English Grammar n Style

Fun with English grammar and style
By OH TEIK THEAM

LOOK at the following ‘stories’ and see if you can replace the italicised words with some other words to make the writing concise.

The accountant
The best friend of Tom’s wife saw him in the company of a bald man at the football stadium and told her about it. When Tom reached home later that evening, his wife accused him of lying. “You told me you were going to see your accountant,” she said.
Tom said, “That was my accountant.”

Change “in the company of” to “with”.


The secretary
The boss had asked for a duplicate copy of the document, and the new secretary asked a colleague who happened to walk by, “Do you know how this thing works?”
Smiling, the colleague turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button. “Simple, isn’t it?” he said. “This is an efficient shredder.”

Delete either “duplicate” or “copy”.

The maid
Before the arrival of the invited guests, the hostess said to her maid, “Bridget, make sure you don’t spill anything when you wait on them.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Bridget said. “I won’t say a word.”

Delete “invited”.


The house
A man and his wife were looking over a house. They were undecided about the purchase until the estate agent mentioned that the house was in proximity to the bus stop.
“We’ll take it,” said the man after consulting with his wife. “There’ll always be something to do in the evening, throwing stones at buses.”

Change “in proximity to” to “near”.

copy n paste from: The Star