In recent years, some news stories have emerged from Australia of would-be Irish immigrants failing the English test required for entrance, the IELTS General-Training exam.
One of the most common responses to such stories is to laugh: Ha, serves them right, how can they not even pass a basic English test if they’re English speakers!
But the situation is a little more complex than that.
Just a quick update as it’s a Bank-Holiday weekend here in Ireland. Why are they called Bank Holidays? Quite simply, these were originally days when it was decided that banks would close and no trading could take place, though they very quickly became popular among the general population as a day of leisure. Nowadays though many shops and business remain open, banks continue to be closed.
That’s Galway today, in somewhat unseasonal warmth and sunshine. I suppose it’s not really unseasonal (it is June!) but we’re always taken a little by surprise by sunny weather here in Ireland. While most of us appreciate and enjoy the weather, I’m always curious about how we talk about it here. We have no problem saying the weather’s beautiful, or gorgeous, or lovely, but when we start talking specifically about the temperature, we tend to fall back on cooking metaphors.
It’s absolutely boiling!
It’s roasting!
I’m roasted so I am!
This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.
– Winston Churchill (probably) on an editor mangling a sentence in his memoirs that had ended in a preposition
Can you end a sentence with a preposition? This has long been a subject of debate in grammar cirlces, though currently most people suggest that it’s fine.
Before we look at whether ending a sentence with a preposition is acceptable or not, we should first ask: what is a preposition? They’re tricky little words such as to, at, in, on, under, with, above etc. Basically they’re like connective tissue, or mortar between bricks. Or little tugboats pulling heavy ocean liners around. They don’t seem to do much on their own, but we need them to join the main concepts of sentences together.
—So that’s N… I… A…
—N!?
—No, N.
—M, ok.
—No, N.
—Yeah, that’s what I said, M.
—It’s N, n for nuisance.
When I decided to call my blog English-Language Thoughts, I paused after first seeing the title typed out. I knew of course that it was the correct title, but it didn’t seem so aesthetically pleasing with that little hyphen in there. It makes it asymmetrical, too heavy and clumped together on the left. English Language Thoughts would probably look much better.
I’m loving it!
Is this incorrect? Should we insist that one can only say I love it?
Going by what the grammar books say, then yes, I love it is strictly the correct form. To love is a stative verb, which means it cannot be used in a continuous sense, (e.g. I love, I’ve loved and I loved are all fine, but never I’m loving or I was loving). Some other common stative verbs include to know, like, want, believe, agree, hate and understand. Try putting I’m before them and an -ing at the end and see if it sounds strange.
English-Language Thoughts 