, pale, processed, reduced, rough, small, soft,
sweet, tall, thick, thin, tight, torn, trained, tiny, warm,
wet, young.
Exercise: As above.
But there are several adjectives that express a comment on or
opinion of a person or thing (= the head in a noun phrase). We
can call them ‘subjective adjectives’, because what they express
is based on personal opinions and feelings, rather than on facts.
For example, take a look at the following ‘adjective + noun’
combinations:
an impatient teacher, an anxious mechanic, a polite doctor,
an ignorant advocate.
Here the adjectives ‘impatient’, ‘anxious’, ‘polite’ and
‘ignorant’ are all mere opinion-words, and they do not give any
factual description. So they’re examples of ‘subjective adjectives’.
As they do not give any factual description, ‘subjective
adjectives’ do not help you much in referring to the people or
things represented by the heads. Rather, they only create confusion
in the minds of your listeners and in your own mind about the
identity of the people and things referred to — especially in a long
narrative or a narrative that lasts even for a few seconds. What’s
more, a pre-modified noun-phrase only becomes densely packed
when a subjective adjective occurs before a noun. It does not
become densely packed when an objective adjective occurs before
a noun. So you must not normally use comment combinations
like an impatient teacher, an anxious mechanic, a polite doctor or
an ignorant advocate in speech.
Comment adjectives:
All this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t include a comment or
opinion in speech. All this only means that you shouldn’t include
42 Complex phrases
it as a modifying unit. If you want to add a comment or opinion,

what you should do is this: Express each unit of comment or
opinion in a separate idea unit. That is, you should assign the
head and each comment word to separate idea units.
That is, what you should do is to avoid using comment
adjectives as modifying units — as far as possible. But this doesn’t
mean that all comment adjectives cause fluency problems when
they occur as modifying units.
Here’s a list of common comment adjectives that you can use
as pre-modifiers in noun phrases — especially when you use the
noun phrases not as the initial (= Subject) element in the clause,
but as a later element.
 abandoned, active, angry, anxious, attractive, bad, basic,
beautiful, brief, bright, busy, calm, careful, cheap, clean,
clear, close, closed, cold, comfortable, common, complex,
concentrated, condemned, cool, correct, curious,
dangerous, dear, determined, different, difficult, dirty,
divided, easy, effective, efficient, established, expensive,
fair, familiar, famous, fast, fine, firm, frank, fresh, friendly,
frightened, funny, good, great, happy, haunted, high,
ideal, important, improved, independent, integrated,
interesting, kind, known, late, likely, lovely, low, lucky,
nervous, new, nice, obvious, odd, patient, plain, pleasant,
poor, popular, powerful, pretty, proper, proud, quick,
quiet, rare, real, ready, reasonable, right, sad, safe,
sensible, serious, sharp, shocked, short, sick, significant,
silly, simple, slow, special, steady, strange, strong, stupid,
successful, sufficient, suitable, sure, surprised, suspicious,
terrible, tired, typical, understanding, united, useful,
violent, weak, wide, wild, worried, wrong.
E.g. • That was an abandoned car. • We had an active debate. •
These are all angry letters. • We had an anxious time. • That’s an
attractive price.
Exercise: As under classifying adjectives above.
Complex phrases 43
Comment adjectives as describer

complements:
Here’s something you should note: You see, it’s as modifiers that
comment adjectives cause problems. But they can occur in two
other positions without causing any fluency-problems: Thus, you
can use them after link verbs and after ‘objective case’ pronouns.
In these two positions, comment adjectives don’t make an idea
unit densely packed. Here are all the important link verbs:
 be (= is, are, was, were), appear, feel, look, seem, smell,
sound, taste, remain, keep, stay, become, come, end up,
get, go, grow, prove, turn, turn out, wind up.
Here’s all the objective case pronouns:
 me, us, you, him, her, it, them.
And here’s a list of adjectives that can occur (in serious
conversations) as describer complements after linking verbs. Many
of them can also occur after objective case pronouns. (They
can also occur occasionally as pre-modifiers of nouns in that
position).
 alarmed, alarming, amazing, amused, amusing, annoying,
antiquated, appalled, appalling, apparent, appropriate,
astonished, astonishing, astounding, bewildering,
bloated, bored, boring, concerned, confused, challenging,
charming, compelling, confusing, contended, convinced,
convincing, delighted, demeaning, depressed, depressing,
deprived, determined, devastating, disappointed,
disappointing, disgusted, disgusting, disillusioned,
distracting, distressed, distressing, disturbed, disturbing,
doomed, elegant, embarrassed, embarrassing, enchanting,
encouraging, entertaining, excited, exciting, frightened,
frightening, guarded, harassing, hopeless, horrifying,
humiliating, hurt, indebted, infuriating, inspiring,
interested, interesting, intimidated, intimidating,
intrigued, intriguing, involved, menacing, misleading,
44 Complex phrases
mocking, overwhelming, noted (for), pleased, pleasing,

preoccupied, puzzled, refreshing, relaxed, relaxing,
rewarding, satisfied, satisfying, scared, shocked, shocking,
sickening, sophisticated, startling, strained, surprised,
surprising, swollen, tempting, terrifying, threatening,
thrilled, thrilling, tired, tiring, troubled, welcoming,
worried, worrying.
E.g. • He heard the news and became alarmed. • He told her
something, and it made her quite alarmed. • She had an alarmed
look on her face. • The press reports were most alarming. • Those
stunts were amazing. • That was an amazing story. • I don’t think
she was amused by what you said.
Here’s a list of adjectives that are normally not used as pre-
modifiers, but as describer complements after link verbs:
 afraid, alive, alone, apart, ashamed, asleep, attached,
aware, content, due, glad, ill, likely, ready, safe, sorry,
sure, touched, unable, unlikely, upset, well.
E.g. • I think she’s afraid. • They thought he was dead, but he was
still alive.
‘Noun + Noun’ combinations

Pre-modification:
So far we’ve been looking at ‘adjective + noun’ combinations.
Now here are a few examples of ‘noun + noun’ combinations:
E.g. an Ahmedabad man, a board member, a bone doctor, business
deals, the car door, car journey, careers guidance, city traffic, clay
soil, clothes pegs, the corner table, a customs officer, dog food, an
evening train, the film industry, a garden fence, a Gujarat town,
a High Court advocate, an iron rod, her life story, a metal sheet,
the morning sunlight, a night sky, the science teacher, a scooter
mechanic, a surprise announcement, tennis players, tooth decay,
town life.
Here the modifying units like ‘science’, ‘scooter’, ‘bone’ and
Complex phrases 45
‘High Court’ give a factual description of the headwords ‘teacher’,

‘mechanic’, etc. — and not a comment or opinion. Remember that
‘adjective + noun’ combinations and ‘noun + noun’ combinations
of the descriptive type are quite common in speech. Yes, descriptive
combinations, and not comment combinations.
Post-modification
So far, we’ve been looking mostly at pre-modification — that
is, the kind of modification involved in “adjective + noun”
combinations and “noun + noun combinations”. But remember
this: Pre-modification is not the only kind of modification that
helps you describe or classify a person or thing. You can do this
by post-modification also.
E.g. the girl with long hair, a boy in a blue shirt, the man you were
speaking to.
Here too, be sure to use descriptive (= defining) words as
units of modification — as far as possible. If you want to make
comments or state opinions, present them as separate idea units,
and not as units of modification.
Here’s an important point you should bear in mind: In
naturally-occurring speech, post-modifiers are more frequent
than pre-modifiers. You see, post-modification doesn’t affect the
flow of your speech as much as pre-modification does.
3. Conventional pre-modifiers
There are certain adjectives that normally occur as pre-modifiers
of nouns. So when these adjectives are used, the noun phrase
becomes pre-modified. Here’s a list of common adjectives of this
type:
 acting, additional, assorted, atomic, back, bottom,
bridal, cardiac, certain, chief, concerted, countless,
dashing, digital, educational, entire, existing, first,
following, front, further, incoming, indoor, institutional,
introductory, investigative, judicial, knotty, last, leading,
46 Complex phrases
left, lone, lower, main, maximum, middle, nationwide,

neighbouring, next, occasional, only, opposite, orchestral,
other, outdoor, outright, particular, passing, past,
present, previous, principal, remaining, remedial, right,
ruling, rural, same, specific, supplementary, thankless,
underlying, upper, usual, utter, veiled, very.
Here are a few adjectives that usually occur only as pre-
modifiers:
 commanding, detailed, enterprising, moral, ordinary,
pointed, principled, punishing, salaried, scientific, tinned,
woollen.
Here are a few adjectives that frequently occur as pre-
modifiers (though they also occur often as describer complements
after link verbs):
 absolute, academic, advanced, appetizing, complete,
conscious, cunning, promising, missing, dry, effective,
emotional, escaped, extreme, mixed, modern, outgoing,
outstanding, overbearing, perfect, positive, pure, real,
religious, retired, revolutionary, rugged, scathing, secret,
skilled, top, true, trying, upright, wasted.
Exercise: As under “2. Classifying function”.
4. Non-specific modification
General (non-specific) words like ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘nice’ etc. are
not descriptive words, but comment words or opinion words.
Yet these words frequently modify other general (non-specific)
words like ‘person’, ‘girl’, ‘thing’, etc. and make up combinations
like ‘a good person’, ‘a bad girl’, ‘a nice thing’, etc.
Such combinations of general words are like ‘pre-fabricated’
or ‘standardized’ expressions in speech. And so, it is not worth
trying to avoid them as units of modification or to shift them
into separate idea units. So general comment combinations like
‘a good person’, ‘a bad girl’, etc. are quite common in everyday
Complex phrases 47
speech.
Here are a few more examples of non-specific modification:
E.g. awful weather, a big house, an excellent player, a famous writer, a
fantastic match, a fine evening, a great achievement, a little baby,
a lovely day, a main road, a nasty man, a neat room, a perfect
copy, a super idea, a terrific time, a top scientist, a tremendous
performance, a wonderful film.
5. Intensifiers and downtoners

There are a few words in English that can come in front of an
adjective (or adverb) and make the meaning of that adjective (or
adverb) stronger. These words are called intensifiers. The most
common among them are:
awfully, beautifully, completely, extremely, frightfully,
horribly, marvelously, really, terribly, utterly, very, unusually.
Similarly, there are a few words in English that can come in
front of an adjective (or adverb) and make the meaning of that
adjective (or adverb) weaker. These words are called downtoners.
The most common among them are: fairly, rather, somewhat.
One such intensifier or downtoner may occur before an
adjective used as a pre-modifier. That won’t make a noun phrase
heavily modified.
E.g. an awfully difficult problem, a beautifully played match, an
extremely funny story, (in) a frightfully sorry state, a horribly
wrong thing.
There are a number of other intensifiers and downtoners
in English. We’ll look at them while discussing the adjective
phrase.
Fluency and word-modification

The crux of what I have been telling you about noun phrases is
48 Complex phrases
this: Don’t modify nouns — as far as possible. In any case, avoid

heavy modification.
One reason why modified noun phrases cause fluency
problems is this: A modified noun phrase is a mouthful, and it’s
difficult to utter. But there’s a still more important reason. Mind
you, the structure of a modified noun phrase is virtually the
same as the structure of a sentence with a subordinate clause.
A sentence with a subordinate clause contains a matrix clause
and a subordinate clause, and the subordinate clause is not
independent, but dependent on the matrix clause for its survival.
Similarly, a modified noun phrase (whether pre-modified or post-
modified) contains a main unit (‘head’) and a subordinate unit
(modifier), and the subordinate unit is not independent, but
dependent on the main unit (‘head’ ) for its survival.
We saw that we could avoid a lot of problems that
subordination of clauses brings by uttering the matrix clause first,
and the subordinate clause next. In the same way, we can avoid
a lot of problems that phrasal modification brings by uttering
the phrase-head first, and the modifying units next — that is, by
preferring post-modification to pre-modification.
While going through the mechanics of subordination, we
saw one thing: You can prevent loss of speech-composition
balance and speech-delivery balance by avoiding subordination
and by allowing idea units (= clauses) to remain independent.
In the same way, here too, you can prevent the loss of speech-
composition balance and speech-delivery balance by avoiding
modification and by allowing idea units (= phrases) to remain
independent. In other words, you must not pack more than
one unit of information in a phrase, and you must avoid using
modified (subordinated) phrases. Instead, you must put into a
phrase only a single unit of information.
***
Secondary phrases 49
Chapter 3
Secondary phrases
Adjective phrases
An adjective is a word that modifies a noun. The word ‘girl’ is a
noun. In ‘a beautiful girl’, the word ‘beautiful’ is an adjective.
The structure of an adjective phrase is as follows:
(Pre-modifiers) +Adjective+ (Post-modifier) or (Meaning
completer)
So an adjective phrase can have the following patterns:
1. Adjective: (E.g. good). 2. Pre-modifier(s) + Adjective:
(E.g. very good). 3. Adjective + Post-modifier: (E.g. good
enough). 4. Pre-modifier(s) + Adjective + Post-modifier:
(E.g. very good indeed). 5. Pre-modifier(s) + Adjective +
Meaning completer: (E.g. very good at mathematics).
The pre-modifiers of adjective phrases are always adverb phrases.
And the post-modifiers are also adverbs.
Take the word group ‘She’s beautiful’. Here ‘beautiful’ is an
unmodified adjective — a single-word adjective phrase. Now
take the word group ‘She is extremely beautiful’. Here ‘extremely
beautiful’ is a multi-word adjective phrase — an adjective pre-
modified by an adverb ‘extremely’.
The phrase ‘extremely beautiful’ is an adjective phrase,
because the head ‘beautiful’ is an adjective. (As you know, the
phrase-head is the one word in a phrase that you cannot dispense
with). You see, ‘extremely beautiful’ is a pre-modified phrase,
because the modifying word comes before the head. Here are a
few more pre-modified adjective phrases:
E.g. absolutely clear, quite right, really complicated, very reasonable.
50 S econdary phrases
A phrase in which the modifier comes after the head is called

a post-modified phrase. But you see, post-modified adjective
phrases are not very common. There are only two adverbs in
general use that can post-modify an adjective. They’re enough
and indeed.
E.g. • happy enough, strong enough. • large indeed, very clear
indeed.
The adverb ‘enough’ can only do post-modification. But
the adverb ‘indeed’ can do the post-modification as well as pre-
modification.
E.g. Their new house is indeed large.
As far as the meaning completers are concerned, they’re
obligatory with some adjectives. With others, they’re only optional.
Here are some of the common adjectives that are always or
usually followed by a Meaning Completer:
(i) Meaning completion by a prepositional

phrase:
 afraid of, alarmed at, allergic to, amused at, angry about,
angry at, angry with, annoyed about, annoyed with,
answerable to, ashamed of, aware of, based on, bent on,
brilliant at, bored with, burdened by/with, busy with,
capable of, certain of, clever at, close to, comfortable
with, concerned with, connected to/with, conscious of,
content with, convinced of, delighted about, delighted
at, delighted with, depressed with, devoted to, different
from, disappointed with, disgusted at, disgusted with,
distant from, distressed with, drunk with, due to, empty
of, familiar with, filled with, fond of, free from, friendly
with, frightened about, full of, furious with, glad about,
glad of, good at, happy about, happy with, hopeless at,
impatient with, incapable of, inclined to, intent on/upon,
keen on, lacking in, liable to, mad about, occupied with,
opposed to, overcome with, parallel to/with, pleased
about, pleased at, pleased with, prepared to, prone to,

proud of, puzzled at, reasonable about, related to, remote
from, satisfied with, scared of, set on, severe on, short
of, sick with, similar to, subject to, terrible at, tired of,
uneasy with, worried about, worthy of.
E.g. • She’s allergic to cats. • They’re not aware of these dangers.
• This film is based on a true story. • He seems to be bent on
revenge.
(ii) Meaning completion by a ‘to-infinitive’

clause:
 able to, bound to, due to, fit to, liable to, likely to, prepared
to, unable to, unwilling to, willing to.
E.g. • She wasn’t able to complete the report in time. • These things
are bound to happen. • He’s due to retire next month. • This food
isn’t fit to be eaten.
(iii) Meaning completion by a ‘that-

clause’:
 angry that, aware that, unaware that, upset that, worried
that.
E.g. • He was angry that she was late. • She wasn’t aware that he’d
lost his job. • We were unaware that they had all those facilities
there.
(iv) Meaning completion by a ‘to-

infinitive’ clause or by a ‘that-clause’:
 afraid, anxious, certain, confident, frightened, glad,
happy, pleased, proud, sad, sorry, sure, surprised.
E.g. • She’s afraid to tell the truth. • He was afraid that the plan
might fail. • He was anxious to please those people. • He was
anxious that there should be no mistakes.
(v) Meaning completion by a ‘wh-clause’:

 careful (about), doubtful (about), fuzzy (about), puzzled
(about), not sure (of), unaware (of), uncertain (of),

unclear (about), undecided (about), unsure (of).
E.g. • Be careful (about) what you say. • He was doubtful (about)
when they’d come.
(vi) Meaning completion by an ‘-ing

participle clause’:
 busy, pointless, useless, worth, worthwhile.
E.g. • He was busy completing a report. • It’s pointless complaining to
them.
How to avoid modification

Now refer back to what I told you about avoiding modification
in noun phrases. Follow the same advice here, and avoid
modification in adjective phrases, too.
Essentially, the thing you should do is this: Use the head and
the modifier in separate idea units — and not in one and the
same idea unit. If this is not possible, either omit the modifier
altogether — or use it in a separate idea unit along with the head,
or express its meaning in a separate idea unit in other words. Yes,
in other words.
You see, in most adjective phrases, you can often omit the
modifier. What is ‘absurdly expensive’ is ‘expensive’; who is
‘incredibly handsome’ is ‘handsome’; who is ‘supremely confident’
is ‘confident’; what is ‘extraordinarily difficult’ is ‘difficult’; what
is ‘disturbingly high’ is ‘high’; who’s ‘delightfully surprised’ is
‘surprised’. So, in most contexts, you can omit the adjectives
‘absurdly’, ‘incredibly’, ‘supremely’, ‘extraordinarily’, ‘disturbingly’
and ‘delightfully’ from these phrases. But if you feel that you
must intensify the meanings conveyed by the headwords, the
general word ‘very’ can take the place of all the above modifying
words: ‘very expensive’, ‘very handsome’, ‘very confident’, ‘very
difficult’, ‘very high’, ‘very surprised’. Or, you can use ‘quite’ or
‘extremely’. Or, depending on contexts, you can go on like this:

• That’s very expensive + Yes, absurdly so. • He’s very
handsome + Incredibly handsome, you can say. • She was
very confident + Supremely confident, I would say. • That
was very difficult + Extraordinarily difficult. • The birth
rate in our country is very high + And this is something
that’s quite disturbing. • We were very surprised + And we
were quite delighted, too.
But from what I’ve told you so far, don’t jump to the
conclusion that you must never use any pre-modifying unit at all
in an adjective phrase. In fact, there are several words and word
groups that you can safely use as pre-modifiers. Let me give you
a list of these items:
1. Intensifiers
Most often, the adverbs (and adverb-like word groups) that
pre-modify an adjective belong to a category called intensifiers.
(These are adverbs of degree). I’ve already introduced you to
them while discussing the noun phrase. Here are the common
intensifiers that can pre-modify your adjectives:
 absolutely, all, altogether, amazingly, awfully, badly,
beautifully, certainly, completely, dangerously, downright,
dreadfully, entirely, especially, exactly, extremely,
fantastically, far, frankly, frightfully, fully, heavily, highly,
hopelessly, horribly, just, largely, mainly, marvellously,
more and more, much, particularly, perfectly, purely, quite,
really, seriously, severely, sharply, simply, so, strongly,
suitably, terribly, thoroughly, too, totally, tremendously,
unbelievably, unreasonably, unusually, utterly, very,
wonderfully.
 a good deal, a great deal, a lot, more than, most.
Here’s another list of ‘advanced-level’ intensifiers:
 adequately, bitterly, considerably, critically, deeply,

enormously, exceedingly, excessively, extraordinarily,
greatly, immensely, impossibly, increasingly, incredibly,
intensely, peculiarly, positively, remarkably, ruthlessly,
significantly, splendidly, soundly, superbly, strangely,
strikingly, surprisingly, truly, uncomfortably, unnaturally,
violently, vitally, wholly, wildly.
E.g. absolutely beautiful, all (= completely) upset, altogether wrong,
amazingly cheap, awfully nice, far simpler, a good/great deal
better, adequately prepared, bitterly critical, considerably larger,
critically ill, deeply depressed.
Here’s a guideline that’ll help you avoid speech-production
difficulties to a great extent: While using intensifiers, what you
must normally do is this: You must first use the head (= adjective)
by itself without any modification in a separate idea unit, and then
use these intensifiers separately (with or without the adjective) in
the following idea unit. Go through the five examples I gave you
immediately before the sub-heading ‘1. Intensifiers’ above. They’ll
give you a clear idea. And here are a few more examples:
E.g. • They were strangely calm. (= They were very calm + And
I found it quite strange). • He was violently aggressive. (= He
was very aggressive + Violently aggressive, actually). • Their
Marketing Manager is ruthlessly efficient. (= Their Marketing
Manager is very efficient + Ruthlessly efficient).
2. Downtoners
There are a number of adverbs that tone down the effect of
adjectives. These adverbs are called downtoners. I’ve already
introduced you to them while discussing the noun phrase. You
can use the common ones among these downtoners to pre-modify
your adjectives. Here they are:
 all but, almost, as good as, barely, hardly, a bit, faintly,
fairly, just, kind of, a little, little, mildly, moderately, more
or less, nearly, partially, partly, practically, pretty, quite,

rather, reasonably, relatively, scarcely, slightly, somewhat,
sort of, sufficiently, virtually.
E.g. all but true, almost correct, as good as impossible, barely enough,
hardly visible, a bit expensive, faintly (= slightly) surprised, fairly
large.
3. Adjunct adverbs
The primary role of adverbs is to give more information about
the manner or circumstances in which something happens or
about the time or place in which something happens.
When they’re performing this primary role, adverbs act
more as adjuncts, rather than as intensifiers or downtoners.
Such adjunct adverbs can occasionally be used to pre-modify
an adjective. Here’s a list of adjunct adverbs you can use in this
way:
(i) Manner adjuncts:

 awkwardly, badly, brightly, cheaply, closely, comfortably,
conveniently, delicately, distinctly, easily, economically,
effectively, efficiently, evenly, explicitly, fiercely, finely,
firmly, formally, freely, heavily, hurriedly, meticulously,
naturally, neatly, openly, plainly, pleasantly, poorly,
professionally, properly, quietly, readily, richly, rigidly,
securely, sensibly, sharply, simply, specially, steadily,
systematically, tightly, urgently, vaguely, widely.
E.g. awkwardly long, badly managed, brightly coloured, cheaply
furnished, pleasantly surprised, (Rules like these are always)
rigidly applied, steadily worse.
Note: While using these adverbs, follow the guideline given under ‘1. Intensi-
fiers’.
(ii) Adjuncts of time:

 immediately, instantly, no longer, permanently.
E.g. immediately clear, instantly apparent, no longer free,
permanently disabled.
(iii) Adjuncts of place:

 globally, internationally, universally, widely.
E.g. globally known, internationally famous, universally available,
widely different.
4. Colour adjectives
As you know, the words for common colours are: black, blue,
brown, cream, green, grey, maroon, orange, pink, purple, red,
scarlet, violet, white, yellow. You can pre-modify these colour
adjectives by the following words:
 bright, clear, dark, deep, light, pale.
E.g. bright pink, clear orange, dark red, deep blue, light brown, pale
green.
5. View-point adjuncts
There are some adverbs that help you indicate that something
is to be looked at from a particular point of view. These words
are called viewpoint adjuncts. You can use them to pre-modify an
adjective. Here are a few of them:
 artistically, architecturally, economically, ethically,
ethnically, financially, geographically, morally, politically,
psychologically, scientifically, technically, theoretically.
E.g. artistically impressive, architecturally beautiful, economically
weak, ethically correct, ethnically mixed, financially independent,
geographically distinct, morally wrong, politically sensitive,
psychologically important, scientifically advanced, technically
skilled, theoretically possible.
One way of preventing viewpoint adverbs from making your

speech getting packed tightly is this: Utter the viewpoint adverb
separately as a distinct idea unit and avoid premodification by it
totally:
• Artistically + that painting is quite impressive. •
Architecturally + that building is very beautiful. •
Economically + that country is a bit weak.
Another method is this: You can use the head (= adjective)
without the viewpoint adverb in an idea unit first, and then use
the viewpoint adverb separately (with or without the adjective)
in the following idea unit.
• That painting is quite impressive + Artistically
impressive. • That building is very beautiful +
Architecturally, I mean. • That country is a bit weak +
Economically, you know.
Adverb phrases
Adverbs normally modify verbs. They often modify adjectives,
too. (A few adverbs even modify nouns and determiners). You
can easily identify most of the adverbs, because the spellings of
most of them end in the suffix ‘-ly’.
The structure of an adverb phrase is as follows:
(Pre-modifiers) + Adverb + (Post-modifier) or (Meaning
completer).
So an adverb phrase can have the following patterns:
1. Adverb: (E.g. easily). 2. Pre-modifier(s) + Adverb:
(E.g. very easily). 3. Adverb+ Post-modifier: (E.g. easily
enough). 4. Pre-modifier(s) + Adverb + Post-modifier:
(E.g. very easily indeed). 5. Pre-modifier(s) + Adverb +
Meaning completer: (E.g. as easily as possible).
Mind you, only intensifier-adverbs and downtoner-adverbs
can pre-modify other adverbs. Here are two lists of common pre-
modifiers:
 absolutely, amazingly, awfully, completely, especially,
extremely, fantastically, marvellously, most, particularly,
perfectly, quite, really, so, surprisingly, that, thoroughly,
tremendously, unbelievably, unusually, very, wonderfully.
 almost, a bit, hardly, fairly, a little (bit), moderately,
only, pretty, quite, rather, reasonably, relatively, scarcely,
somewhat.
And here’s a list of common adverbs (= ‘heads’):
 accurately, angrily, anxiously, artificially, badly, beautifully,
bitterly, boldly, briefly, brightly, calmly, cheerfully, clearly,
closely, clumsily, confidently, convincingly, dearly, deeply,
deliberately, desperately, easily, eagerly, effectively,
efficiently, excitedly, fairly, far, fast, foolishly, frequently,
furiously, generously, gladly, gloomily, gratefully, happily,
hard, helplessly, highly, hopefully, hopelessly, hurriedly,
impatiently, innocently, little, mechanically, miserably,
naturally, nervously, often, openly, passionately, perfectly,
proudly, quickly, quietly, rarely, recently, reluctantly,
sadly, savagely, scientifically, secretly, seldom, severely,
shortly, shyly, sincerely, slightly, slowly, soon, specially,
superficially, sweetly, thickly, thinly, uncomfortably,
uneasily, unexpectedly, happily, warmly, wearily, well.
The intensifier ‘very’ can pre-modify all these adverbs. Of
course, other intensifiers and downtoners can also pre-modify
several of them, depending on the contexts. But mind you,
intensifiers and downtoners ending in ‘-ly’ are not often used to
pre-modify adverbs ending in ‘-ly’ itself. No. For example, native
speakers of English don’t use phrases like ‘extremely clearly’ too
often. Phrases like these are only used when speakers want to give
extra emphasis to a particular point. (You see, ‘only rarely’ and
‘only recently’ are exceptions and are, of course, quite common).
But there are some adverbs that don’t have the ‘-ly’ suffix. (E.g.
alone, ever, far, fast, hard, little, never, not, often, seldom, soon, well).
These are the adverbs that intensifiers and downtoners ending

in ‘-ly’ often modify.
E.g. • absolutely not, amazingly well, (works) reasonably hard,
completely alone.
• almost never, a bit far, hardly ever, fairly well.
Note: The adverbs ‘alone’, ‘ever’, ‘never’ and ‘not’ cannot be pre-modified by
‘very’, and so have not been given in the list above.
Now just as there are pre-modified adverb phrases, there can
be post-modified ones, too. But they’re far less common than pre-
modified ones, because there are only two adverbs that can post-
modify other adverbs. These two post-modifiers are: enough and
indeed. (These two words can act as post-modifiers in adjective
phrases, too).
E.g. happily enough, oddly enough, strangely enough, surprisingly
enough.
As far as ‘indeed’ is concerned, you should normally use it
to post-modify an adverb only when that adverb has been pre-
modified by the word ‘very’.
E.g. very fairly indeed, very fast indeed, very well indeed.
Prepositional phrases
The structure of a prepositional phrase is as follows:
Preposition + Meaning completer.
Thus a prepositional phrase has two parts: (i) a preposition;
and (ii) a meaning completer. Mind you, both parts are
obligatory.
The meaning completer in a prepositional phrase is normally
(a) a noun phrase. But sometimes it may be (b) a nominal
relative clause (= a finite clause introduced by a wh-element —
typically, by what, whatever, where, wherever, which, whichever,
who, whoever) or (c) an -ing participle clause.
So a prepositional phrase can have the following patterns:

1. Preposition + Noun phrase. (E.g. as a friend, by cheque,
in the newspaper, of this city, opposite his house, towards
the gate, under the bed, up the stairs). 2. Preposition +
Nominal relative clause. (E.g. from what he told me). 3.
Preposition + -ing participle clause. (E.g. after meeting
him).
Here’s a list of all the common one-word prepositions:
 about, above, across, after, against, along, among,
around, as, at, before, behind, below, beside, besides,
between, beyond, but, by, down, during, except, for,
from, in, inside, into, like, near (to), of, off, on, onto,
opposite, out, outside, over, past, pending, round, since,
than, through, throughout, till, to, towards, under, unlike,
until, up, with, within, without.
Here’s a list of all the common multi-word prepositions:
 according to, ahead of, all over, apart from (= aside
from), as far as, as for, away from, because of, by way of,
close to, contrary to, due to, except for, for (the) sake of,
in charge of, in contact with, in front of, in line with, in
place of, in spite of, in terms of, instead of, near to, nearer
to, next to, on behalf of, on the part of, on the strength
of, on to, on top of, out of, together with, up against, up
to.
E.g. about his boss, above their heads, across the room, according to
reports, ahead of us, all over the place, apart from a glass of water,
as far as Pune.
Important: As far as possible, avoid prepositions that have not been
given in the lists — especially the ones given below. They’d make
your speech too formal.
as of, as per, at the expense of, at the hands of, at variance
with, but for, by dint of, by means of, by virtue of, devoid
of, for/from want of, for (the) sake of, in accordance with,
in addition to, in aid of, in back of, in behalf of, in case of,
in common with, in compliance with, in comparison with,
in conformity with, in consequence of, in exchange for, in
(the) face of, in favour of, in lieu of, in (the) light of, in
need of, in (the) process of, in quest of, in relation to, in
respect of, in return for, in search of, in view of, on account
of, on behalf of, on (the) ground(s) of, on the matter of,
on pain of, on the part of, owing to, prior to, pursuant to,
subsequent to, with the exception of, with/in reference to,
with/in regard to, with/in respect to.
***
62 H ow to avoid complexity
Chapter 4
How to avoid complexity

Written English makes use of prepositional phrases to pack
information densely. This happens in two ways:
(i) Written English often uses heavily-modified noun-
phrases after prepositions. But naturally-occurring
speech avoids heavily-modified noun-phrases. Naturally-
occurring speech normally uses only simple noun phrases
(and simple clauses) after the prepositions — like those
given above as examples.
(ii) What written English does is this: It tags on a second
prepositional phrase to the end of the first prepositional
phrase, a third prepositional phrase to the end of the
second prepositional phrase, and extends the length of
prepositional phrases in this way. This process is an
example of what is known as ‘embedding’. Mind you, as
I’ve already told you in other contexts, naturally-occurring
speech normally avoids embedding of all types.
About the first point, there isn’t much to add. Under the
heading ‘noun phrases’ above, we’ve already seen what to do to
avoid heavy modification.
About the second point, you must first understand what
‘embedding’ means. Take the word group ‘at the shop’. This is a
simple prepositional phrase: ‘at’ is the preposition and ‘the shop’,
a simple noun phrase, without any modification. Now let’s take
a second prepositional phrase ‘opposite the tall building’. Let’s
tag this second prepositional phrase onto the end of the first
prepositional phrase. Here’s the resulting word group:
[(at the shop) (opposite the tall building)]
Now let us take a third prepositional phrase ‘off the main
road’. Let us tag this third prepositional phrase on to the end
H ow to avoid complexity 63
of the second prepositional phrase. Here’s the resulting word

group:
[(at the shop) (opposite the tall building) (off the main
road)]
This is the process that is known as ‘embedding’. Let us
now look at a sentence containing this embedded prepositional
group:
All this happened [(at the shop) (opposite the tall building)
(off the main road)]
You won’t normally find this kind of word group in spoken
English. One way of converting this sentence into spoken English
would be:
There’s a tall building + ehm – it’s off the main road + and
– and there’s a shop there + opposite that building + mm...
and all this – all this happened there.
Here too, the principle is the same as we saw before: Break
up the combination of information-bearing units. Give out each
unit of information in a separate idea unit. Leave each idea unit
syntactically independent.
Embedded noun-phrases
Sometimes, written English adopts the technique of ‘prepositional
embedding’ for packing information densely in noun phrases.
Here’s an example of an embedded noun phrase:
E.g. [A man (from the office ) (on the third floor) (of the building)].
Normally, naturally-occurring speech avoids embedded noun
phrases like this — especially at the beginning of a clause. But
you may often come across this sort of heavily embedded phrases
in writing. Thus, here are two typical written English sentences
containing heavily embedded phrases:
• [A man (from the office) (on the third floor) (of that
building)] came here yesterday.
64 H ow to avoid complexity
One way of converting these sentences into spoken English

would be:
• Yesterday + a man came here + He was from that –
building + mm... there’s an office there + on its – @: – third
floor + He – you know + he was from there.
All that has been done here is to break up the combination
of information-units, and to assign each unit of information to
individual idea units.
Specific and non-specific words

So far, we’ve looked at two (of the three) methods that
written English employs to pack information densely: By using
subordination heavily and by using complex phrases. And I
showed you how you’ll be able to minimize your dependence on
these two methods of information-packing.
Here is the third method: Written English packs information
densely by avoiding non-specific (= general or vague) words
as far as possible, and by using specific (= non-general words)
instead. On the other hand, naturally-occurring spoken English
does not make any effort to avoid non-specific words. Nor does
it make any special effort to find and use specific words. In fact,
naturally-occurring speech often avoids words that are too
specific, and instead uses words that are non-specific, general
and vague. Yes, words that are non-specific, general and vague.
A few examples would make this point clear:
1) Take the word group, ‘He violated the rules’. Here,
‘violated’ is a specific word. Spoken English prefers the
general words ‘went against’ to ‘violated’, and the word
group becomes: ‘He went against the rules’.
2) Take the word group, ‘He permitted her to do it’. Here,
‘permitted’ is a specific word. Spoken English often avoids
specific words like this. One way of avoiding ‘permitted’ is
H ow to avoid complexity 65
to say, ‘He said she could do it’. Another way is to say, ‘He
let her do it’, by using the general word ‘let’ instead of the
specific word ‘permitted’.
3) Take the word group, ‘They charged us excessively’.
Here, ‘excessively’ is a specific word. And spoken English
prefers a general expression like ‘too much’ to ‘excessively’,
and this word group becomes, ‘‘They charged us too
much”.
4) Spoken English often avoids specific words like
‘admirable’ ‘excellent’, ‘upright’, ‘authentic’, ‘agreeable’
etc. and uses a general word like ‘good’ instead. Spoken
English often avoids specific words like ‘harmful’, ‘sinful’,
etc. and uses a general word like ‘bad’ instead.
5) While describing a thing (for example, a machine),
written English uses specific names for its various parts.
But spoken English does not often use specific names.
Instead, spoken English uses general phrases like ‘the
knob-like part’, ‘the star-shaped bit’, ‘the bit that’s
pointed’, ‘the piece that sticks out’, ‘the round piece that
looks like a coin’, ‘the lengthy part’, ‘the bit like a ring’,
‘the short tube-like thing’, ‘a sort of square thing’ etc.
But don’t let the above examples give you a wrong idea. Don’t
jump to the conclusion that spoken English never uses ‘specific’
words — or that written English never uses non-specific words.
You see, spoken English does use ‘specific’ words. But not to
the same extent as written English. In spoken English, a major
percentage of the words would be non-specific words — words
that are general, vague. In the same way, written English does
use ‘non-specific’ words, too. But their percentage would be very
small. Yes, very small. In written English, a major percentage
of the words used would be specific words — and not general,
vague ones.
***
66 Composing speech & speaking at the same time
Chapter 5
Composing speech
& speaking at the same time
By now, you’ve seen the basic principles of information-packing.
The crux of all the explanations that you saw so far in this Book
is this:
Spoken English is produced in short, bite-sized idea units,
and each idea unit carries only one piece of information. And
these idea units are strung together loosely. The idea units come
out as short chunks or bursts of speech.
In fact, by its very nature, naturally-occurring speech can
only be loosely-packed, and cannot become densely-packed.
Loose packing is inevitable in spoken English, because of the very
manner of its production: It’s composed and spoken at the same
time. Genuine spoken English is not something that you learn
by heart and reproduce in a parrot-like fashion. Genuine spoken
English is made up off-hand, as you speak along — without
referring to any written script. And so, in spontaneous speech,
utterance sequences are made under pressure of time. You have
to connect the idea unit you’re uttering now to the idea unit that
you have finished uttering. At the same time, you have to be
thinking about and preparing what you’re going to utter.
Mental assessment and planning

In a naturally-occurring spoken language, what really happens
is this:
The speaker utters an idea unit and, at the same time, he
mentally assesses whether it conveys the meaning that he wants
to convey. Then he utters another chunk. This idea unit will carry
another piece of information, and this piece of information will
C omposing speech & speaking at the same time 67
make his message move forward. While uttering this chunk,

the speaker would be mentally assessing whether his meaning
is getting across the way he wants. The content and structure
of his next idea unit depends on this mental assessment. If his
assessment is that the message is getting across the way he
wants, the next idea unit will have one particular group of words.
If his mental assessment is that the message is not getting across
the way he wants, the next idea unit will have another group of
words.
Thus the mental assessment results in mental planning, and
it’s this mental planning that determines three things:
• The structure that the speaker uses for an idea unit;
• The words that he uses in that idea unit; and
• The structure that he uses for organizing a group of idea
units.
This kind of simultaneous utterance and mental assessment
often result in syntactic and grammatical errors, factual mistakes,
accidental slips, half-finished structures and incomplete clauses
and phrases. Understand that these errors, mistakes, etc. are an
inevitable part of naturally-occurring spontaneous speech. What
fluent speakers do is to edit them out orally to the extent possible
— as they speak on.
Another result of this kind of simultaneous utterance and
mental assessment is this: Every now and then, the speaker
comes up against hesitation pauses. Or he finds it necessary to
deliberately make hesitation pauses. These hesitation-pauses
occur in the middle of most idea units — and even at their end
and beginning. Remember this: The speaker composes and speaks
at the same time. So, every now and then, he hesitates to think
and prepare what to say next. Sometimes, the mental planning
may take up only a fraction of a second, and the result will be a
‘short pause’. But sometimes a short pause may not be sufficient
to complete the mental planning. Then the pause becomes
lengthier. (In fact, a sizeable proportion of ‘speaking time’ would
only be made up of ‘silence’). If the planning needs more time,

the speaker will not keep silent, but will fill the silence with filler-
sounds or filler-words. (The filler-words may be special filler-
words like ‘I mean’, ‘you know’ and other filler-words that you
saw in Book 5. Or they may be general filler-words like ‘What I
mean is’, ‘I mean to say’, ‘If you follow me’ ‘I’ll tell you what’. ‘Do
you know what?’, ‘Guess what?’. ‘How shall I put it’, ‘As you may
know’. ‘As you know’, ‘As you can imagine’, ‘Would you believe
it?’ etc.)
Another result of the simultaneous composition and
utterance is this: Very often what the speaker utters will only be
trial-versions (or ‘oral drafts’) of what he wants to say , and so
you can find him reformulating his idea units frequently. If you
make out the transcript of any stretch of spontaneous speech by
a native speaker of English, you can notice one thing: A major
proportion of it would be trial-versions (that are discarded) —
and reformulations of those trial versions.
After the pause or pause and the filler-words, he utters
another idea unit based on the mental assessment and planning.
While uttering this idea unit also, the mental assessment process
would be going on about the effectiveness of the present idea
unit. And, on the basis of this assessment, simultaneous mental
planning takes place about the nature of the next idea unit. As
far as the next idea unit is concerned, it may contain a new
piece of information, and so it may carry the message forward.
Or it may clarify or elaborate or correct or even contradict (yes,
self-contradict) the information contained in the previous idea
units. Or it may simply be an afterthought. So while carrying
the message forward by uttering new pieces of information,
the speaker also does certain things to the earlier pieces of
information: He modifies and rearranges them.
So you see, naturally-occurring spoken language is always
a mixture of two things: Delivery of new information and
‘backtracking’.
Control of speech-delivery
Now don’t be under the impression that the addition of new
pieces of information and the modifications and rearrangements
take place in a haphazard way. Actually, these things don’t take
place in a haphazard way, but in a uniquely systematic way. Yes,
there’s an underlying order in this apparent disorder, and the
cohesive force of this underlying order helps the speaker to make
the idea units fit the overall pattern that he wants them to fit.
And the pattern that the speaker wants the idea units to fit is
the overall meaning of the message. So when the speaker makes a
mental assessment of the effect of each idea unit and each group
of idea units, what he really does is to control the production and
delivery of idea units — and to guide the idea units towards the
overall meaning of his message.
Inevitability of loose-packing
All this shows one thing: Genuine, naturally-occurring spoken
English can only pack information loosely. It just can’t pack
information densely — because naturally-occurring speech is
speech that we make up as we speak along, as we speak in the
“here-and-now”.
Now if it’s inevitable that naturally-occurring spoken English
will be loosely-packed (and not densely-packed), why is it that
most non-native speakers of English are not able to produce
loosely-packed speech? Why is it that their natural tendency is to
pack information tightly? The answer is this:
First of all, normally, only a non-fluent non-native speaker
of English has this problem. A native speaker of English does
not have such a problem — normally. Even highly-educated
native speakers of English tend to pack information only loosely
— except when the speaker is somebody immersed in written
English and he’s making a prepared speech or is speaking in
a very formal situation or is speaking about a highly content-
oriented subject (like a technical, scientific or a highly involved

academic subject). In naturally-occurring speech, they never
pack information densely. (Remember this: We’re not speaking
here about ‘prepared speech’ — speech that is prepared and
read or delivered. We’re speaking about spontaneous, naturally-
occurring speech).
Secondly, non-fluent people don’t realize that spoken English
packs information only loosely, and not densely. The basis of
their knowledge of English is written English, and not spoken
English. So they adopt written English as their model, and try
to speak (and to organize their speech) in the way they write.
They stuff their speech with a lot of subordination, modification,
nominalization and embedding. They’re afraid of making pauses
and of using filler-words and filler-sounds. They’re afraid of
‘backtracking’ and ‘reformulation’ processes. They don’t edit their
speech aloud. They’re afraid of leaving a structure half-finished.
They try to produce “ideal strings of complete and perfectly-
formed sentences” — wrongly believing that spoken English is
made up of that kind of sentences. And the result is this: They
always try to pack information densely in their speech. And soon
their speech breaks up. Why? Because they’re trying to do the
impossible. They’re trying to do what is impossible even for a
native speaker of English. They’re trying to pack information in
spoken English the way they pack information in written English.
Mind you, nobody can pack information in spoken English in the
way information is packed in written English — because spoken
English is something that’s composed and delivered at the same
time, whereas written English is something that’s composed,
edited, revised, redrafted and fair-copied as often as required
before it’s presented to the reader.
Speech-composition features
Now listen. Editing takes place in written English as well as in
spoken English. But there’s one difference: In written English,
the reader sees only the final version. He does not see the earlier
versions (‘written drafts’) that are discarded. The final version
that the reader sees does not show editorial efforts. It does not
show the alterations, additions, deletions, reformulations and
logical ordering of parts that the writer had to make in the
earlier versions. Nor does it show the errors, omissions, slips and
imperfections that happened in those earlier versions (written
drafts).
But this is not so in spoken English. In spoken English,
the listener hears all the earlier versions (trial versions or
‘oral drafts’). Though the speaker discards the earlier versions
and reformulates them, he has already uttered them, and so
the listener can hear all the alterations, additions, deletions,
reformulations and the ordering of parts that the speaker does
in them (earlier oral versions). He can hear all the false-starts,
errors, slips and imperfections in the trial versions. He can notice
the hesitation-pauses and hear the pause-fillers. These false-
starts, errors, omissions, slips, imperfections, hesitations, pauses,
pause-fillers, alterations, additions, deletions, reformulations
and ordering of parts are nothing but steps in composing speech
off-hand. These are features that you cannot avoid, because if
you avoid them, you won’t be able to compose and speak at the
same time. And so long as you’re not able to compose and speak
at the same time, you won’t be able to speak spontaneously.
Listeners’ point of view

Many people (who are not acquainted with genuine spoken
English) try to avoid these features of speech-composition. When
they make a false-start or an error or an omission or a slip, they
get nervous. They don’t make use of hesitations, pauses, pause-
fillers, additions, deletions, reformulations and re-ordering
of parts, because they’re afraid that listeners would think that
they do not ‘know’ English. The result is that they fail to go
on composing speech on the spot (as they speak on), and they
become tongue-tied.
Actually, it’s the presence of these features of speech-

composition that gives the feeling of naturalness to speech. And
so there’s no question of listeners thinking that the speaker does
not know English. But non-fluent speakers are not aware of this
truth.
In fact, the truth is that listeners won’t even be conscious of
the presence of these features in your speech. They’ll only notice
that your speech comes out fluently. In fact, so long as you’re
speaking with your words flowing out, listeners don’t look for the
‘literal’ meaning of your utterance. What listeners look for is the
‘intended’ meaning of those words. Listeners don’t pay attention
to individual words — so long as your speech flows smoothly.
Nor do they process or remember or keep track of everything that
you say. Listeners always fail to listen to a sizeable proportion of
what you say. And out of the things that they listen to, they fail
to pay attention to a sizeable proportion. And out of the things
that they pay attention to, they fail to understand or comprehend
a sizeable proportion. From out of the things you say, listeners
always select certain points that happen to capture their attention
or interest, and pay attention mostly to those points. At the same
time, they also miss several other crucial points. They construct
a picture of what you’re saying through a mental interpretation.
Their background knowledge about you, about the topic,
about the context and about the world around them and their
presumptions help them come to a reasonable meaning of what
you ‘intended’ to say.
So don’t worry about what listeners would think about the
presence of speech-composition-features in your speech. In fact,
these features would only help them understand what you say
better — by providing them with gaps of time in which to digest
the meaningful content in between these features.
It’s when these features are absent that the listener would
get a bad impression about you. Firstly, if these features are
absent, your speech would sound artificial, pedantic and written-
English-like. Secondly, if these features are absent, you’ll not be
able to speak on beyond just a few idea units. By then, you’ll start
faltering, and you’ll not be able to go on. And if this happens,
your listeners would think that you do not ‘know’ English. So
never avoid speech-composition-features.
‘Looseness’ versus ‘Conciseness’

From the way listeners listen to spoken language, there’s one
more lesson for you to learn: It’s never necessary to speak in
perfectly-formed and complete sentences or to avoid the speech-
composition features. Perfectly-formed sentences and absence of
speech-composition features will not help listeners in any way
(but will only prevent them from properly grasping what you
say).
You see, listeners are concerned only about two things: (i)
Does what you say make sense? (ii) Do you speak smoothly and
continuously without faltering?
An important effect of the speech-composition-features is
this: Their presence gives spoken English a ‘loose’ look, and their
absence gives written English a look of ‘compactness’. Because of
the absence of these features, written English is far more concise
than spoken English. You know, to say the same thing, spoken
English often needs more number of words than written English.
Therefore, note this carefully: In spoken English, what you need
is the ‘loose’ look and not the look of ‘compactness’. What you
must be after is ‘looseness’. In spoken English, never aim to be
compact or concise.
I am not advising you to be verbose in your speech or to make
your speech needlessly lengthy (by stuffing it with more words
than are necessary to convey the meaning you have in mind). No.
From the point of view of speech composition, the extra words
that occur in speech in the form of fillers are not unnecessary
words. No. They’re essential words — words that are needed as
supports for the speech composition process and so can’t dispense
with them. Mind you, if the speaker doesn’t use them as fillers
between bits of meaningful content, speech won’t get composed

at all. You see, speech becomes verbose and long-winded only
when it contain too many words that are unnecessary and when
these unnecessary words have no relevance and when they make
the speech boring or annoying.
The point is this: Say what you say by packing information
‘loosely’ and not densely. Never give up the techniques of loose-
packing in order to be compact or concise. In fact, even while
adopting the techniques of loose-packing, you can be concise and
brief in speech — to the extent spoken medium would permit.
Fluent speakers do this by cutting down the number of major
points they cover during each speech turn, and not by cutting
down the speech composition features. In other words, even when
you try to be concise and brief, you must adopt the loose-packing
techniques: Avoid subordination, modification, nominalization
and embedding wherever you can. Adopt co-ordination as the
chief linking device between idea units and groups of idea units.
Take all help you need from speech-composition features. Pack
only one piece of information in one idea unit. Use general (non-
specific) words freely. And stop hunting around for ‘precisely
right’ words and specific (non-general) words.
So remember this: Be concise only to the extent that these
loose-packing techniques allow you to be concise. Otherwise,
never try to be concise in spoken English. If you do, you’ll falter,
and the flow of your speech will stop.
A test
When you hear someone speaking, you can easily tell whether
he’s speaking spontaneously or after preparation and rehearsals.
If the speech shows the free use of speech-composition-features,
he’s speaking spontaneously. Otherwise, he’s not.
Conclusion
From what we’ve seen so far, there are three things you must
understand firmly: First of all, if you want to become fluent in
spoken English, you must have a clear idea about how information
is packed in spoken English. Secondly, you must never try to pack
information in spoken English in the way information is packed
in written English. Thirdly, compose your speech and deliver it at
the same time — by making full use of the speech-composition
features.
So don’t you see how important it’s to have a good knowledge
of the way information is packed in spoken English? That’s why
much time was spent in this Book on the topic of ‘packing of
information’.
Learn this topic well.
***
76 Core-word Clusters 1
Chapter 6
Core-word Clusters 1
Remember what I told you about core-word clusters in Book 2 in
this series? Pick up that Book now and refresh your memory.
There, in that Book, I told you how important it is to master
certain core words – by mastering the frequently-occurring word
clusters in which one of those core words is the key word. And
in that Book, I gave you exhaustive collections of the frequently-
occurring word clusters in which the core words do, get, give and
go are the key words.
In this Book, I’m now going to give you collections of word
clusters in which the core words hold, keep, look, make, set, and
take are the key words.
‘hold’-collocations
Here’s a comprehensive collection of the everyday word clusters
in which the verb hold acts as the motor – the key word that
makes the clusters work as a meaningful combination.
Pick up each word group, and say it aloud several times.
Soon you’ll become familiar with these word groups, and your
organs of speech will stop fighting shy of them.
Here we go:
hold (on) tight; hold a bag; hold a belief; hold a bottle (to a
baby’s lips); hold a business property; hold a ceremony; hold
a championship; hold a collection; hold a conference; hold a
convention; hold a conversation; hold a council of war; hold
a course; hold a debate; hold a degree; hold a demonstration;
hold a dinner; hold a discussion (about sth) (with sb); hold a
fascination for sb; hold a festival (of music etc.); hold a file on sb/
sth; hold a fresh round of talks; hold a function; hold a grudge;
Core-word Clusters 1 77
hold a gun on sb; hold a gun to sb’s head; hold a half share in a
firm; hold a job; hold a knife; hold a lead; hold a licence; hold
a meeting; hold a monopoly; hold a particular amount of sth (S
= sth); hold a party; hold a place; hold a post/position; hold
a qualification; hold a rally (in support of sth); hold a record
(for/in sth); hold a referendum; hold a reservation/room; hold a
seat; hold a seminar; hold a service; hold a set of values; hold a
show; hold a social evening; hold a stormy session; hold a table
(for sb); hold a ticket; hold a view; hold a vote; hold a/the job
down; hold an appointment; hold an audience; hold an audience
captive.
hold an election; hold an event; hold an exam(ination);
hold an exhibition; hold an inquest; hold an inquiry; hold an
opinion; hold great/no appeal for sb; hold back a process; hold
back a reform; hold back information; hold back your tears;
hold beginners’ classes; hold data; hold discussions; hold down
a job; hold down a rise; hold down unemployment; hold down
wages; hold extreme political views; hold extreme views; hold
firm opinions; hold hands; hold happy associations for sb; hold
hostages; hold in your anger; hold in your feelings; hold it against
sb; hold its value (S = sth); hold land; hold no interest to/for sb;
hold off doing sth; hold office; hold officer rank (in the army
etc.); hold on; hold on a minute; hold on tight; hold on to sb’s
hand; hold on to the rail; hold sb hostage; hold onto an overall
majority; hold onto sb/sth for support; hold onto the remaining
resources; hold onto traditional values; hold open the door; hold
out no hope (of sth/that…); hold out the hope (of sth/that…);
hold out the prospect; hold out your hand; hold power; hold
promise; hold sb at gunpoint; hold sb captive; hold sb close; hold
sb hostage; hold sb in custody; hold sb in great respect; hold sb
in high esteem; hold sb in the greatest respect; hold sb prisoner;
hold sb responsible (for sth); hold sb responsible for an incident;
hold sb tight; hold sb to a draw; hold sb to their promise; hold sb
up as an example; hold sb/sth in contempt; hold sb/sth in high
regard; hold sb/sth up to ridicule; hold sb/sth in low regard;
hold sb/sth to your breast; hold sb’s attention; hold sb’s gaze;
hold sb’s hand; hold sb’s interests; hold sb’s papers; hold sb’s/
sth’s fate in your hands; hold seat; hold steady; hold sth apart;
hold sth in check; hold sth in common; hold sth in position; hold
sth in reserve; hold sth in trust; hold sth in your hand; hold sth
in your teeth; hold sth shut; hold sth steady; hold sth still; hold
sth under sth; hold sth up; hold sth upright; hold talks; hold
the attention of sb; hold the baby; hold the baby in your arms;
hold the crowds back; hold the distinction of being sth; hold the
distinction of having been sth; hold the door (open) (for sb); hold
the field; hold the finals; hold the initiative; hold the interest of
sb; hold the lead; hold the line; hold the opinion that; hold the
pencil; hold the phone; hold the position of general manager
etc; hold the rate (till...); hold the receiver to your ear; hold the
reins; hold the road; hold the stage; hold the stock; hold the
upper hand; hold the view (that…); hold their value; hold things
together; hold true (for sb/sth); hold unlawful assemblies; hold
up the delivery; hold up a finger; hold up a flight; hold up sth;
hold up the production; hold up your hand; hold up your head;
hold your attention; hold your breath; hold your drink; hold your
drink can; hold your fire!; hold your ground; hold your hand in
a particular position; hold your hand out in welcome; hold your
head high; hold your liquor; hold your nose; hold your peace.
‘keep’-collocations
in which the verb keep acts as the motor – the key word that
Here we go:
keep a record; keep still; keep (good) time; keep (in) close
contact with sb; keep (on) doing sth; keep (on) shouting; keep
(on) your feet; keep (perfect) time; keep (sb) out of mischief;
keep (sb/sth) on the move; keep (the) score; keep (to) the
house; keep (to) your end of the bargain; keep (to) your half of
the bargain; keep (to) your part of the bargain; keep (to) your
side of the bargain; keep (yourself) in training; keep a (careful)
watch on sb/sth; keep a (close) watch on sb/sth; keep a balance
(between...); keep a book-shop; keep a business; keep a card
index; keep a check on (sb/sth); keep a clear head; keep a clear
head (for an interview etc); keep a close connection with sb;
keep a close eye (on sb/sth); keep a copy; keep a diary; keep a
document; keep a family; keep a file (on sb/sth); keep a firm grip
on sb/sth; keep a firm hand on sth; keep a firm hold on sb/sth;
keep a good stock (of sth); keep a journal.
keep a mental note of sth/to do sth; keep a pledge to do
sth; keep a promise; keep a record; keep a record (of sth); keep
records; keep a register; keep a revolution at bay; keep a secret;
keep a sense of proportion (about sth); keep a set of tools sw;
keep a sharp eye on sth; keep a sharp lookout on sth; keep a
sharp watch on sb; keep a shop; keep a small hotel; keep a small
shop; keep a straight face; keep a tight grip on sb/sth; keep a
tight hold on sb/sth; keep a vary eye on sb/sth; keep a close
watch on sb/sth; keep watch (for thieves); keep accounts for a
business; keep alive a dream; keep an account (of sth); keep an
agreement; keep an animal; keep an appointment; keep an eye
on sb/sth; keep an eye on the activities of sb/sth; keep an open
mind; keep animals; keep bad company; keep bad time; keep
bees; keep body and soul together; keep both feet on the ground;
keep calm; keep chickens; keep a couple of pigs; keep control (of
sth); keep control of yourself; keep copies of all correspondence;
keep count (of sb/sth); keep data; keep detailed accounts; keep
accurate accounts; keep discipline; keep dogs in the yard (to drive
off intruders); keep down prices; keep down the cost of living;
keep down unemployment; keep down wages; keep faith (with
sb/sth); keep fish; keep fit; keep forgetting sth; keep forgetting
where/why; keep goats; keep going; keep guard (over sb/sth);

keep harping on a theme; keep harping on about sth; keep
healthy; keep hens; keep hold of sb’s arm/hand etc; keep house;
keep in close touch; keep in communication; keep in contact;
keep in line; keep in mind that; keep in regular contact (with sb);
keep in shape; keep in step; keep in step (with inflation etc.);
keep in the background; keep in touch (with sb/sth); keep it a
secret; keep it clean; keep it that way; keep late etc. hours.
keep left; keep notes on sth; keep off a topic; keep on a diet;
keep on about; keep on the move; keep on top of sb/sth; keep
on/going; keep open house; keep order; keep out of debt; keep
out of sb’s way; keep out of sight; keep out of the way (of sb/
sth); keep out of trouble; keep pace (with sb/sth); keep peace;
keep prices down; keep quiet; keep records; keep recurring;
keep reminding sb (of sth); keep repeating sb/sth; keep right;
keep sb advised; keep sb alive; keep sb apart; keep sb as (a)
hostage; keep sb at arm’s length; keep sb awake; keep sb busy;
keep sb company; keep sb entertained; keep sb from harm; keep
sb hanging around; keep sb happy; keep sb in (the) hospital;
keep sb in custody; keep sb in line; keep sb in order; keep sb
in seclusion; keep sb in suspense; keep sb in the background;
keep sb in the dark (about sth); keep sb in their place; keep sb
in training; keep sb informed; keep sb occupied; keep sb on full
alert; keep sb prisoner; keep sb satisfied; keep sb to their promise;
keep sb under control; keep sb up to the mark; keep sb waiting;
keep sb/sth in mind; keep sb/sth in sight; keep sb’s attention;
keep sb’s memory green; keep sb’s place (in a queue etc.); keep
sb’s secret; keep sb’s spirits up; keep servants; keep some food
by; keep sth a secret (from sb); keep sth alive; keep sth from
your voice; keep sth handy; keep sth hidden; keep sth in (good)
repair; keep sth in check; keep sth in good condition; keep sth
in order; keep sth in perspective; keep sth in proportion; keep
sth in reserve; keep sth in the dark (about sth); keep sth in your
memory; keep sth intact; keep sth on; keep sth on its feet; keep
sth quiet; keep sth safe; keep sth secret; keep sth separate; keep
sth tidy; keep sth to a minimum; keep sth under control; keep sth
under sth; keep sth up to date; keep sth upright; keep straight
on; keep talking; keep the accounts up to date; keep the bikes in
a shed; keep the books; keep the change; keep the conversation
going; keep the crowds back.
keep the expenses down; keep the field; keep the fire going;
keep the heat on (sb); keep the key in your pocket; keep the lead;
keep the momentum going; keep the noise down; keep the peace
sw; keep the price down; keep the proper proportion; keep the
same job (for 10 years etc.)
keep the sun off; keep the tears hidden; keep the truth
from her father; keep the wind off; keep the wind out; keep the
windows shut; keep things going; keep things in hand; keep
things moving; keep things straight for sb; keep things ticking
over; keep things under control; keep time; keep to a code; keep
to a concept; keep to a path; keep to a plan; keep to a procedure;
keep to a programme; keep to a theme; keep to a topic; keep to
an agreement; keep to an arrangement; keep to an undertaking;
keep to regulations; keep to the facts; keep to the law; keep to
the letter of sth; keep to the plan; keep to the schedule; keep to
the subject; keep track; keep track of a process; keep track of sth;
keep track of the time; keep under control; keep under cover;
keep up a steady supply; keep up a wage; keep up appearances;
keep up improvement; keep up morale; keep up old customs;
keep up old traditions; keep up the fight; keep up the good work;
keep up the production; keep up with fashion; keep up with sb;
keep up with the world events; keep up your guard; keep up-to-
date (with the literature in a field etc.); keep watch; keep your
(own) accounts; keep your attention; keep your balance; keep
your bed; keep your concentration; keep your cool; keep your
distance; keep your ears open.
keep your end of the bargain; keep your end up; keep your
eyes open; keep your figure; keep your fingers crossed; keep
your footing; keep your hands off sb/sth; keep your hands out of
things; keep your head; keep your head down; keep your health;
keep your intentions to yourself; keep your looks; keep your

mind off sth; keep your mind on sth; keep your money in sth;
keep your money in a secret safe; keep your money in the bank;
keep your money sw; keep your money under the mattress; keep
your mouth shut; keep your options open; keep your part of the
bargain; keep your peace; keep your promise (to the letter); keep
your sanity; keep your secret; keep your side of an agreement;
keep your side of the bargain; keep your strength; keep your
temper in check; keep your temper under control; keep your
thoughts to yourself; keep your trap shut; keep your voice down;
keep your voice level; keep your voice low; keep your voice
steady; keep your weight down; keep your weight on/off; keep
your wits about you; keep your word; keep your word (to sb) (on
doing sth).
‘look’-clusters
in which the verb look acts as the motor – the key word that
Here we go:
look (like) a fool; look (sb) in the eye; look (sth up) in the index;
look a fool; look about the room; look across the sea; look after
(sb’s) interests; look after a customer; look after a kid; look after
a museum; look after a patient; look after passengers; look after
sb; look after sth; look after sth for sb; look after sb’s affairs;
look after your health; look alike; look an idiot; look angry; look
around (for sth); look at a design for sth; look at a magazine; look
at a map; look at a model; look at a topic; look at an issue; look
at data; look at sb with approval; look at sb/sth in amazement;
look at sb/sth in disbelief; look at sb/sth in surprise; look at sb’s
purchase; look at sth from a different angle; look at sth from a

different perspective; look at sth from a new perspective; look
at sth from another angle; look at sth in a context; look at sth
through sb’s eye; look at the consequences; look at the facts; look
at the figures; look at the options; look at the state of sb/sth; look
at ways of doing sth; look at your face in a mirror; look at your
master (with hatred etc); look at your watch; look at yourself in
a mirror; look away; look back.
look back on the school days; look back on your childhood;
look back on your youth; look back over your shoulder; look
carefully; look certain to do sth; look closely; look cold; look
cute; look deeply into sb’s eyes; look down on sb; look elegant;
look familiar; look for a (rich) husband; look for a buyer; look
for a clue; look for a fault; look for a fight; look for a flat; look
for a job; look for a matching pair of gloves; look for a return;
look for a talented individual; look for an answer; look for an
appointment; look for an explanation; look for an opening;
look for employment; look for gold; look for happiness; look for
improvement; look for information resources; look for sb/sth;
look for skilled workers; look for the meaning (of sth); look for
trouble; look for work; look forward to doing sth; look forward
to meeting sb; look forward to the prospect; look forward to
welcoming sb; look funny; look good; look good on paper; look
gorgeous; look handsome; look happy; look important; look in a
bag; look in a mirror; look in at the window; look in the books;
look interesting; look into a mirror; look into a problem; look
into an incident.
look into shop windows; look into space; look into the
situation; look into/at a possibility; look like death (warmed up/
over); look like doing sth; look like hell; look like making progress
etc; look like rain; look like sb/sth; look lovely; look north/south
etc; look offended; look on the bright side (of things); look on
the dark side of things; look out for number one; look out of the
window; look out to sea; look over your shoulder; look over/
through instructional material; look plastic; look right through
sb; look sb full in the eye; look sb in the eye(s); look sb in the face;
look sb straight in the eyes; look sb’s way; look set for victory etc;
look set to do sth; look set to win the election etc; look south; look
sth up in a guide/dictionary; look sth up on a map; look straight/
right through sb; look strange; look stunning; look stupid; look
taken aback; look the same; look through a file; look tired; look
to sb for sth; look to sb to do sth; look to the future; look to the
left and right; look towards the river; look unlikely to do sth;
look unlikely etc. to do sth; look up a document/dictionary; look
up an Act; look up data; look up in surprise; look up sth; look up
the files; look up to sb; look well; looks wonderful etc. for his/her
age; looks young for his/her age.
***
Chapter 7
‘make’-clusters
in which the verb make acts as the motor – the key word that
Here we go:
Group 1
made a booking by phone; made a brief appearance in court;
made a copy of a report; made a derogatory remark; made a flying
visit to sb; made a handsome settlement (on your daughter etc.);
made a move towards the door; made a play for the leadership;
made a profit of $125,000; made a quick recovery (from the
flu etc.); made a shelter (from leaves and branches etc.); made
a success of it; made a trip to London etc; made a wild guess;
made advances (to his neighbour’s wife etc.); made all kinds of
promises; made an urgent request (for international aid etc.);
made approaches (to sb to buy sth); made friends; made herself
a cup of coffee; made his first appearance on stage; made no
mention of sth to sb; made one last attempt (at the world record
etc.); made out a cheque (for Rs. 15,000 in sb’s favour); made
remarkable progress; made some helpful comments; made some
minor changes (to the program etc.); made the right decision;
made the rope fast (to the metal ring etc.).
make a will; make $60,000 a year; make $1000 a week;
make (a lot of) noise; make (a) noise; make (a) nonsense of sth;
make (a) peace with sb; make (a) profit; make (considerable
etc.) gains; make (delicious) sweets; make (good) progress; make
(good) your escape; make (it to) the meeting; make (out) a case
( for/against doing sth); make (out) a case (against sth); make
(out) a case for sth; make (quite) a difference to sth; make (quite)
an impression on sb; make (rapid) progress; make (sb) a grant;
make (sb) a present of sth; make (sb) a tasty dish; make (sb) an
award; make (sb) an offer (for sth); make (slow) progress; make
(some) inquiries; make (some) notes (sw); make (the) most
mistakes; make (the) tea; make (the) time; make (too much)
noise; make (unwelcome) advances to sb; make (up) a whole;
make 15 kilometres to the litre etc; make a (big) difference (to
sb/sth); make a (big) thing (out) of sth; make a (clean/complete)
break with the family tradition etc; make a (clean/complete)
break with the past; make a (complete) recovery; make a (funny)
face; make a (good etc.) living (from…); make a (left/right) turn;
make a (new) friend; make a (quick) survey; make a (thorough)
study of sth; make a bad job of sth; make a basket; make a big
deal (out) of sth; make a big difference; make a bigger kitchen;
make a bolt for it; make a bomb; make a bonfire; make a booking;
make a breakthrough; make a broadcast; make a cake (for sb’s
birthday etc.); make a calculation; make a call (on sb); make
a career out of sth; make a career etc. break; make a careful
analysis; make a catch; make a celebration etc. an occasion to
remember; make a century; make a change; make a charge stick;
make a cheaper product; make a check; make a check (on sb);
make a check of sth; make a cheque out to sb; make a choice;
make a claim; make a claim (for sth) (on your insurance); make
a claim on the insurance; make a clean break; make a clean cut;
make a collect call; make a collection; make a comeback; make a
comment; make a commitment (to do sth); make a comparison;
make a comparison between X and Y; make a complaint; make
a complaint about sth; make a complaint against sb; make a
compromise; make a concerted effort; make a concession; make
a confession; make a connection; make a constitution; make a
contract (with sb); make a contrast; make a contribution (of Rs.

1000 etc.); make a copy; make a copy (of sth); make a correction;
make a crash; make a criticism of/about sth.
make a dash for it; make a dash for sb/sth; make a date;
make a day; make a day trip; make a deadline; make a deal
(with sb); make a decent living; make a decision (to do sth);
make a delivery; make a demand; make a dent in sth; make a
deposit; make a detour; make a device; make a difference (to
sb/sth); make a discouraging response; make a discovery; make
a dismissive gesture; make a display; make a distinction; make
a division; make a donation; make a donation to charity; make
a dramatic entrance (on to the stage etc.); make a dress; make
a drink; make a false charge; make a false statement; make a
few calls; make a few economies this month; make a few phone
calls; make a few small bets for kicks; make a fight of it; make
a film (about wildlife etc.); make a final push to do sth; make a
fine start; make a fire; make a firm stand; make a fool (out) of
sb/yourself; make a forecast; make a fortune (doing sth); make
a fresh start; make a friend; make a friend of sb; make a front;
make a full apology; make a fuss; make a fuss of sb; make a
gesture; make a go of it (with sth); make a go of sth; make a good
choice; make a good job of sth; make a good leader; make a good
story; make a good teacher; make a good etc. impression (on sb);
make a grab at/for sth; make a gradual shift; make a great deal
of difference; make a great start; make a guess; make a guess
(at sth); make a guess at sb’s blood pressure; make a guess at a
figure; make a guest appearance; make a guitar; make a habit
of (doing) sth; make a hit with sb; make a hole in sth; make a
joke; make a journey; make a judgment; make a jump (for sth);
make a left (sw); make a list (of …); make a list of things to do;
make a living; make a living doing sth; make a living of sorts;
make a loss (on sth); make a lot; make a lot of difference; make
a lot of enemies; make a machine; make a major expenditure;
make a man (out) of sb; make a map; make a martyr of yourself;
make a match; make a meal; make a mental note (of sth/to do
sth); make a mess; make a mess of the schedule; make a mess of

their affairs; make a mission; make a mistake; make a mistake
(over sth); make a model; make a model out of cardboard; make
a motion; make a move for sth; make a move to leave; make a
move towards sth; make a movement; make a movie; make a
name for yourself; make a new set of friends sw; make a night of
it; make a note of sth; make a nuisance of yourself.
make a pact to do sth; make a parachute jump; make a
paste; make a path; make a pattern; make a pay claim; make
a payment; make a (phone)call (to sb); make a photograph;
make a pig of yourself; make a pitch (for sth); make a place
by a particular time; make a place for sb; make a place in a
particular time; make a place your home; make a plan; make a
plea; make a pledge to do sth; make a point; make a point of sth/
doing sth; make a poor job of sth; make a practice of sth; make
a prediction; make a presentation (on sth); make a pretence (of
doing sth); make a product; make a programme; make a promise
(to sb); make a promising start; make a protest about/against
sth; make a protest to sb (about sth); make a purchase; make
a quick decision; make a quick phone call; make a quick test;
make a quiz team; make a racket; make a recommendation (to
sb); make a record of sth; make a recording; make a recovery;
make a reduction (if sb buys in bulk); make a reference to sb/
sth; make a reform; make a relief flight; make a remark; make a
report; make a reputation (for yourself); make a request; make
a request (for sth); make a reservation; make a resolution; make
a resolution to do sth; make a return to normal health; make a
revolution; make a right; make a right (sw); make a round-trip;
make a rude gesture; make a rude noise; make a rule; make a
run; make a run for it; make a rush for sth; make a sale; make a
scene; make a scheme; make a score; make a scratch in sth; make
a search (of sth); make a secret of sth; make a selection; make a
settlement; make a shadow; make a show of (doing) sth; make a
shrewd guess; make a sign (to show/tell…); make a significant
saving; make a slight loss (on sth); make a small charge (for use
of the facilities etc.); make a small gain (of 5% etc.); make a

small noise; (not) make a sound; make a space; make a spectacle
of yourself; make a spectacular entrance (on to the stage etc.);
make a speech; make a squad; make a stab at sth; make a stand
(against sb/sth); make a stand against privatization etc; make a
stand for sth; make a start (on sth); make a start on the ironing
etc.; make a statement; make a statement (about) sth; make a
stop; make a strong argument (for/against doing sth); make a
strong argument (for/against sth); make a strong protest to sb;
make a study; make a submission; make a success of sth; make
a sudden spring at sth; make a suggestion; make a surveillance
flight; make a swing at sb; make a switch.
make a table; make a tape of sth; make a target; make a
team; make a telephone call; make a television programme;
make a threat; make a threat (against sb); make a title; make a
total of…; make a tour of sth; make a transfer; make a trip; make
a trip sw; make a video; make a video recording of sth; make a
visit; make a vow (that) …; make a wall; make a will; make a
wish; make a withdrawal; make a world of difference; make a/no
reference to sb/sth; make a/no sound; make a/the break (from
your family etc.); make a/your mark (on sth); make a/your point;
make a/your selection; make all the difference (in the world);
make all the difference (to sb/sth); make allegations (against/
about sb); make alterations (to sth); make amends for the past;
make an accusation (against sb); make an addition; make an
addition (to sth); make an adjustment; make an advance; make
an agreement (about sth); make an album; make an allegation;
make an alteration; make an angle; make an announcement;
make an apology; make an appeal; make an appearance; make
an application (for sth); make an application for a licence; make
an appointment (to see a doctor etc.); make an approach (to
sb); make an argument; make an arrangement; make an arrest;
make an article; make an assumption; make an attack (on sb/
sth); make an attempt (to do sth); make an attempt on sb’s life;
make an early start; make an effort (to do sth); make an effort
(towards sth/doing sth); make an effort to be polite; make an

effort to remember sth; make an employee redundant; make an
enemy (of sb); make an engine; make an entry in sth; make an
error; make an estimate; make an evening of it (infml); make
an exam(ination); make an example of sb; make an excellent
start; make an exception; make an exception this time; make an
excuse; make an exhibition of yourself; make an exit; make an
expedition; make an experiment; make an ideal husband for sb;
make an ideal wife for sb; make an idiot of yourself; make an
impact (on sb/sth); make an important contribution to sth; make
an impression (on sb); make an improvement; make an income;
make an index; make an instrument; make an investment; make
an issue of sth; make an objection; make an observation; make
an offer; make another attempt on the record; make application
to sb; make arrangements; make better time; make big profits;
make big savings (on electricity bills); make bread; make bricks;
make camp; make camp on a hill; make capital (out) of sth; make
cement; make certain (that…); make changes; make charitable
contributions; make clear the extent of sth etc.; make coats;
make coffee; make common cause (with sb); make computers;
make contact; make contact (with sb); make conversation; make
cushion covers (out of old curtains etc); make demands on sb’s
time; make demands on/of sb; make demands on/of sth; make
different kinds of wine; make difficulties; make dinner; make
dirty marks on sth; make discreet inquiries; make dry reading.
Group 2
make economies; make effective use of sb/sth; make efficient
use of sth; make ends meet; make enemies; make every effort (to
do sth); make eye contact; make fast time to sw; make faster
progress; make friends (with sb); make friends with people;
make full use of sth; make full use of (your) potential; make
fun of sb/sth; make funds available; make good reading; make
good sb’s losses; make good time; make good use of sb/sth; make
good your promise; make groaning noises; make hard work of
(doing) sth; make headline news; make his own decision; make
history; make hotel reservations; make household goods; make
ice (cubes); make improvements; make informal approaches (to
sb); make inquiries/enquiries; make interesting etc. reading;
make it a habit to do sth; make it a point to do sth; make it a
rule (to do sth); make it clear (that); make it difficult to do sth;
make it easier for sb to do sth; make it easy for sb to do sth;
make it hard for sb to do sth; make it impossible; make it known
(that)…; make it necessary to do sth; make it obvious (that)…;
make it plain (that)…; make it possible; make it possible (for
sb) to do sth; make it to the finals; make it understood (that)…;
make it worth sb’s while; make it your business to do sth; make
large profits; make large scale investments; make laws; make life
better for sb; make life difficult for sb; make life easier; make life
impossible for sb; make light of an achievement; make light of sth;
make light work of (doing) sth; make little/no effort; make little/
no pretence; make love; make lunch; make major changes; make
many sacrifices; make marks with a pencil; make mention of sth;
make millions; make money (out of sth); make moral judgments
about it; make my/your bed; make no answer (to sb/sth); make
no apology/apologies for; make no attempt to do sth; make no
claim to be…; make no claim to do sth; make no concessions to
sb/sth; make no difference (in sth); make no effort (to do sth);
make no mention (of sth); make no mistake (about sth); make no
move (to do sth); make no protest; make no reference to; make
no reply; make no secret of sth; make no secret of the fact that…;
make no sign; make no/little difference to sb/sth; make out an
order; make out his writing (can’t); make out what/where/who;
make paper; make peace; make peace (with sb); make plans (for
doing sth); make plans for sth; make plastic; make preparations
(for sth); make progress (on sth); make proper use of sth; make
provision for (your) future; make provision(s) for sth.
make radio contact; make regulations; make representations
(about sth to sb); make restitution (to sb for sth); make room
(for sb/sth); make rules; make sandwiches; make sb (a) director;
make sb a gift of sth; make sb a good husband; make sb a good

wife; make sb a partner; make sb a queen; make sb a star; make
sb an offer; make sb an offer on sth; make sb angry; make sb
aware of sth; make sb captain; make sb cry; make sb do sth;
make sb famous; make sb feel ill; make sb feel sad; make sb feel
strange; make sb happy; make sb jealous; make sb jump; make
sb king; make sb late; make sb laugh; make sb leader; make sb
look a complete fool; make sb look fat; make sb look thin; make
sb look younger; make sb mad; make sb nervous; make sb pay
(for sth); make sb popular; make sb president; make sb proud;
make sb sad; make sb think of sth; make sb unhappy; make sb
vulnerable; make sb welcome; make sb/sth a bequest; make sb/
sth a failure; make sb/sth a success; make sb/sth an instrument;
make sb’s ears ring; make sb’s eyes run; make sb’s eyes water;
make sb’s life (a) hell (infml); make sb’s life (sheer) hell; make
sb’s life a misery; make sense; make sense (out) of sth; make
several pages of notes (on sth); make shoes in standard/wide
sizes; make short work of (doing) sth; make some difference;
make some effort to do sth; make some lunch; make space; make
sth a habit; make sth a separate category; make sth abundantly
clear; make sth attractive; make sth available; make sth better;
make sth clear; make sth difficult; make sth easier; make sth
easy; make sth explicit; make sth from/out of plastic etc.; make
sth impossible; make sth in plastic; make sth into a film; make
sth into flats; make sth into the shape of sth else; make sth legal;
make sth nice; make sth obsolete; make sth perfectly clear; make
sth possible; make sth pretty; make sth public; make sth shake;
make sth into law; make sth straight; make sth stronger; make
sth worse; make sth your home; make sth/sb better than before;
make sure; make sure (that) …; make sure of; make sure of sth;
make sure that sth happens; make sure that sth is definite; make
sw your home; make the answer; make the appointment; make
the association between…; make the audience; make the bed;
make the best of it; make the best use of sth; make the board;
make the break; make the call; make the car start; make the
connection (between two facts etc.); make the crowd; make

the first move; make the front page; make the grade; make the
headlines; make the introductions; make the mistake of doing
sth; make the most of a resource; make the news; make the
papers; make the party.
make the reservation; make the right/wrong choice; make
the safe choice; make the schedule; make the sign of the cross;
make the staff redundant; make the stock; make the switch;
make the switch (from sth) to sth; make the team; make the time
up; make the transition; make their living from the soil; make
their own mistakes; make things awkward; make things better;
make things difficult for sth; make things easier; make things
easy (for sb); make things secret; make threats against sb; make
threats to sb; make time; make time pass; make time to do sth;
make time to sw; make tough business deals; make tracks; make
trouble (for sb/sth); make trouble over sth; make unfavourable
comments about sb/sth; make unreasonable demands; make up a
bed; make up a code; make up a cutlery set; make up a majority;
make up a story; make up a tale; make up for a lack; make up
for a misspent youth; make up for lost time; make up for the
lack of sth; make up your mind (to do sth); make up your mind
(whether...); make up your mind what/which/how etc; make
use of additional resources; make use of sb/sth; make use of the
available facilities; make use of your contacts; make wage cuts;
make waves; make way (for sth); make workers redundant; make
your (own) way in the world; make your (usual) round(s); make
your (weekly etc.) round; make your blood run cold; make your
books balance; make your comments; make your debut; make
your escape; make your feelings known; make your fortune; make
your home sw; make your influence felt; make your intention
clear; make your mind up; make your money; make your mouth
water; make your name (as sth); make your name with a novel;
make your own arrangements; make your own bread; make your
own paint; make your peace with sb; make your plans; make your
presence felt; make your presence known; make your stomach
turn; make your voice heard; make your way; make your way
across sth; make your way across/through etc; make your way
in the world; make your way through sth; make your way to sw;
make your way to the hall; make your way to/across/through
etc; make your/sb’s bed; make yourself comfortable; make
yourself heard; make yourself presentable; make yourself sick;
make yourself understood; make a few mistakes; make a living
(repairing secondhand cars etc); make your own clothes; make
a documentary about sth; make airplane models; make careful
notes; make concessions to extremists etc.; make your first guest
appearance on a show; make polite conversation; make rapid
progress (on all fronts etc.); make wild accusations; make wine;
make your final choice.
***
Chapter 8
‘set’-clusters
in which the verb set acts as the motor – the key word that makes
the clusters work as a meaningful combination.
Here we go:
set (down/out) certain basic requirements; set (great) store by
sth; set (great) store by your beliefs; set (high) conditions; set
(high) limits; set (high) standards; set (sb) a standard; set (sb)
a target; set (sb) an example; set (sb/yourself) a goal; set (sth)
in motion; set a (minimum) wage; set a bomb; set a clock; set
a date (for sth); set a deadline (of August 5 etc.); set a fashion
(for sth); set a goal; set a good example; set a high value on
communication skills etc; set a limit; set a limit (on sth); set a
limit of 1 hour etc. (for sth); set a match to sth; set a mood; set a
new record; set a pattern (for sth); set a place for sb; set a post;
set a precedent; set a price (for sth); set a process in motion; set
a record (for/in sth); set a target; set a text; set a time (for sth);
set a timetable for sth; set a tone (for sth); set a trap; set a trend
(for sth); set a video; set a/the pattern (for the future etc.); set
about doing sth; set an exam(ination); set an example; set aside
a fund; set aside some money.
set back from the road; set bail; set capital costs off against
tax; set conditions (for sth); set criteria (for sth); set down a cup;
set down strict conditions for doing sth; set eyes on sb/sth; set fire
to sth; set fire to vehicles; set foot in/on sth; set foot on foreign
etc. soil; set foot on Indian/British etc. soil; set guidelines (for
sth); set hours of work; set in beautiful grounds; set in progress;
set in train; set light to sth; set limits (for sth); set off a bomb; set
off a wave (of anger); set off an alarm; set off for London etc; set
off in search of; set out a programme; set out a strategy; set out
on a career; set out on a course of action; set out on a journey; set
out with the intention of doing sth; set out/off on a journey; set
parameters (for sth); set pen to paper; set priorities; set rules (for
sth); set sail (for the next island etc.); set sb a challenge; set sb a
difficult problem; set sb a task; set sb an objective; set sb free; set
sb loose; set sb on a course; set sb to work doing sth; set sb up for
life; set sb up for the day; set sb up in business; set sb/sth doing
sth; set sb/sth free; set sb/sth loose; set sb’s mind at ease; set sb’s
mind at rest; set sb’s teeth on edge; set standards; set sth ablaze;
set sth alight; set sth in a type; set sth in order; set sth into the
ground; set sth on fire; set sth to music; set sth to one side; set
(great/little etc.) store by sth; set text.
set the accounts in order; set the agenda; set the alarm; set
the ball rolling; set the clock back; set the course for sth; set
the machine in motion; set the map on the floor; set the mood
for sth; set the pace; set the rate; set the record straight; set the
scene for sth; set the stage for sth; set the table; set the terms;
set the tone (for the rest of the discussion etc.); set the tone (of
the occasion etc.); set the world alight; set the world on fire; set
the world to rights; set things right; set to work (on) doing sth;
set to work (to do sth); set tongues wagging; set up a branch;
set up a business; set up a camera; set up a centre; set up a
commission; set up a committee; set up a community; set up a
company; set up a council; set up a department; set up a farm;
set up a front; set up a fund; set up a household; set up a league;
set up a meeting; set up a mission; set up a movement; set up
a network; set up a panel; set up a plant; set up a programme;
set up a project; set up a republic; set up a roadblock; set up a
scheme; set up a society; set up a state; set up a union; set up a
working lunch for sb; set up an advisory board; set up an agency;
set up an assembly; set up an award; set up an experiment; set

up an institute; set up an interview; set up an organization; set
up camp; set up charity; set up democracy; set up equipment; set
up home; set up house; set up in business; set up shop (infml);
set up stress; set your (own) house in order; set your affairs in
order; set your heart on (doing/having) sth; set your heart to sth;
set your mind on (doing) sth; set your sights high/low; set your
sights on sth; set your watch; set yourself an aim.
‘take’-clusters
in which the verb take acts as the motor – the key word that
Here we go:
Group 1
take (a lot of) brain to do sth; take (a) pride in sth; take (sb)
months to do sth; take (sb) years to do sth; take (an) interest
in sth; take (careful etc.) aim (at sb/sth); take (credit) cards;
take (full) advantage of sth; take (full) responsibility for sth;
take (great) pleasure in (doing) sth; take (legal) advice; take
(maximum) advantage of sth; take (no) notice of a remark; take
(no) notice of sb/sth; take (no) pleasure in (doing) sth; take
(over) the lead; take (sb) ages/an age to do sth; take (sb) hours;
take (sb) prisoner; take (sb) time; take (sb’s) advice; take (sth
as) security; take (sth) over from sb; take (the) credit; take (to)
the floor (for a dance); take (to) the road; take (up) a collection;
take (your) mind off sth; take (your) time; take 10 minutes/
three hours etc; take 6 months etc; take a (compass) bearing on
sth; take a (firm) grip on/upon yourself; take a (firm) hold on/
upon yourself; take a (firm) stand (on/over sth); take a (good)

look at sth; take a (long) hard look at sth; take a (phone) call;
take a (right/left) turn; take a (strong) stand (on/over sth); take
a (tough) stand (on/over sth); take a back seat to sb/sth; take
a bath; take a bend; take a bet (on sb/sth); take a bite (of sth);
take a blood sample; take a book back to a library; take a book
out of a library; take a break (from sth); take a breath; take a
bribe; take a broad view of sth; take a bullet; take a bus.
take a cab/taxi; take a call; take a car for a spin; take a car
in for (a) service; take a case to/before sb; take a chair; take a
championship; take a chance (on doing sth); take a chance (on
sth happening); take a change for the worse; take a cigar; take
a class (in physics etc.); take a clear lead; take a close look at
sth; take a consequence; take a contract to do sth; take a copy;
take a corner; take a corner too fast; take a course (in sth); take
a crack at (doing) sth; take a crown; take a cup of coffee; take
a day to do sth; take a decision (to do sth); take a deep breath;
take a deep pull of your cigarette; take a degree (in sth); take a
detour; take a dim view of local politicians; take a dim view (of
sb’s behaviour etc.); take a dip; take a direction; take a dislike to
frozen foods; take a dislike to sb/sth; take a dive; take a drink;
take a drop in wages; take a factor into account; take a factor
into consideration; take a few days’ leave; take a few paces; take
a few spare batteries; take a few steps; take a firm grip of sb’s
arm; take a firm line; take a firm stand on sth; take a flat; take
a foolish etc. attitude; take a free kick; take a fresh look at sth;
take a full part in college activities; take a gamble (on sb/sth);
take a glance; take a glance at the newspaper headlines; take a
guess (at sth); take a guide; take a gulp etc; take a gulp of beer;
take a hammer to sth; take a hand in (doing) sth; take a hard
line; take a hard etc. line (with sb) (on/over sth); take a heavy
toll on sb/sth; take a hit; take a holiday; take a job (with sb/sth);
take a journey; take a kick at sb; take a knife from your pocket;
take a lead; take a leading part; take a leading role; take a left;
take a letter; take a little while (to do sth); take a long pull on
your cigar; take a long slow breath; take a long time (to do sth/
over sth); take a long walk; take a look; take a look at sb; take a
look at sth; take a look at the weather; take a look in sth; take a
look round; take a look through sth; take a lot of trouble (to do
sth); take a lot of work; take a Master’s; take a measure; take a
measurement; take a message; take a month’s paid leave; take a
month’s unpaid leave; take a more responsible attitude; take a
mouthful.
take a nap; take a narrow view of sth; take a new direction;
take a newspaper; take a nosedive; take a pace; take a packed
lunch; take a peep; take a penalty; take a photo; take a
photograph (of sb/sth); take a picture (of sb/sth); take a pill;
take a plane; take a poll; take a position; take a positive attitude;
take a prescription drug; take a problem to sb; take a prominent
part in sth; take a proper look; take a puff on your pipe; take a
pull (at your cigar etc.); take a pull (at/of/on a cigarette); take
a pull (on/at your beer); take a punch; take a quick look; take a
reading; take a rented house sw; take a rest (from work); take a
ride (in sth); take a right; take a risk (with sth); take a room (in
a hotel etc.); take a route; take a running jump; take a sample;
take a scalp; take a seat; take a second; take a ship out of service;
take a short break (from your work etc.); take a short cut; take a
short length of rope; take a short walk (every day after dinner);
take a shot (at the enemy etc.); take a shower; take a sip (of sth);
take a small taste; take a snap; take a snapshot of sb/sth; take a
spare key; take a stab at sth; take a stance; take a stand (against
sb/sth); take a stand (on sth); take a standing jump; take a
statement; take a step; take a step back; take a step forward (and
do sth); take a step towards sb; take a step towards sth; take a
stroll; take a student; take a surprise twist; take a survey; take a
sweater; take a swig of beer; take a swing at sb/sth; take a swing
at sb’s head; take a swipe at sb/sth; take a tablet; take a taxi (to
sw); take a test; take a tip (from sb); take a tough line; take a
tough stance; take a train; take a train to sw; take a trip; take
a trip down memory lane; take a trophy; take a tumble; take a
turn doing sth/at sth; take a turn for the better; take a turn for
the worse; take a vacation; take the view that…; take a violent
dislike to sb; take a vote (on sth); take a vote on an issue; take
a vow (of sth); take a wait-and-see attitude; take a walk; take a
walk down memory lane; take a wash; take a week to do sth; take
a week’s etc. holiday; take a weight off sb’s mind; take a while
(to do sth); take a/the hint; take a/your chance on/with; take a/
your stand (on sth); take account of sth; take action (to do sth);
take action on sth; take advice; take advice from an expert; take
after your father; take after your mother; take after your parents;
take all decisions; take all the credit; take all the effort out of sth;
take all the fight out of sb; take all your attention; take all your
strength; take an active part in sth; take an active role in sth; take
an afternoon etc. break; take an approach; take an article; take
an attitude; take an average of three weeks etc. (to do sth).
take an exam(ination); take an hour to do sth; take an index
up/down; take an instance; take an instant dislike to sb; take an
interest (in sth); take an interest in the welfare of my staff; take
an oath; take an offer; take an opportunity; take an overall etc.
view; take an/more etc. interest in (doing) sth; take chances;
take away a licence; take away freedom; take away pain; take
away the taste; take away your hand; take back sth; take care;
take care (not) to do sth; take care (that) …; take care of a kid;
take care of sb; take care of the rest; take care to do sth; take care
with; take care with sth; take care over sth; take cash; take centre
stage; take chances; take charge (of sth); take comfort; take
comfort from sb’s words; take comfort from sth; take command
(of sth); take control (of sb/sth); take control of a situation;
take cover; take cover from the rain; take criticism; take crucial
decisions; take daily exercise; take delivery of sth; take discipline;
take down a fence; take down a notice; take down a tent; take
down the details; take down the scaffolding; take down your
pants; take down your trousers; take driving lessons; take drugs;
take early retirement; take effect; take effort; take enough care;
take exercise; take fire; take firm action; take first pick; take first
place; take first etc. prize; take flight; take fun out of sth; take
good care of sb; take good care of sth; take great care; take great
pains (to do sth); take great pains (with/over sth); take great
pleasure in sb’s achievements; take hold (of sb/one end of a table
etc.); take hold of sth; take imagination; take immediate action;
take immediate steps; take in lodgers; take industrial action; take
inspiration; take issue (with sb about/over sth); take issue (with
sb on sth); take it easy; take it for granted (that) …; take it from
the top; take it in turns (to do sth); take it on yourself (to do
sth); take it or leave it; take it upon yourself (to do sth); take its
place; take its toll; take leave of your senses; take legal action
against sb; take lessons; take lessons (on/in sth); take little rests
in between your work; take long walks in the hills; take many
forms; take matters into your own hands; take measures against
sb/sth; take measures to do sth; take medicine; take milk; take
money; take money from sb; take money off sth; take months;
take my advice; take no chances; take no interest in sb; take no
part in sth; take no share in sth; take note (of sth); take notes;
take off clothes; take off from an airport; take off weight; take off
your coat; take off your glasses; take off your hat; take off your
shoes; take off your skirt; take offence (at sth); take offence (to
sth); take office.
Group 2
take on (added) importance; take on (special) importance;
take on a brooding expression; take on a champion; take on
a function; take on a job; take on a new etc. aspect; take on
a passenger; take on an employee; take on labour; take on
meaning; take on more responsibility; take on new clients; take
on new staff; take on sb; take on staff; take on the appearance
of sth; take on the leadership; take on the mantle of sb/sth;
take on the role of sth; take on too many commitments; take
on trust; take on workers; take one look (at sth); take one etc.
hostage; take orders from sb; take out; take out a contract on
sb; take out a knife; take out a loan; take out a membership;
take out a mortgage; take out a panel; take out a tooth; take out
an ad (in a newspaper etc.); take out an injunction against sb/
sth; take out an insurance policy; take out insurance; take out
medical insurance; take out your savings; take over a farm; take
over a ministry; take over a plant; take over sth; take over the
leadership; take over the reins; take pains (to do sth).
take pains over sth/doing sth; take pains with (doing) sth;
take part (in sth); take part in a battle; take part in a campaign;
take part in a debate; take part in a discussion; take part in a
festival; take part in a process; take part in a rally; take part
in a revolution; take part in an exercise; take part in cultural
activities; take photographs; take pictures professionally; take
pity on sb; take place (in unusual circumstances); take place
(without incident); take pleasure; take pleasure in doing sth;
take pleasure in/from sth; take power; take practical steps;
take pride in (doing) sth; take pride of place; take priority; take
priority (over sth); take refuge; take responsibility (for sth); take
responsibility for (doing) sth; take responsibility on yourself;
take retirement; take revenge (on/against sb); take risks (in this
kind of work etc.); take satisfaction; take sb (out) to lunch; take
sb 30 minutes to do sth; take sb a while to do sth; take sb at their
word; take sb away; take sb by surprise; take sb by the arm; take
sb by the hand; take sb captive; take sb five years/ten minutes/
two hours etc. to do sth; take sb for a fool; take sb for a walk;
take sb hostage; take sb in for questioning; take sb in your arms;
take sb into care; take sb into custody; take sb into partnership;
take sb into your arms; take sb into your confidence; take sb off
(their) guard; take sb on trust; take sb out for a drive; take sb out
for a meal; take sb somewhere; take sb to (see) a film; take sb
to a movie/the movies; take sb to court; take sb to hospital; take
sb to mean sth; take sb to one side; take sb to safety; take sb two
hours; take sb under your wing; take sb/sth (for example); take
sb/sth back; take sb/sth in hand; take sb/sth off the list; take sb’s
arm; take sb’s arm to guide them; take sb’s blood pressure.
take sb’s breath away; take sb’s hand; take sb’s mind off sth;
take sb’s name in vain; take sb’s order; take sb’s part (in sth);
take sb’s picture; take sb’s place; take sb’s point; take sb’s pulse;
take sb’s side; take sb’s temperature; take sb’s thoughts off sth;
take sb’s word (for sth); take sb’s word for it; take seat; take
second place to sth; take several pages of notes (on sth); take
shape; take shelter (from the rain); take sides (with sb); take size
10/12/40 etc.; take some /most of the load off your assistants
etc.; take some currency; take some doing; take some medicine;
take somebody on at chess; take somebody on at snooker; take
somebody on at tennis; take steps to do sth; take sth (away)
from sth; take sth apart; take sth as a compliment; take sth as
a sign; take sth as an insult; take sth as an omen; take sth as
evidence of sth; take sth as proof of sth; take sth away (from
sb); take sth from a bag; take sth from sb; take sth from/out of
a pocket; take sth in your hands; take sth into account; take sth
into consideration; take sth literally; take sth lying down; take
sth off; take sth off sth; take sth on faith; take sth on trial; take
sth on trust; take sth out; take sth out of a box; take sth out of a
context; take sth out of a pocket; take sth out of context; take sth
the wrong way; It takes courage etc. to do/be sth; take sth to its
limits; take sth to mean sth; take sth to pieces; take sth/sb with
you; take stick (from sb); take stock (of sth); take sugar; take the
air; take the attitude that; take the average; take the baby; take
the bait; take the blame; take the blame (for sth); take the blame
(for sth) upon yourself; take the breast; take the brunt of sth;
take the bus; take the call; take the car.
take the chance of (sth happening); take the chance to do
sth; take the chance to travel (while you’re still young etc); take
the consequences; take the dog for a run; take the easy way out;
take the ferry; take the field; take the first step; take the floor;
take the form of sth; take the full force of sth; take the gold
(medal); take the grin off your face; take the hassle out of sth;
take the heat off sb; take the heat out of sth; take the high road;
take the implication into consideration; take the initiative; take
the initiative (in doing sth); take the kids to (the park); take the
large view; take the law into your own hands; take the lead (in
doing sth); take the lead (in space research etc.); take the lift (to
the third floor etc.); take the long view (of sth); take the morning
etc. flight; take the mystery out of sth.
take the narrow path; take the news badly etc; take the news
calmly etc; take the news in your stride; take the news well etc;
take the next road; take the night train to sw; take the occasion to
do sth; take the opportunity (of doing sth); take the opportunity
(to do sth); take the place of; take the plane; take the position
that…; take the present; take the refugees; take the report to the
board; take the risk (of doing sth); take the role of sb; take the
roll; take the stage; take the stairs; take the stairs two at a time;
take the strain off sb; take the strain out of sth; take the stress;
take the time or trouble to do sth; take the total to…; take the
train; take the trouble (of doing sth); take the trouble (to do sth);
take the upper hand; take the view that…; take the weight off
sb/sth; take the wheel; take the words out of sb’s mouth; take the
worry out of sth; take these books (= You can have them); take
things as they come; take things into your own hands; take this
idea a step further; take this opportunity (to do sth); take this
opportunity of doing sth; take thought.
take time; take time off; take time out; take time out of the
schedule; take to the bottle; take to theatre; take to your bed; take
too long; take too long to do sth; take trouble over/with sth; take
turns (at sth); take turns (to do sth); take turns being captain of
the team; take turns doing sth; take unpopular measures; take up
a challenge; take up a job; take up a minute; take up a point; take
up a position; take up a post; take up a reference; take up a sport;
take up a theme; take up a topic; take up all your energies; take
up an activity; take up an appointment; take up an issue; take
up an offer; take up arms against…; take up employment; take
up golf; take up piano lessons; take up residence; take up room;
take up sb’s offer; take up space; take up the chorus; take up the
cry; take up the song; take up the whole of sth; take up too much
room; take up writing (as a career); take urgent measures (to do
sth); take vengeance on sb; take violin lessons; take warning from
sth; take work home; take work off sb’s shoulders; take years off
sb; take your argument a stage further; take your breath away;
take your chance(s); take your choice; take your clothes off; take
your cue from sb/sth; take your custom elsewhere; take your cut;
take your driving test; take your finals; take your hands off sb/
sth; take your holidays; take your life in your hands; take your
place; take your point about that picture; take your punishment;
take your seat; take your time (answering questions etc.).
That’s it. Bye for now.
***

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1

Packing of Information in Speech

Prof. Kev Nair was born in Kerala, South India, in 1949.

that comfort and ease in speech with his specialised fluency

Fluent English Dictionaries1 by Kev Nair

Books by Kev Nair making up

Prof. Kev Nair

Packing of information in speech.

Subordination and co-ordination, 14

(iii) Non-finite relative clauses, 31

Chapter 2: Complex phrases, 33

Chapter 3: Secondary Phrases, 49

Chapter 4: How to avoid complexity, 62

Specific and non-specific words, 64

Chapter 5: Composing speech and speaking at the

Chapter 6: Core-word Clusters 1, 76

Preface to the 5th edition

Here’s the latest edition of this book.

is to rely far more on an ‘equal arrangement’ of clauses

Subordination and co-ordination

is a constituent element of the other. But if we connect the two

Matrix clause first

Now suppose that a construction that occurs to you

Nature of information-packing and fluency

any syntactic pressure to construct the next clause in a particular

speak with a flow. Your speech tends to falter and comes to a

How to avoid dense packing

Simple Subordinators (for finite

didn’t criticize his work + though I wasn’t satisfied with it. • He

Complex Subordinators (for finite

+ only if/provided that you pay me in advance. • They started

Correlative subordinators (for finite

2. Clauses introduced by wh-elements

E.g. (1) • That was + how it happened. • He told me + how he did

3. Inversion of initial elements in a clause

4. Special subordinate constructions

4.1 Non-finite clauses

(i) “to-infinitive” clauses:

clause is ‘to give it back’. In certain circumstances, such a to-

(ii) Bare infinitive clauses

(iii) “-ing participle” clauses:

The subordinators that introduce -ing clauses are:

(iv) “-en participle” clauses:

4.2 Verbless clauses

though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever,

(i) Finite Relative clauses

(ii) Comparative clauses

phrases and adverb phrases occurring within clauses. (These are

(iii) Non-finite relative clauses

(b) -ing participle relative clauses

Pre-modification and Post-modification

Modification and complexity

Now ‘girl’ is a single-word phrase, and ‘a girl’ and ‘a beautiful

• I saw [a ten-year old, shy, tall, beautiful girl with long

How to avoid modification

use a modified noun phrase as the Subject element if this is also

something — or to add to or restrict the meaning of the head.

into some category or group for the purpose of identification.

‘Adjective + noun’ combinations — Pre-

double, east, eastern, economic, educational, electric,

Objective and subjective adjectives:

cooked, dark, dead, deep, dried, dry, fat, furnished, fixed,

it as a modifying unit. If you want to add a comment or opinion,