Common usage

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED by FADZILAH AMIN

IN a seminar organised by Pejabat Pelajaran Daerah, Johor Baru, the key personnel (KP) taught us to pronounce poems as POMS. Most teachers in Johor Baru are now pronouncing it as POMS. Is this really the new pronunciation?

Also, are these sentences correct, grammatically?

1) Everyone enjoy themselves very much.

2) My family has our dinner at the restaurant.

3) He took a taxi to go round the town Or He took a taxi to go around the town. What is the difference between round and around?

4) For Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, no apostrophe is required but it is used for New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve. Why? – Teacher

It is not clear to me, how the “O” in your “POMS” is pronounced – whether it is like the “o” in “bomb” or the “o” in “Rome”.

In both British and American English, “poem” is a word of only one syllable, but its vowel is a triphthong, a combination of three vowel sounds. In British English, it is pronounced /peuim/, where the “e” (in bold) is a schwa and the “u” and “ i” are both short. The “o” in “Rome” is the diphthong /eu/ in British English and the diphthong /ou/ in American English. “Poem” is pronounced /pouem/ in American English, where the “e” (in bold) is a schwa. (A schwa is the vowel sound in the first syllable of “ago” and is usually represented by an upside down lower case “e”.)

There is no new pronunciation of the word “poem”, but many Malaysians are used to pronouncing it as if it were a word of two syllables, i.e. “po-em” or even “po-yem”. Is it possible that the key personnel you mentioned pronounced the word correctly, using the “o” sound as in “Rome” (eu) plus the “i” sound, but that the teachers missed the “i” after the “eu”?

Now I will answer your other questions.

1) No. It should be either the more formal “Everyone enjoys himself or herself very much.”, or the less formal but more convenient “Everyone enjoys themselves very much.” “Everyone”, like “everybody” takes a singular subject, but the pronoun that refers back to it (himself, herself, themselves) can be either singular (more formal) or plural (less formal).

2) “My family has our dinner at the restaurant.” is correct. You can also say “My family have our dinner at the restaurant.” You can use either a singular or a plural verb after “family”. Also, in your sentence, “our dinner” sounds better than “its dinner”, which sounds impersonal in that context. However, “its” can be used to refer to a family in a sentence like the following:

“Now I think about it, my family has had its share of characters, including one great-uncle who managed to blow a hole through his hand by putting it on top of his own (loaded) shotgun, whilst climbing over a gate.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2006/08/24/somerset_sounds_the_mangledwurzels_feature.shtml

3) Both “round” and “around” can be used in your sentence in British English, but “around” is more formal and it is also used in American English. Here are some examples from the Internet:

The volunteers also go around the town and surrounding villages with Father Christmas on his sleigh to greet the children of the communities before Christmas.

http://www.bbc.co..uk/wales/mid/sites/volunteers/pages/talgarthchristmaslights.shtml

“It is nice for the council and for the residents to see the effort that goes into the competition and to go round the town and see the results.”

http://www.burnleyexpress.net/996/Awards-for-town-gardeners.837755.jp

“DANCE; Up, Down and All Around The Town” (title of an article in New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/arts/dance-up-down-and-all-around-the-town.html

4) “Christmas” means “the mass or festival of Christ” and no apostrophe “s” is needed for Christmas Day, since the possessive is already contained in the meaning of Christmas. But a saint’s day and eve usually come with an apostrophe “s” after the saint’s name, e.g. St Patrick’s Day, St George’s Day, St Agnes’ Eve.

New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve have traditionally been written with an apostrophe “s” after “Year”. I think this is a matter of usage rather than logic. After all, we can say “a summer’s day” or “a winter’s day”, but NOT “an autumn’s day” or “a spring’s day”.

Confusing tenses

I’m very confused about how to use “Says” and “Said” and also “Had” and “Has”. Please help. – Malini

Says and said

“Says” is the singular simple present tense of the verb “say” and “said” is the simple past tense and also past participle of the verb “say”. You use “says” in a sentence when the subject is a singular noun or pronoun (except for “I” and “you”) and the sentence is in the simple present tense. “Said” is used with both singular and plural subjects. Here are some examples of their usage:

“She often says she is not pretty, but I think she is.”

“My grandma always says she is not ill, but only old.”

“Many people said hello to me at school yesterday.” (simple past tense)

“She is said to be very rich.” (past participle used with “is” to form a passive verb)

Has and had

“Has” and “had” can be main verbs or auxiliary (helping) verbs. “Has” is the singular simple present tense form of the verb “have” and “had” is the simple past tense and also past participle of the verb “have”. You use “has” in a sentence when the subject is a singular noun or pronoun (except for “I” and “you”) and the sentence is in the simple present tense. “Had” is used with both singular and plural subjects.

As a main verb, “have” means “to own”, but it has other meanings as well, among them “to eat”. You will have to consult a dictionary for the other meanings. Here are some examples of the use of “has” and “had” as main verbs:

“He has a cat that he is very fond of.” (has=owns)

“Shalini has breakfast at 7.30 every morning.” (has=eats)

He had a cat last year, but the cat died. (had=owned)

The students had dinner late last night. (had=ate)

“Has” is also used as an auxiliary verb in a sentence using the present perfect tense, which talks about an action that was done in the past, without giving the time when it was done. A present perfect tense verb consists of “has” or “have” + the past participle of the main verb. “Has” is used with singular subjects and “have” with plural subjects. Here are some examples:

“She has seen the film.” (has + past participle of “see”, which is “seen” and no time is given)

“My friend has gone to Egypt to study medicine.” (has + past participle of “go”, which is “gone” – no time given)

“Had” is used as an auxiliary verb in a sentence using the past perfect tense, which talks about two actions or events, one of which was completed before the other happened. A past perfect tense verb consists of “had” + the past participle of the main verb. The earlier action/event is expressed in the past perfect tense, and the later action/event in the simple past tense. Here are some examples:

“We had eaten our dinner when our friends came.”

“Ahmad had given up hope of going to a university when a letter arrived offering him a place in the university of his second choice.”