New Englishes

There are number of ”New Englishes” – mainly new spoken varieties – developing in today’s internationalised world. These have language features that do no exist in the written standards of British, North-American or Australian English. Below you will find some examples of non-standard grammar.

A) Rewrite the eight sentences above in standard written English. In cases where you think the original may have two alternatives, give both.

1.       “You didn’t see him, is it?”
This phrase misses the right verb. Instead of the phrase above, it shall be “You didn’t see him, did you?” The sentence is written in past tense, therefore “is it” (which is present tense) should not be used here.

2.       “When you would like to go?”

In this phrase you have to move the words around considering the pronoun in the sentence is not placed where it should be. Due to the fact that the pronoun should be placed after the verb “would”. The correct way to write this sentence/question would therefore be “When would you like to go?”

3.       “That man he is tall”

In this sentence two pronouns have been used; “The man” and “he”. One should use either one of them. There are two different ways to write this sentence correctly; “That man is tall” and “He is tall”.

4.       “Her jewelleries were stolen”

Jewelry is not supposed to be plural, the sentence is therefore not correct.


5. "I am understanding it now" - I understand it now


6. "They two are very good friensd" - They are very good friends


7. "Sushila is extremely a lazy girl" - Sushila is an extremely lazy girl


8. "When you leaving?" - When are you leaving?

English exam 2010