This continues my series on the basics of grammar for audio writers.
We looked, in the last essay, at the traditional parts of speech and some ways that understanding them helps us to diagnose problems in our scripts. This week we are looking at some other ways to think about and classify words.
Simple, compound and complex words
Simple words
Simple words cannot be broken down into component parts. They tend to be short, like ball, mouse, soft, build, etc. They can also be long like kangaroo, elevator, and alabaster.
Compound words
Compound words are made up of two or more simple words. Some are written as a single word (like railway, airport, and daylight). Others are hyphenated (such as make-believe, or push-button). Others still are written as two words (such as town hall, post office, and high school).
Complex words
Complex words consist of a main part and one or more subordinate parts. The subordinate parts are called prefixes if they come before the main part and suffixes if they come after the main part.
Consider the word transformation. Its main part is “form” and it has two subordinate parts, a prefix “trans-” and a suffix “-ation”.
Complex words are best avoided where possible. They can make writing unintentionally pompous (especially those words ending in -ation, -osity, -ousness, -ance, -bility, etc.). Of course, if you are writing a pompous character, then they will be exactly the right choice.
Modifiers
A modifier is a word (or group of words) which expands, restricts, limits, or defines another word (making the meaning more exact).
As we saw in my last article, adjectives modify nouns. To describe last Tuesday as a cold, raw day, is to give the audience a stronger sense of what kind of day it was. The adjectives “raw” and “cold” expand and fine-tune the meaning expressed by the word “day”.
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.
- JOSEPH: She cooks miserably.
- MARY: (INSULTED, COMING TO HER DEFENSE) I think she’s very clever.
- JOSEPH: I didn’t say she was stupid. I just meant she doesn’t cook very well.
In the first line the adverb “miserably” modifies the verb “cooks”.
In the second, the adverb “very” modifies the adjective “clever”.
In the third line we can see a third use, where the adverb “very” modifies another adverb “well”.
As noted in the article previous to this, it is usually better to make use of strong, active verbs, and specific nouns than to employ adverbs and adjectives where possible.
Clauses
Clauses, phrases and sentences (and how to get the most out of them in dialog) is the subject of a future article, so I will restrict myself to providing some working definitions here.
A sentence, at a minimum, has a subject (something the sentence is about) and a predicate (the part of the sentence containing a verb and telling us something about the subject) and forms a complete thought. It may or may not include an object (the thing that the verb is acting upon).
A sentence, at its simplest, might be “He sits”, complete, in and of itself. The subject is “he” and the predicate is “sits”.
A simple sentence with an object contained in the predicate might be “He hit the ball”. The subject is “he”. The predicate is “hit the ball” and contains the verb “hit” and the object (being affected by the verb) “the ball”.
Clauses differ from sentences in that they are not complete thoughts. Look at the following example…
- “after the train stopped at the station.
It has a subject “the train” and a predicate “stopped at the station”, but it is not a complete thought. Something is missing. To complete the thought we could add some words at the beginning and it would become complete sentence.
- “She bought some cigarettes after the train stopped at the station.”
A clause may contain all the elements of a sentence but is dependent on another part of the sentence to make complete sense. While it could stand alone, the presence of a preceding word connecting it to another part of the sentence helps us identity it as a clause. Words such as “although, because, since, while, after, where, when, which, who, that, if, whenever, wherever, why, or, else, whether, yet, and but” are among the most common.
Phrases
Phrases are groups of related words without subject and predicate. In the same way that a clause can be part of a sentence, a phrase can be part of a clause or sentence.
An example of a phrase might be “under the bed”. It has neither a subject, nor a predicate, and it is definitely not a complete idea.
The most common type of phrase is the prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase is introduced by a preposition such as to, in, for, after, above, below, beside, by, except, from, at, among, into, like, near, on, over, through, toward, under, upon, with, without, etc.
We shouldn’t be afraid of phrases in dialog. We use them frequently in everyday speech. As such they are sometimes the best choice.
- MAX: Where did you put my scarf?
- BOB: On the table.
- MAX: Oh, right. Thanks.
Simple, compound, and complex sentences
Like a word, a sentence can be simple, compound, or complex.
A simple sentence cannot be broken down into clauses.
- MAX: The shareholder’s report is due on Friday.
A compound sentence consists of two or more clauses that can stand by themselves. They are tied together by a conjunction (such as and, or, or but).
- BOB: The shareholder’s report is complete, but I should append my sources to it.
A complex sentence has a main sentence (or independent clause) that can stand alone, plus one or more dependent clauses that rely on the main clause to give them meaning.
- MAX: Give me the report, before I’m forced to hurt you out of impatience and frustration.
A complex sentence usually expresses a complex idea. As a result, it is often more difficult to read and understand than the others. They have their place, but where the writing feels confusing or difficult to understand, it can be helpful to look for the presence of complex sentences and break them down into simple and compound sentences.
Back to the Verbs – Verb forms
As the most powerful element in communication, it should come as no surprise, that verbs can also be among the most complex.
Verbs come in a variety of forms.
Infinitive
The simplest form of the verb is the infinitive. It consists of the preposition to, followed by the stem of the verb.
- To strive
- To seek
- To find
It is often suggested that you should never split an infinitive by placing a word between the preposition and the verb stem e.g. “to boldly go”. Personally, I think that’s nonsense and blame this belief on Samuel Johnson who, unlike those who codified the grammar of most of the worlds written languages, chose to do so without consultation with other scholars and prioritized the sentence structures of French and Latin over those of common English speech.
Split your infinitives if you so desire. And if anyone complains, tell them an Australian English teacher gave you permission. Just be aware that, if you do split your infinitive, you are likely to do so with an adverb (and adverbs can, potentially, weaken your point).
Tense
Tense is the form of a verb telling us when the action takes place – present, past, future.
Where the basic verb is “to see”, the present tense is “I see”, the past tense is “I saw” and the future tense is “I shall/will see”. It is the basic way a writer directs a reader, backward, forward or toward the present moment.
Generally when writing for audio drama we want our lines to be as immediate as possible. The preference, therefore, even when dealing with a reminiscence, is to aim to use the present tense.
- TIM: (TO THE ASSEMBLED POLICE) I headed for Joe’s place next. (BEAT) So, I’m injured. Badly limping up to his front gate. Just as I swing it open, I hear a snuffling noise and the largest dog I’ve ever seen leaps at me baring its teeth and scaring what little life remains out of me.
Participle
English verbs have two participles. The present participle is easy and ends in -ing.
- Singing, shooting, fighting, slicing, etc.
The past participle is a little more complex and usually ends in -ed, -d, -t, -en or -n.
- Danced, heard, kept, written, seen.
Principal parts
In verbs, the principal parts are those basic forms of the verb from which the others are, most frequently, derived; the present tense, the past tense, and the past participle.
One way to identify the correct form of these principal parts is to form a sentence with the verb beginning “I…”, “Yesterday I…”, and “I have just…”.
- I see. I kill. I bake. I walk. (present)
- Yesterday I saw. Yesterday I killed. Yesterday I baked. Yesterday I walked. (past)
- I have just seen. I have just killed. I have just baked. I have just walked. (past participle)
Past and past participle verbs are formed, typically by adding -ed, -d, -t, -en, or -n (as above), but there are numerous irregular verbs as well (drove, went, swam, swum) and these can be quite a challenge to get right.
When writing dialog an understanding of the principal parts can be quite useful. Educated characters and characters from an upper-class background have usually mastered the irregular verbs and would rarely, if ever, make a mistake using them.
Less well-educated characters, or those who were not raised with English as their primary language, or those raised in a more working-class environment, are prone to add the wrong endings to words.
- JACK: (LOFTILY TO THE CROWD) I have just swum the English Channel for the third time.
- BILL: (HECKLING) Is that right, mate? Well, I swimmed it meself, once. Not the whole of it, ‘course, but enough to not be terrible impressed by the likes o’ you.
Even to the native-born, it can be difficult to navigate the irregular verbs in English. Keeping a
Dictionary handy for the tricky ones is well worth the effort.
Word Order
Word order has a huge effect on the meaning of sentences. As we close this article, take a moment to read each of the following eight sentences. By moving one word to a new position each time, the meaning of the sentence is drastically altered.
When you discover a sentence that is unclear, ambiguous, or doesn’t quite capture your meaning, it is worthwhile to go back and check if a rearrangement of the word order doesn’t salvage it. Sometimes a rewrite is required, of course, but some care with word order can save a great deal of time.
- Only the police officer ordered me to take the weapon.
- The only police officer ordered me to take the weapon.
- The police officer only ordered me to take the weapon.
- The police officer ordered only me to take the weapon.
- The police officer ordered me only to take the weapon.
- The police officer ordered me to only take the weapon.
- The police officer ordered me to take only the weapon.
- The police officer ordered me to take the only weapon.
Next
Now that the basic definitions are in place we can begin to discuss the construction of sentences, in particular sentences that form dialog. That’s where we’ll pick up next time and we’ll look at how to use sentences (and their grammar) to achieve particular effects in a script.
Copyright Philip Craig Robotham © 2021 .
