The Prefix 'trans' means 'across'

Words with the prefix 'trans'

Today we will focus on the prefix trans- and its variant tra-, which mean “across.” Prefixes are morphemes which begin words, attaching to a word’s main part, or root, adding to the meaning of the word in some way.

The carrying “across” of people from one place to another is transportation, which can occur in many kinds of vehicles. When you transfer money from checkings to savings, you carry it “across” from one account to the other. A translucent substance allows some light to go “across” it to the other side. A transparent substance allows all light to go “across” it. And a translation? It is a going “across” from one language into another.

Imagine a transatlantic voyage, or one that goes “across” the Atlantic Ocean, made by a ship. This form of transit, or going “across” a passage, was once more common than it is now. When horrific storms came up on these long journeys, voyagers could often be transformed, their normal mode of behavior taken “across” into whole new forms of heroism and survival techniques.

A variant of the prefix trans-, tra-, also means “across.” A trajectory is the path that a thrown object travels “across” during its journey. When you traverse a country, you travel “across” it. And when you traduce someone’s character, you lead it from its current good state “across” to one of dishonor or disgrace.

Now you will be able to translate any word that you do not know with the prefix trans- in it into something having to do with going or being “across!”

1. transportation: act of carrying ‘across’
2. transfer: carry ‘across’
3. translucent: of light going ‘across’
4. transparent: of light going fully ‘across’
5. translate: carry one language ‘across’ to another
6. transatlantic: ‘across’ the Atlantic Ocean
7. transit: a going ‘across’
8. transform: to go from one shape ‘across’ to another
9. trajectory: path thrown ‘across’
10. traverse: turn ‘across’
11. traduce: lead ‘across
12. transgender: from male to female or female to male

Subject-Verb Agreement: Rules and Examples

Subject-Verb Agreement: Rules and Examples

One of the rules of language that you almost certainly know, even if you’ve never thought about it consciously, is that subjects and verbs must agree with each other in number.

If that sounds a bit complicated or mathematical, here are a couple of very simple examples to show this in action:

• The child plays at the park. (Singular)
• The children play at the park. (Plural)

A singular noun needs a singular verb; a plural noun needs a plural verb.

If you’re a native English speaker, you probably never think about this when you’re writing, but you know the rule, all the same.

For instance, if I showed you these sentences, you’d know instantly that they were wrong – and you’d know how to correct them:

• The child play at the park.
• The children plays at the park.

In these sentences, it’s very clear how to make the subject and verb “agree” – so that they match grammatically.

Sometimes, though, subject-verb agreement isn’t quite so straightforward, and it can trip up even native, fluent English writers.

Here are six key rules to be aware of:

Rule #1: A Clause Between the Subject and Verb Will Not Change the Verb

Let’s say we had a sentence like this:

• The child with no friends plays at the park.

“The child” is still the subject of the sentence, and “plays” is still the verb. Although the clause “with no friends” has the plural noun “friends,” this does not change the verb – because the verb still applies to “child”.

Tip: If you’re struggling with this, read the sentence aloud without the clause between the subject and the verb, and see if it still makes sense.

Rule #2: Use a Plural Verb if Two Singular Subjects are Joined with “And”

Let’s say you have a sentence like this:

• Max and Susan play at the park.

That sentence is correct. Although “Max” is singular and “Susan” is singular, they’re joined together with “and” – making them a compound subject, which is plural.

Rule #3: Inverted Subjects Must Still Agree With the Verb

In English, the normal sentence order is subject – verb – object. Sometimes this is inverted, though, with the verb coming before the subject … and it’s still important that the verb still agrees with the inverted subject.

Here’s an example:

• There is a child on the swings. (Child is singular.)
• There are five children at the park. (Children is plural.)

And here’s another:

• What was Jane telling you? (“Jane” is singular.)
• What were Jane and Susan telling you? (“Jane and Susan” is plural.)

Again, when you’re speaking or writing, you probably don’t have to think about this too hard. If English is your second language, though, or if you’re writing particularly complex sentences, it’s helpful to keep subject-verb agreement in mind.

Rule #4: If Two Or More Subjects Are Joined With “Or”, Use the Closest to the Verb for Agreement

Let’s say you have a sentence like this:

• Either Jack or the children are too loud.

Is “are” the correct verb to use here, even though Jack is singular? Yes, it is, because the closest subject to the verb is “the children”.

Let’s rewrite the sentence:

• Either the children or Jack is too loud.

Here, “is” is correct, because “Jack” is the closest subject to the verb.

In both of these cases, you may feel the sentence reads slightly awkwardly. If so, you might want to rewrite or reconsider the sentence so that the verb can agree with both subjects:

• Either Jack or one of the children is too loud.

Rule #5: Indefinite Pronouns Normally Take Singular Verbs

Most indefinite pronouns, like “everyone” and “nobody”, take singular verbs. For instance:

• Everyone loves chocolate.
• Nobody wants to die young.

Some indefinite pronouns, though, always take the plural form. These include few, many, several, both, all, and some, when used as pronouns.

For instance:

• All were impressed by what they saw.

Rule #6: Collective Nouns Can be Singular OR Plural

Collective nouns, like “committee” and “audience”, can be singular or plural depending on the context. In writing your sentence, you’ll need to consider whether the group in question is acting as a unit or as a set of individuals.

Here are some examples:

• The committee asks new members to sign Form A1. (Singular subject and verb.)
• The committee were unable to reach a unanimous decision. (Plural subject and verb.)

Some writers prefer to make collective nouns plural by adding extra words, such as “Members of”:

• Members of the committee were unable to reach a unanimous decision.

Look Out For Subject-Verb Agreement When Editing

Even though you may feel that subject-verb agreement comes naturally to you, a key time to watch out for it is during the editing phase of your writing. It’s all too easy to edit half a sentence, perhaps to change a singular subject to a plural one, only to leave the second half unaltered … and hence incorrect.

Here’s an example of where rewriting part of a sentence necessitates changing several different verbs later on in the sentence:

When a writer is stuck, he stares out of the window, rearranges the pencils on his desk, and in short, does anything to avoid writing.

If you wanted to make that sentence more gender inclusive, without using the singular they (which some writers prefer to avoid), you might recast it as:

When writers are stuck, they stare out of the window, rearrange the pencils on their desks, and in short, do anything to avoid writing.

It’s important to make sure you check all the verbs in a long or complex sentence to ensure they all still agree with the subject.

If at any point you find you’re unsure whether your sentence is correct, try reading it aloud: this will often highlight mistakes that are harder to spot on the page. If that doesn’t work for you, consider rewriting the sentence to simplify it – or pop a comment below to see if anyone else can help!

Source: https://dailywritingtips.com

Students Learn Better through Stories!

Students Learn Better through Stories

Why Teachers Need Plot, Emotion and Story

By Michael - 4 minute read

 

Students like stories. Teachers know that stories keep their interest. But plot, emotion, character, conflict and theme – the tools of a fiction writer – can be power tools for educators as well.

Having an attitude in class

Learning theorists have taught that students learn when they feel the need to; that in a sense, they create their own learning. Because emotion and character come from who we are, a lesson with a story motivates students to learn. When a problem is part of a story – when it involves people – finding a solution feels more urgent. When a California textbook talks about California earthquakes, California students pay attention. When two geological plates slip past each other and the earth quakes under the ocean, that’s interesting to some students. But when it causes a tsunami and destroys people’s homes, that introduces conflict, plot, and emotion.
 
Students remember information better in a story form. It helps me remember that Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia was unsuccessful when I imagine how he must have felt afterwards. For one thing, he must have felt cold – which helps me remember the invasion ended in winter.

Even math teachers need plot, emotion, and story. Children can understand a word problem better when there is a story line to it. I may not remember the exact answer to a mathematical word problem about John preparing dinner in the kitchen, but I might remember or estimate whether John ends up with too much or too little. Will John get his fill with two cups of food, or must he squeeze by on only half a cup? When the plot (and a hungry boy) depend on the answer, children are more likely to want to understand it. The story makes the problem more interesting to the student. 

If the teacher or textbook takes no attitude toward the subject, students may not bother to take one either, or even pay any attention. The lecturer ends up sounding like a washing machine, and students can tell he or she is probably not trying very hard.

Using emotion to get into college

I remember new vocabulary words because I categorize them according to how they make me feel. I may not know the exact definition of equanimity but I know it’s a happy word. I’m not sure I can define opprobrium either, but I know it’s not a happy word. I didn’t learn either word from a dictionary but from my reading, where I have gathered their general meaning by repeatedly seeing them either in happy or unhappy contexts.

This technique of finding emotion is at the center of the strategy I teach for taking standardized college entrance exams such as the SAT. It works because many verbal test questions are little stories, with plot and emotion.

14. Though many Americans in late 1864 viewed Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation with opprobrium, they greeted the capture of Atlanta with _______________.
a. indifference
b. elation
c. derision
d. trepidation

As long as I have the feeling that opprobrium is not a happy word, I can answer that question correctly even if I hardly understand anything else. I don’t have to know the history of the American Civil War, the role of President Abraham Lincoln, what the Emancipation Proclamation was, or even what, who, or where Atlanta is. I just need to imagine a crowd of Americans in 1864 hearing the latest news.

The key to understanding this class of question is the conjunctive adverb though, which always tells us that the second clause carries a different emotion than the first clause.
Now I know that the answer in the second clause must be a happy word, because the first clause has an unhappy word. So to answer the question correctly, I simply need to choose the happy word from the list. Again, I don’t need to be able to define any of the words in the list, only to recognize whether they are happy words or not. To make the process simple, I mentally translate the question into:

Though the first thingamabob was [not happy], the second thingamabob was __________.
a. not happy
b. happy
c. not happy
d. not happy

I could use the same simplification technique with the conjunction but, as in “The first thingamabob was [attractive, safe, whatever], but the second thingamabob was [the opposite].”

The construction not only… but tells us the opposite of though, that the second clause is giving us more of the same emotion as in the first clause: “Not only was the thingamabob [useful], but it was [very useful, essential].”

I use the slang word thingamabob to mean that it doesn’t even matter what the thing actually is. What matters is the emotion in the clauses. It may sound like a vague technique, but by using it, I have achieved almost perfect scores on similar test sections in the PSAT, SAT, and GRE.

Why tell stories?

History is one of my favorite subjects. Even in elementary school, I would read ahead in my history book – it had stories, after all. But at an earlier point in my life, I didn’t appreciate history. History can be boring when teachers don’t relate facts to human nature. I remember asking a teacher why we needed to study it. I wondered why we needed to learn about events that happened to other people long ago. 

My teacher explained that the stories of others can help us when we’re in similar situations. I read about a doctor who never expected to use what he had learned in his History of Medicine class, until he found himself in a prison camp without modern tools and treatments. In times of prosperity, we can draw lessons from other prosperous societies. When hard times come, it’s useful to know how other generations weathered hard times before us. 

A story is not just a way to make a lesson more interesting. A story can be the lesson itself. In December 1948, Israeli troops found the main road blocked to the central Egyptian garrison in the Negev desert. But Israeli general Yigael Yadin, an archaeologist by training, knew where a second road was. It had been abandoned thousands of years before, but with a little work, his troops made it through – because their general knew old stories.

Source: https://www.dailywritingtips.com/why-teachers-need-plot/