English Language Wikipedia

 • We appreciate our boss for going extra mile for us.  The above sentence is marred by the omission  of ‘the' which is an obligatory part of the idiom ‘the extra mile'. To go the extra mile is  to try hard to help somebody achieve something.  Therefore, the above sentence should be written as :  • We appreciate our boss for going the extra mile for us. 

 • John’s house is really in a shamble.  The word ‘shamble’ as used in the above sentence renders the sentence non-standard. The correct version of the word is ‘shambles’. When something is in a shambles, it is in a mess.  Many nouns in this category are actually singular nouns, the letter ‘s' in them is just part of their spelling. Other examples include: summons, means, logistics, etc.  Therefore we say: • John’s house is really in a shambles.  • The media magnate was served a summon. ( non-standard)  • The media magnate was served a summons. ( standard)  It should be noted that the plural of summons is summonses. 

  Wine and dine or Wine and dine with?  • To celebrate her birthday, my wife and I decided to wine and dine with friends and family.  The idiom ‘wine and dine’ means to entertain people by getting them food and drinks. When using the idiom, we should take note that it  takes  direct object without a preposition. When corrected, the above sentence will be : • To celebrate her birthday, my wife and I decided to wine and dine  friends and family.  • We are going to wine and dine.  However, when 'dine' is used, it becomes an intransitive verb. A verb in this category doesn’t take an object without a preposition before the noun. For example, it will be wrong to say ‘He slept the mat' when actually we are to say ‘He slept on the mat'.  • He dined his parents.  ( non-standard) • He dined with his parents.  (standard) • He dined rice and chicken. ( non-standard) • He dined on rice and chicken. (standard) This sentence means...

 1. Slow-witted ( adjective) not able to think very well; not intelligent.  The opposite is 'quick-witted.' Example:  The boy is a slow-witted student, we need to help him improve his learning skills. 

 • One of the criterias for electing our leaders is to check if they are mentally balanced.  There are nouns whose plurals are formed by changing the vowels, a process called vowel mutation, few examples are:   Man / women  Goose / geese  Tooth/teeth, etc There are nouns with irregular plural, some of which usually have the last two or three letters affected. Examples of such words include:   Thesis : theses  Stimulus : stimuli  Criterion : criteria  Tempo : tempi   Stadium : stadiums / stadia  Crisis / crises, etc. We should note that when the plurals of these nouns are used, our verbs and determiners should correspond with the plural nouns too.  Therefore, when the above sentence is corrected, we have:  • One of the criteria for electing our leaders is to check if they are mentally balanced. 

 • John will be fifty years next month.  When talking about a person’s birthday or number of years they have spent on earth, we say any of the following:   fifty/fifty years old/ fifty years of age. Therefore, the above sentence will be written as:  John will be fifty years old next month.  John will be fifty next month. • Mr Johnson bought the house in  a whim.  The Oxford Advanced Learner's  Dictionary defines whim as ‘ a sudden wish to do or have something, especially when it is something unusual or unnecessary’.  The above sentence is marred by the preposition ‘in'. When corrected, the sentence will be : • Mr Johnson bought the house on a whim.  • She dismisses people at whim. 

 • When I was at your age, I could write wonderful stories. The above sentence doesn’t need the preposition ‘at'. Therefore, the correct version is: • When I was your age, I could write wonderful stories.  However, it is correct to say : At your age, I could write wonderful stories.  We should take note of the following:  • The little boy was involved in under age smoking ( non-standard)  • The little boy was involved in underage smoking ( standard)  • It’s illegal to sell gin to children who are underage. ( non-standard) • It’s illegal to sell gin to children who are under age. ( standard) ELW Team