RULES OF GRAMMAR

 


 

Ogden's rules of grammar for Basic English extend the 850 word vocabulary to the breadth needed to describe objects and events in the environment and more smoothly communicate with people.

 

 

 

1. Plurals are formed with a trailing "S". The normal exceptions of standard English also apply, notably "ES" and "IES".

2. There are four derivatives for the 300 nouns: -"ER" and -"ING", and two adjectives, -"ING" and -"ED".

3. Adverbs use -"LY" from qualifiers.

4. Degree is expressed with "MORE" and "MOST". Be prepared to find -"ER" and -"EST" in common usage.

5. Negative adjectives are formed with "UN"-

6. Questions are formed by inversion and by "DO".

7. Operators and pronouns conjugate in full.

8. Compound words may be combined from two nouns (milkman) or a noun and a directive (sundown).

9. Measurement, numerals, currency, calendar, and international terms are in English form.

10. Technical expressions required and customary for the immediate task are included in the locally used form.

 

 

 

 

Miscellaneous Rules, Insights and Comments


This page will be expanded

 

       
    Here in are some insights, rules, and comments about the usage of Basic English. Many are bows to realities and not necessarily to be taught to the beginning learner, but are important to the "intermediate" or "media" basic that will be used in general writing as Basic English.



      "Listed are a certain number of complex words (formed by putting Basic words together) of which straightforward additions Basic is free to make use."   This opens the way to making closed compound words by using prefixes over-, under-, outer-, inner-, self-, etc. & -able, -full, -self where the root meaning of the Basic word is clear.]

      Where the un- is changed to in- , im-, or ir- in full English, these forms are given. Though it is not necessary for them to be forced on the learner's attention, they are used freely in Basic Writing." - ISL 239

      Where -er is added to names to become the name of the person or thing which does the act in question, -or sounds the same as if the ending were in -er - Actor, sailor , creditor.

      Expect to see superlatives -er , -est. One syllable. [This essentially makes -est a Basic ending, and extends the scope of -er, when used as a superlative of short words.]

      Verbs (operators) conjugate in full. [see words there that are not specifically included in the 850.]

      Pronouns (words used in place of a noun) conjugate in full. [see words there that are not specifically included in the 850.]

      Form changes in names of acts as in normal English. [What does this mean?]

      Degree with "more" and 'most'. [This conjugation of 'much' adds two words to the Basic vocabulary.]

      Not every possible use of un- or -ly is covered because a great number of words formed with the -ing and -ed endings may have these additions as well.

      And 60 other verb forms are, strictly speaking, used only as nouns: instead of "I attempted to come", say, "I made an attempt to come."

       

        act , attack , attempt , awake , base , be a sign of , bite , blow , burn , burst , control , cook , cry out , crush , cry , damage , desire , doubt , drink , fly , fold , give , go , go into , guide , hate , have sex , hear , hope , jump , kick , kiss , laugh , lead , let , love , look for , measure , pull , push , regret , reward , roll , run , see , shake , sleep , slip , smile , sneeze , start , station , stop , support , swim , talk about , taste , touch , walk , wash , whistle . Why repeat these four : give, go, let, see ?

       

      We count 123 Basic words that can be verbs with no spelling changes.
      [Richards gets 200, but with spelling changes, which required extra learning and that is not good.]

        account, act, agree, answer, amount, arm, attack, attempt, awake, baby, bag, base, box, bite, birth, blow, brush, building, burn, burst, care, comfort, control, cook, cool, chain, comb, complete, credit, crush, cloud, cry, damage, design, desire, doubt, drain, dress, drain, drink, equal, experience, farm, fear, fire, fly, fold, force, fork, free, guide, hammer, hate, hear, hook, hope, house, jump, key, kick, kiss, laugh, lead, leaf, lift, like, live, light, look, love, machine, measure, market, mixed, move, nail, offer, play, pleasure, pull, push, plow, rain, rate, regret, reward, roll, roof, root, run, sail, school, seed, shake, sign, sleep, slip, smile, sneeze, snow, sponge, spoon, start, station, stop, stretch, support, swim, talk, taste, tax tired, touch, value, walk, wash, wall, war, warm, weather, whistle, wire, wrong.

 

 

Words Not on the List, but Are There

 


 

      A
      an -- variation of "a".
      am , are - conjugation of "be"
      away -- compound of a + way.
      B
      been , being -- conj. of "be"
      better , best -- comparative and superlatives of Good and Well.
      C
      came , coming - conj of "come"
      D
      does , did , done , doing -- conj of "do"
      E
      economics -- title of supplimentary list
      F ,
      farther, farthest -- comparative and superlative of Far.
      further, furthest -- from Far.
      G
      gave , given , giving -- conj. of "give"
      gone , goes , going -- conj of "go"
      got , gat , gotten , getting - conj. of "get"
      H
      has , hath , have , had , having - conj. of "have"
      her , him -- pronouns of He.
      his, hers -- possessive pronouns.
      I
      inner - comparative of "in"
      international -- title of supplimentary list
      is -- conj. of "be"
      it , its, itself -- pronouns.
      J , K
      kept , keeping -- conj. of "keep"
      L
      less , least -- comparative forms of Little
      M
      made , making -- conj. of "make"
      me , my , mine -- pronouns.
      mechanics -- title in supplimentary list
      might -- transitive of "may"
      more , most -- comparative and superlative of Much.
      N
      nearer, nearest -- comparative of Near
      never -- contraction of "not ever".
      O
      one -- Basic English assumes the numbers are known: 1, 2, 3, ...; their spelled out use is from the international list, with "one" becoming a pronoun.
      our, ours -- possessive pronoun
      outer - comparative of out
      P , Q , R
      S
      's -- possessive as "apostrophe s". Usage:  Bob's box as alternate to box of Bob.
      said , saying - conj of "say"
      saw , seen , seeing -- conj. of "see"
      sent , sending -- conj. of "send"
      she -- feminine pronoun of He
      T
      their , them , these , they , those -- plural and possessive pronouns.
      took , taken , taking -- conj. of "take"
      U
      us -- plural pronoun of " "I
      V , W
      was, were -- past tense of "be"
      we -- plural of  "I"
      went -- past tense of "go"
      worse, worst -- comparative and superlatives of bad
      would -- from axillary "will"
      what, which , whom, whose -- variations of the question, Who (Old English, "hwa")
      X , Y , Z
      your, yours -- possessive of You

          The rule that operatives (verbs) and pronouns conjugate in full gives us, for example, for "be" : am, are, is, been, being, was, were.   And the full range of pronouns and possessives. The comparatives and superlatives adverbs are discussed separately. Several of the variations can be taken at face value; to prove the variation may have to go back to Old English roots.

    Words used although not there.
    • economics : The word "economy" is in the "subsequent 350". The science of Economics, as a proper noun, is allowed. Economics is a category within both Business and Social Studies. The use of the lower case "economics" by extension easily slips into usage in writings for these audiences.
    • reference : The word "reference" is in three special word lists, most learners of Basic will be able to use the word, therefore it is a de facto Basic word.
    • supply : The word "supply" is in three special word lists, most learners of Basic will be able to use the word, therefore it is a de facto Basic word.
    • cross ; The word "cross" is in three special word lists and may be seen as a Basic word.


    Words that are never used.
      can/could == be able to, may / was able
      know == have knowledge ; be clear ; be certain
    These words are the clue that a person is using pure Basic English. The felt need to use these high frequency, tho unnecessary, words leads to the "Simple English" extension of Basic wherein the most common words are assumed to be known au priori. These words will not be known for international use, but are suitable in a "next step" for those going towards full English.
    Can and know are the only "top 50 words" not in Basic 850.  ( Top 50 words make up 43% of total English usage. ) Other popular words not in Basic are, in sequence,:
      think, find, must, should, just, tell, leave, few, ask, follow, during , hold, around, consider, problem, plan, stand ,course ;
      Followed by : city, close, unite, bring , try, provide, continue, pay, study, until , service, report, toward, figure, return, include, yet, big, expect, car, several, matter, usual, rather, per, often, action.

    Alternate Spellings at various levels of common, but informal, usage.
      though - tho ; through -thru ; laugh - laff ; cough - coff ; rough - ruff ; tough - tuff ; enough - enuff ; light - lite ; bright - brite ; night - nite ;
      and complex words such as : throughway - thruway ; tonight - tonite ; overnight - overnite.

 

 

 

 




 

http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2011.142.html, 2011-09-29 12:00:00 by Nature Nanotechnology ISSN: 1748-3387 EISSN: 1748-3395 Banner image © Ward Lopes, Heinrich Jaeger About NPG Contact NPG RSS web feeds Help Privacy policy Legal notice Accessibility statement Terms Na.

Separate molecule is smallest electric engine ever

For the first time, an electric engine has been made from a single molecule1 . At 1X10e-09 meter long, that makes the organic2 compound3 the smallest electric engine ever. Its agents putting into existence the idea to put forward their design to Guinness World records, but the small engine could also have good uses, such as pushing liquid (or gas) through narrow pipes in "lab-on-a-chip" apparatus.

Molecules1 have previously converted energy from light and chemical reactions into directed motion like rolling or moving up and down. Electrics has also set an oxygen molecule1 turning as by chance. But controlled,

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028185.300-red-wines-heart-health-chemical-unlocked-at-last.html, 2011-06-22 17:18:22 by New Scientist.

Red wine's heart condition chemical unlocked at last

Like receiving the heart safe-keeping powers of red wine without having to drink a glass every day? Soon you may be able to, thanks to the putting together of chemicals formed from resveratrol1, the smallest unit believed to give wine its safe-keeping powers. The chemicals have the possible & unused quality to fight many diseases, including cancer2.

Plants make a very great range of chemicals, called polyphenols3,from resveratrol1to keep safe (out of danger) themselves against ones making attack, particularly Fungi4. But they only make very small amounts of each chemical, making it greatly not simple for men of science to put or keep away and make use of them. The changing nature resveratrol1has also slowed down attempts at

http://hassers.blogspot.com/2008/08/no-one-really-uses-reason-by-chris.html, 2011-03-23 17:18:22 by New Scientist.

No one really uses reason

Though many may see it as troubling, it is now clear that few of the action-bound processes taking place in our brains ever touch on our being conscious. In other words, we do most of our "thinking" without ever being conscious of it. The simple act of seeing something depends upon what the German expert in physics, medical man and wise man Hermann von Helmholtz called "unconscious things discovered by reasoning". It is these that make able our brain to work out which thing is causing the unworked signs coming from our senses. The same general rule put to use in acting. When we act a simple act, getting up a glass, for example, we are not conscious of the complex decisions our brain has to make about the best way to move our arm and form our fingers.

It is a good

New Scientist, 2011-01-01 17:18:22 by New Scientist.

Young persons with low self-control are less good adults

Children who exist without self-control are more likely to become adults with poor condition of body and control of money.

So say Avshalom Caspi at Duke University in North Carolina, Terrie Moffitt at King's College London and persons having like-position, who followed the forward development of 1000 children born between 1972 and 1973in New Zealand. The group measured self-control by asking the boys and girls, as well as their parents and teachers, about their behavior every two years between the ages of 3and 15,and then at 18, 21, 26 and 32.

Children with higher levels of self-control were more likely to have a higher society & money position and a higher IQ 1. After adjusting for both points, the group found that adults who had low self-control as children were more likely to be overweight, have substance wrongly use questions, base of teeth disease and through sex let through disease. They

New Scientist, 2011-03-23 10:38:30 by New Scientist.

First sperm cells able to keep living grown from nothing

FOR the first time small rat-like animal sperm1 able to keep living have been grown outside thetestes2. If the way can be done over again and again with mankind sperm1, it could lead to new ways of giving attention to not-fertile men.

Takuya Sato at Yokohama City University in Japan and persons having like-position in the same organization got from seeds cells from the testes2 of fresh after birth small rat-like animals that had not yet begun producing sperm1. They placed the cells in agarose3 soft paste made wet for giving food to chemicals and hormones4 such as eggs undergoing growth in cow-like serum5 and testosterone6. The group had first engineered the small rat-like animal so

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