₦airaland Forum

princesa: Que 1: hmm...do you feel its indeed possible to know about love and yet not be able to describe it? Well, I should think that there are possibility in some situations.

But then again, Love isnt restricted to the feeling between a man and woman, it extends to the feeling between a mother and child, a father and his son, between friends, siblings, etc.

So what can be done? Using a character Dialogues, reaction, action, etc towards another can help portray love to a reader. The writer doesn't necessarily have to paint love with flowery terms, comparisons, rhymes or verses as Romeo would, to portray Love. They are different ways to kill a Bird you know.

Que 2: yeah, that's the beauty of using words to play with the sensory organs of the reader. Some writers may see nothing wrong in being vulgar with their narration of sex scenes, while others can't imagine penning down the sex process word for word. So whichever way you choose, its only the type of words you employ in describing the sex scenes that matters and serves your purpose.

Que 3: that's why I talked about improving your registers and doing research. If you want to write a story with a foreign setting, then you just have to read wide and Google!

There was a time I wanted to write an airport scene, but I haven't been in one and had restricted knowledge of an airport based on the movies I've seen, so I took to Google and it was worth the search.

Thank you

something is wrong with my mentions. Is any other person experiencing such? I didnt get your quote.


Nice and smart response.

The last person/author that described a good night robbery scene for me is....... In "Bade and the Oracles". Can never forget that book ever! way back in erm(keeps mute)

princesa: you're welcome. When you can, go through mine and do tell me what you think.

Dygsy, you too.

(sits in the audience, no more a 'tutor'. To myself) this feels good!

@Princesa: a situation where one knows about love, but finds it difficult describing it in a story. What can be done?

Then we know most writers in nigeria use some words to describe love-making e.g buchi echemeta, chimamanda,etc. Does it give a better angle than erm distracting with the real deal? Rem i wouldnt want to distract my readers in such case.

3rdly: describing a scene you have not physical idea about. E.g skyscrapers, basements, cellars,alleys etc. Especially if it involves a foreign scene


cc: texanomaly ; divepen

Divepen: Thank you very much sir...
You have been very helpful.
Thanx! Thanx!! Thanxx!!!

yess boss!

PrettySpicey: Over to you, Divepen, I'm done and I'm not doing this again... phew!

why now aha. Standing by the white board actually fits you now!

OMA4U: Texnomaly, I don't fully agree with this. It seems you're mincing spoken word poetry/slam with rap music. Though spoken word poetry can be recited slowly or fast, it's still not the same as rap.

I've attended few spoken word poetry events and I've watched many of it's videos. Spoken word poetry, whether fast or slow, still evokes emotions rap music may likely not.

rap is under poetry imo!

princesa: hmm, if you say so. Even though I don't have a problem with the way it was written.

Divepen and all, I've posted my own piece above. If I knew about this way, I wouldn't have delayed. Apologies please and yeah, I'm open to questions

thus that brings an end to my clas (packs text book-brighter grammer and english made easy. Pulls up sleeves) erm i need water. Oh ive forgotten i used a marker!

I'm grateful for this opportunity. Wouldnt mind having such an opportunity next time even if (touches heart) was beating!

Thank you!!

Dygeasy: DaveP awesome. I'm with Princesa on her question.

princesa: Nice one DavP

but where you said that a sentence like : ''He who has won the prize, let him speak'' is incorrect because there's no verb, don't you think 'won' is a verb and therefore the word is actually correct?

The sentence is incorrect and the verb is actually there (takes duster and wipes it off. Uses marker to correct it) thank you princesa!

@ princesa:That would be with the way the sentence was written and not the verb part. It sure has a verb 'won' but the way it was written....

PART 2
******


Using may and might

May and might are modal auxiliary verbs. We use them to talk about possibility.

Grammar
After may and mightwe use infinitives without to.
He may accept the offer. (NOT He may to accept the offer.)


May and might do not take the–smarking when the subject is a singular pronoun.

She may come.(NOT She mays come.)

He might recognize you. (NOT He mights recognize you.)

I may accept the offer.

Questions and negatives are made without do.

May I help you? (NOT Do I may help you?)

He may not come. (NOT He doesn’t may come.)


May and might do not have infinitive or participle forms. For example, forms like maying, mighting, to may etc. do not exist.


**Uses

May and might are mainly used to talk about possibility – the chances of something happening. In a formal style, we also use them to ask for and give permission.

Possibility

We often use mayand might to say that there is a possibility of something happening.

--He may pass the test.

--It may rain in the evening.

--He may come.

--We may take a vacation at the end of this month.

--I may visit my grandparents next week.

--Lolade might phone.

--They might accept the invitation.

--She might get the job.

--You may be right.


N:B (gestures with warning finger)- Might does not normally have a past meaning. The difference between may and might is that might shows less possibility than may.

--Our team may win. (Perhaps a 50% chance)

--Our team might win. (Perhaps a 20% chance)

Questions:

We do not normally use may in direct questions about probability.Can is possible in this case.

Where is Princesa? Can she have gone shopping? OR Do you think Princesa has gone shopping? (BUT NOT May she have gone shopping? )

USING THE RIGHT VERBS


What a great platform to encourage those who someday would become the Cyprian Ekwensis, Alukos, Buchi Echemetas, etc, of tomorrow.



Now to VERBS (picks marker)
*************************************

Verbs are doing words. A verb can express a physical action, a mental action, or a state of being.

**Physical- to swim, to write, to climb, to ride.

**Mental- to think, to guess, to consider, to reason.

**State of being- to be, to exist, to appear.



Since our day-day living involves expressing actions, no one would be able to communicate without verbs.


Imagine a conversation without using verb


Like a Chinese trying hard to communicate with a Zulu lord!!!



We have three forms that verbs comes in:


The present-now


The Past- expresses past actions


The Future-preceding the word 'will' e.g I will take the blame.


Now if the time an action occurred is in the past, the verb must be in the past form.

I VOTE last week- Incorrect (vote is present, last week is past.)

I Voted last week-Correct. (voted is past, so is time-last week)


So always check out for such when writing a setence to avoid mistakes that seem right if we say them. Linear agreement is key with verbs.


A lil test just for fun- http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/choose-correct-forms-verb.


(wipes off sweat)



THE RIGHT CHOICE

Enforcing consistent verb tense in your writing is crucial. Nothing makes an editor’s brain hurt more than trying to read through distracting or confusing verb tenses. If one sentence has so many varying tenses that readers don’t know if you’re coming or going, you can be sure your work is going to end up in the editor’s reject pile.


But choosing the right verb tense isn’t always easy. Let’s start with the basics:


The Simple form :

Past: I drew.
Present: I draw.
Future: I will draw.
--James drew a picture of Idowu.

So simple and easy, you’re probably thinking: Thanks, Captain Obvious. So let’s take it up a notch.

What if you want to imply action that ends in a specific time frame? Then, you would use the Perfect form:

The Perfect form:

Past perfect: I had drawn.
Present perfect: I have drawn.
Future perfect: I will have drawn.
--Yesterday, James had drawn a picture of Idowu that accentuated her crow’s-feet.


Perfect! You created art and used the verb tense correctly. What more could a writer want?
To keep the action ongoing within each time frame, you say?
Then you want the Progressive form:


The Progressive form:

Past progressive: I was drawing.
Present progressive: I am drawing.
Future progressive: I will be drawing.
--As James was drawing a picture of Idowu, she noticed it was unflattering.

But what if you want to be perfect and progressive—impossible? Not so! Just because you’re creating art doesn’t mean you’re not going to (or haven’t already) run out of ink.

Use the Perfect Progressive tense, and Gbam!!


The Perfect Progressive form:

Past perfect progressive: I had been drawing.
Present perfect progressive: I have been drawing.
Future perfect progressive: I will have been drawing.
--James had been drawing a picture of Idowu, until she broke all of his charcoal pencils.


Choosing the proper verb tense can be tricky, but easier than the tough time James will have getting Idowu to forgive him.


Using these handy examples, you’ll be an expert on verb tense in no time. (rubs neck)



Correct Use of Verbs

A verb must agree with its subject in number, person and gender.

--Our followers are but a handful. (Here the plural verb are agrees with the plural subject followers.)

--One of the boys was selected. (Here the singular verb was agrees with the singular subject one.)

--He is an old friend of mine.
The subject must have a verb.


The subject of the sentence should be followed by a verb. Note that a sentence must have at least one verb. The following sentence is incorrect


--He who has won the prize, let him speak.

This sentence should be re-written as follows:

--Let him who has won the prize speak.

OR

--He who has won the prize should speak.


Infinitives



An infinitive should be in the present tense unless it represents an action prior to that mentioned by the principal verb.

--I should have liked to win. (NOT I should have liked to have won.)
But it is correct to say:

--He seems to have enjoyed his stay at the ranch. (Here the stay at the ranch took place earlier than the action mentioned by the main verb.)


The participle should not be left without proper agreement.

Consider the sentence given below:

--Having bitten the driver, the farmer killed the dog.

The above sentence means that it was the farmer who bit the driver.


This sentence should be re-written as follows:

--Having bitten the driver, the dog was killed by the farmer.

OR

--The dog having bitten the driver, the farmer killed it.

[in the tunnel awiting tensioj and pressured alacrity}
dave r u ready[exhales}