Tip 23: The Comma Debate

Except in sentences where there are only two items (e.g I eat fruit and vegetables), I have always assumed that a comma is obligatory before "and", as in:

1) She ate an apple, two pears, and a bunch of grapes.
2) I take fish, beef, and mutton.
3) The flood last week devastated the whole village, and many people were left homeless.

However, yesterday Jerrie’s English teacher taught them that comma is only necessary in cases where confusion is likely to happen. Thus, no comma is required in:

- I take fish, beef and mutton.
- I have red, pink and blue pencils.

And a comma is recommended in:
- I like a drink, an egg, and a ham and cheese sandwich.
- The restaurant served fish and chips, bacon and egg, and carrot and mushroom soup.

Tip 22: Some Commonly Mispelt Words

A list of English words which I notice Singaporeans, (including me) tend to falter when spelling them. Sometimes, we rely so much on spell check tools which allow us to conveniently choose and click on to the right spelling that we don't even know that we can't spell them correctly anymore without those tools!

Tip 21: Interested in Phonetics?

My name is pronounced as ru:ˈθ.

I love phonetics. For me, it's one of those things that you learn once and it's hard to forget. Jason said that I should start a class teaching parents that. I gave him a strange look and told him that nobody would find it useful and that the schools would be teaching phonetics to the children if it was really beneficial. Children learn words by uttering them, don't they? Then why do I like it so much? Purely for the fun and vanity of it! It's like knowing a new language.

If you understand phonetics, there is a very cool website that translates English words into phonetics. For any English word that you are not sure of its pronunciation, you can check it out there. Nevermind that it's a Japanese website, it really doesn't really. It's intuitive enough to know where you should key in the word and you just click the first left button to submit. This is good stuff; I think you can't find any free tool like this else where. (But let me know if you know of any....:) )

Here you go: http://www.manabo.net/

Tip 20: Correct use of "spoil"

The children in Singapore (perhaps adults included as well) use the words “spoil” and spoilt” in all the wrong places. “Spoil” is used to mean “damage", "faulty" or "broken”, possibly due to a direct translation of the Chinese word “坏” – a very generic word to mean “bad”. Thus we hear Singlish sentences like:

- My toy spoil already! Buy me another one!

- We can’t take the lift, it’s spoilt.

- He can’t walk, his leg is spoilt.


In Chinese, “spoil” or “spoilt” in the above sentences can be replaced by one word “坏”.


Teach the children the right use of “spoil”:

- My toy is broken.

- The lift has broken down

- His leg is injured.


Other examples on the proper use of "spoil":

- Keep the food in the refrigerator before it spoils

- Spare the rod, spoil the child

- The incident this morning has totally spoiled my day

- Come on, be a sport, don’t spoil the party!

Tip 19: Singular and Plural in Grammar

Don't be too surprised if your kid could give you the right answer to a grammer question but could not explain why the answer was chosen. Kids pick up the right words to use when they read and listen, without knowing that there are some underlying rules in using those words.

Going on further to instil in them grammatical rules can help firm up their foundation in the language.

Teach them singular and plural usage when dealing with words: "is" vs "are", "was" vs "were", "has" vs "have", and also the exceptional cases of "I", "You", and uncountable nouns like "sugar", "water", "rice", "hair", etc.

Tip 18: When to Ignore Singular/Plural Verb and Present/Past Tense

It's easy to ask kids to follow rules about singular and plural verbs and simple past and present tense.

However, we also need to tell them there are many instances where the "neutral" form has to be used when the verb is preceded by any of these words:

1) to
2) do/does/don't/does not
3) did/did not/didn't
4) can/cannot
5) could/could not/couldn't
6) will/will not/won't
7) would/would not/woudn't
8) shall/shan't/shall not
9) should/should not/shouldn't
10) must/mustn't/must not
11) another verb e.g She saw her "fall" down. e.g I let her "go" yesterday.

Tip 17: Oral Skills

Besides telling our kids to read the oral passage clearly, pronouncing each word clearly, there are also a few other reminders:

1) Pause at commas and fullstops.
2) Pronounce "t" sound for words ending with "t".
3) Pronounce "s" sound for words ending with "s".
4) Pronounce "ed" sound for words ending with "ed".
5) Pronounce "th" sound for words starting with "th" e.g the, these, that, those, thing, think, etc.
6) Read with some appropriate expression/emotion in the voice.