|
Short Sentences in Books,
Movies, and Speech |
Ernest Hemingway was a famous American writer. He won
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
One of his most famous books, The Sun Also Rises, ends
with the following words:
"Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
Today, we are going to consider the grammar behind the
sentence: "Isn't it pretty to think so." In this
program, we will study how English speakers use
shortened sentences. We will hear examples of other
short sentences from films, books, and fictional
conversations.
But first, we will start with some definitions.
Shortened clauses
Clauses are groups of words that have a subject and a
predicate.
A predicate is a group of words that tells something
about the subject.
When a clause has a period at the end of it, it is a
sentence. For example, in the sentence, "I love English
grammar," the word "I" is the subject, and "love English
grammar" is the predicate.
Sometimes, sentences have many clauses. These clauses
can begin with the word "that" or a word beginning with
the letters “wh-”, such as why, what, where, or when.*
For example, in the sentence "We hope that you enjoy
learning English grammar," the words "that you enjoy
learning English grammar" are a clause. The clause
begins with the word "that" – it is an example of a
that-clause.
When speaking, Americans often shorten clauses that
repeat what they have said earlier. In addition, they
often shorten clauses that repeat what someone else has
said.
These short expressions usually occur after certain
verbs.
We will now explore these verbs and a few shortened
clauses they often go with.
#1 Know, remember, wonder
Speakers often shorten “wh-” clauses, usually after they
use the verbs wonder, know, or remember.
When speakers shorten the “wh-” clauses, they usually
only use the “wh-” word itself. They leave out the rest
of the clause.
Here is an example. Imagine two friends talking about a
third person who apparently went missing the night
before.
Tom didn't come to the show last night!
I wonder why?
In the example, the second speaker used a shortened
clause. Instead of saying "I wonder why Tom didn't come
to the show last night?", the speaker said, "I wonder
why?"
This is an example of a shortened “wh-” clause after the
verb "wonder." The speaker did not want to repeat all of
the information discussed earlier. Such lengthy speech
would create very long and slow conversations!
Now, let’s consider a second example. In the 2004 film
Crash, actor Sandra Bullock says the following line:
I'm angry all the time, and I don't know why… Carol, I
don't know why!
Here, Bullock says "I don't know why" instead of "I
don't know why I am angry all the time." She uses a
shortened “wh-” clause after the verb "know."
The two examples we gave you both had the word "why" in
them: "I wonder why?" and "I don't know why?"
These are two very common uses of a shortened “wh-”
clause.
Please remember that English speakers will also use
other “wh-” words in shortened clauses. You might hear a
person say "…he doesn't remember where," for example.
#2 Guess, say, think, hope
Now let's turn to a second group of clauses. They are
called “that-clauses”.
Speakers often shorten “that-clauses”, usually after
they use verbs such as guess, say, think, and hope.
The word "so" often takes the place of the
“that-clause”. This sounds difficult, but we will give
you examples to clarify the point!
Here is one from the 1991 film The Man in the Moon.
- "Maureen? Is it always gonna hurt this bad? Mama says
it won't. I hope she's right."
- "I hope so."
Here, the second speaker says "I hope so" instead of the
full sentence, "I hope that she is right."
In other words, "so" takes the place of an entire
that-clause.
Now, let’s consider a second example. Remember the lines
you heard at the beginning of this report?
"Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
Just before those lines come in Ernest Hemingway's book,
two characters, Jake and Brett, are talking about their
unfulfilled love for each other. Brett says that she and
Jake could have had such a good time together.
Jake responds with the famous line:
"Isn't it pretty to think so?"
Jake could have said "Isn't it pretty to think that we
could have had such a good time together?"
Such a line would have been much less elegant than
Hemingway's ending!
What can you do?
The next time you are reading a book in English or
talking with an English speaker, try listening for
examples of shortened clauses. Does the writer or
speaker use one of the shortened clauses we talked about
today? What verbs does the speaker use with the
shortened clause?
Try using examples of shortened clauses that you hear.
Or try to use some of the examples we told you about.
If you practice using shortened clauses, we think that
you will make progress.
No, we know so.
I'm Ashley Thompson.
And I'm John Russell.
John Russell wrote this report for Learning English.
George Grow was the editor.
*Other words that do not begin with wh-, such as "how,"
are also in this group. |
|
