It is really hope-inspiring that with the increased demand of English as a language of communication both in academic and employment environment in our country, the percentage of people using this language efficiently is also rising dramatically. It is no more surprising as well now-a-days when you see a middle aged employee going to language classes not for personal interest, but for promotion prospect or for catering to the newly emerged urgency in the current job. The mounting circulation of the English newspapers also bears the testimony to how positive the overall trend is. However, like many other Asian people, despite all the pragmatic applications of English as a communicative language, it is both amusing and sad to observe how many of us have been recurrently making some wrong uses of English words and phrases. The mistaken uses are so popular that even the correct use of them is considered as gross mistakes. Well, these things happen in every language.

The two most popular mistakes are probably the use of HOTEL and LIBRARY in the kind of sentences like ‘I had my lunch at a nearby hotel’ or ‘I am going to the library to buy some books’. A native speaker will surely find these sentences too difficult to understand since hotels are not places for eating and no libraries in the world sell books. Shouldn’t we try to go to a RESTAURANT for meal and to a BOOKSTALL for buying books? Now if you look over the restaurants and libraries of your town and try to match the signboards declaring what they are— you will get a pleasant surprise! How long has this bizarre culture been practised dauntlessly? Who knows!

Many of us still think that the reply to ‘How do you do?’ is ‘Fine, thanks’ because ‘How do you do’ and ‘How are you’ are homogenous in meaning. But in reality ‘How do you do?’ is a greeting sentence usually used during getting acquainted with someone and the reply is as it is: ‘How do you do?’. It sounds like HI or HELLO. It makes no sense indeed to translate this as ‘kemon aso?’.  Then let us consider the use of TAKE in ‘She is going to take an exam.’ Now, you really cannot blame anyone who understands that she is a teacher. Because in Bengali TAKE means neya. But in this sentence ‘take exam’ means ‘sit for the exam’ while ‘to give exam’ is the responsibility of a teacher. Again, there are some words/phrases many of us use in everyday conversation like ‘departmental store’, ‘electric bill’ ‘footpath’ ‘go marketing’, ‘more superior than somebody/something’ ‘take a decision’, ‘discuss about the matter’, ‘last morning/afternoon/evening’, ‘He got married with his cousin’, I am accustomed with working late at night’, which all are but great mistakes. A department store might belong to a department, (which makes it departmental) but definitely not all them are so. And if the bill is ever electric, it must be run by electricity; please say electricity bill. The meaning of footpath is usually a country road; the kind of roads that wind down the villages, but the thing we want to mean is actually ‘sidewalk’ or ‘pavement’. And let’s note the rest of the corrections— go shopping, ‘superior to somebody/something’, ‘make a decision’, ‘discuss the matter’, ‘yesterday (in the) morning/afternoon/evening’, ‘he got married to his cousin’ and ‘I am accustomed to working late at night’ instead.

A few days back someone wrote a mail to me asking for a CD. She wrote, ‘Since my pc got a heard disc crash, I have lost all my important data including the audio for meditation. Do you have an audio of that kind? I hardly need it.’ Now, at a general glance you may not notice the flawed part in the sentences of the letter. But it is the very last sentence ‘I hardly need it’ that means ‘I rarely need it’ which goes totally contradictory to the sense produced by the earlier sentences. ‘I greatly need it’ could have been all right. Similarly, ‘He works hardly’ will be ‘He works hard’. Here ‘Hard’ and ‘Hardly’ both are adverbs, but the former is an adverb of manner, while the later is an adverb of frequency. I can also remember calling a tool ‘plus’ until a few years back. Do you know what it actually is? It is ‘pliers’. What about half pants? When I was younger, I used to wear half pants. Well, I am sorry; it is short pant. Can you imagine what it would be like if there were a real half pant in the world and you had to wear it?

Apart from the misuses and wrong uses of English words/phrases, we also are careless regarding the pronunciation. There are a lot of words we have been mispronouncing for ages and never felt the urge to look up and find the phonetic transcription. Would you please try pronouncing the following words and then check with the help of a Cambridge or Oxford talking dictionary? Here they are: Rendezvous, learned (adj), saliva, blimey, stifle, comfortable, invitation, castle, debut, comfy, difference, loose, lose, visa, sugar, leisure, laser, shed, shade, residence.

Mistakes are made by all of us. Sometimes they are made as the most undesirable by the most reliable. Nobody should be shocked to see even a minister or a scholar make mistakes because those are accidental, slip of tongue. That is the reason why a few days back, following a sudden lay-off in some of our garment factories, when I heard one of our ministers (while talking to TV men) using the word ‘lay-out’ to mean ‘lay off’, believe me, I was not shocked and surprised! We all believe in the maxim— To err is human.

Let us make mistakes and learn from them. In fact, we are not committing any crimes. I do not know who this wise man was who said, ‘Success is the distance between two mistakes’, but I salute him. And finally, I do expect that at least before celebrating the next ‘International Mother Language Day’ we can make sure that we do not make the wrong use of any English and of course our mother tongue Bengali.

Lesson 14

More about Transitive Verbs
In lesson 13 we explained and illustrated the use of transitive verbs. Since most verbs in English are transitive, we have classified these verbs into a number of groups. In this lesson we illustrate transitive verbs which require adjuncts after their objects. The adjuncts are prepositional phrases beginning with a particular preposition after their object. Here is a list of verbs which take particular preposition:

regard as:    Everybody regards Socrates as a very wise man.
view as   :   Many people view the political situation in the country as alarming.
mistake for: I mistook you for one of my students.
prevent from: The police prevented the mob from causing violence.
deprive of:   No one should deprive the people of their legal rights.
remind of : May I remind you of your duties?
rob of:       The criminals robbed him of his wallet.
attribute to: He attributed his failure to carelessness.
compare to:  The poet compared his beloved to a rose.
confine to:  The police confined the prisoners to their cells.
return to:   Return the book to the library in a week’s time.
subject to: The police subjected him to interrogation while he was on remand.
pelt with: The boys pelted the frogs with stones.

With the following verbs, there is a choice of prepositions:

divide by: 10 divided by 5 equals 2.
divide into  Divide the essay into a number of paragraphs.
incorporate in/into: We will incorporate your suggestions in/into the final recommendation.
base on/upon: The report is based on/upon solid evidence.
lavish on/upon:  She lavishes money on/upon her grandchildren.
present to: He presented a camera to her niece on her birthday.
present with: They presented the child with a lot of toys.
supply to: The NGOs supplied food and medicine to the flood victims.
supply with: They supplied the victims with relief materials.

Other transitive verbs are typically followed by adjuncts of place:

place: She placed the baby on her lap.
put: She put the cup of tea on the table.
position: They positioned the table near the window.
escort: He escorted her to the party.
set: Set the bed by the window.
store: Store the food in the kitchen.
lay:  He laid the book on the bed.

Note that even verbs which are almost always followed by direct objects can occasionally be used intransitively. This is possible in very restricted contexts. For example, if you are contrasting two actions, it is not necessary say what else is involved:
Markets are places where people buy and sell.
Some people build, while others destroy.
There are people who give, while others take.
If you list different verbs for emphasis, you do not need to name the object:
They are determined to argue, defy and threaten.
He wants to forgive and forget.
Verbs which describe feelings and attitudes can sometimes be used without an object:
She is anxious to help.
He would like to please.

Transitive verbs with reflexive pronoun as object:

If an action involves two different people but you want to talk about a case where the same person is involved twice, you can use a reflexive pronoun as the object of the verb. For example, we usually blame someone when something goes wrong, but you can say ‘I blame myself for the accident’ if you are the only person involved in the blaming. A few verbs are typically used with reflexive pronouns:

She blamed herself for getting a poor grade.
May I introduce myself to you?
We enjoyed ourselves at the party.
Don’t distress yourself for my sake.
Elizabeth prided herself on her intelligence.
Don’t deceive yourself
He prefers to shave himself before breakfast.
You are old enough to behave yourself.
You must try to adapt yourself to any situation.
He is capable of expressing himself effectively.
Don’t strain yourself by over exercise.
We must ask ourselves some questions.
You can do the job very well if you exert yourself.
He availed himself of the opportunity that came his way.
I have reconciled myself to the idea of living in Dhaka.
He seated himself on the sofa.
You should adjust yourself to the changed circumstances.
He applied himself to learning how Islamic banking works.
He disengaged himself from the tangle he was involved in.
I find myself unable to recommend the article for publication.

Exercise
1.    Complete the following sentences with adjuncts after the objects:
a.    You object to the decision of the enquiry committee, but what do you
base your objection —–?
b.    I regard the situation on the University campus—–explosive.
c.    The book is divided——six chapters.
d.    I will incorporate your suggestions——the next edition of the book.
e.    Would you please present a copy of your book—–me?
2 Make your own sentences with the following verbs:
apply     enjoy    put    place
lay         set        pelt    subject
remind   compare        return
3.Correct the following sentences:
a. The company deprived the employees their legal dues.
b. The police prevented the crowd to enter the arena.
c. He lavished his wife a lot of jewellery.
d. They entrusted the nurse the task of looking after their sick father.
e. I reminded him his responsibility.

Here is a list of adjectives which are usually or always used predicatively and which can be followed by the prepositions indicated:

answerable to         dependant on       incumbent on       parallel to
answerable for       dependent upon      incumbent upon      parallel with
burdened by           immune from       insensible of        reliant on
burdened with       immune to            insensible to         reliant upon
connected to          inclined to            intent on              stricken by
connected with       inclined towards      intent upon            stricken with

Examples

answerable to (having to explain your action to somebody in authority over you):
He is a businessman.
He is not answerable to anybody.
answerable for (responsible for something and ready to accept punishment or criticism                   for it):
Ministers should be responsible for their decisions.
burdened by (give somebody a duty that causes worry or difficulty):
He is burdened by high taxation.
burdened with:
He is burdened with a large family.
connected to: (something is joined to something else):
The printer is not connected to the computer.
connected with (make a link with somebody or something):
He is not connected with the crime.
dependent on/upon( affected or decided by something):
He is too old to work. He is dependent on/upon his children.
immune to( affected by a particular disease):
He is immune to measles.
immune from (protected from something and so is able to avoid it):
No one should be immune from prosecution.
inclined to/towards(tend to think or behave in a particular way):
I am inclined to agree with you.
incumbent on/upon(necessary as part of somebody’s duty):
It is incumbent on us to attend the ceremony.
insensible of(not aware of situation or that might happen):
We are were insensible of the risks involved in the task.
insensible to( unable to feel something):
He was insensible to pain.
intent on/upon (determined to do something):
He is intent on/ upon going abroad.
reliant on (depend on):
This organization is reliant on charity.
stricken(seriously affected by/with):
The family is stricken by poverty.

To complete the meaning of some adjectives which are used predicatively, you need to use ‘to’-infinitive following the adjectives. For example, you cannot just say: ‘I am unable’. You have add a ‘to’ infinitive: ‘to go there’.

Here is a list of adjectives which are always or nearly always followed by ‘to’-infinitives:
able      due     inclined      loath      unwilling
bound  fated       liable          prepared  willing
doomed      fit          likely      unable
Examples
He was able to complete his course in time.
The exam is due to begin next month.
I am inclined to think that he is efficient.
He is loath (not willing) to accept the job.
She is unwilling to marry the man chosen by her parents.
He is bound (likely to happen) to pass the exam.
He was fated to die young
You are liable to be expelled for cheating in the exam.
He is prepared (ready) to accept any well-paid job.
I am willing to help you.
Your efforts are doomed to fail.
He is fit to work hard.
He neglected his studies, so he is likely to fail in the exam.
I am unable to recommend you for the job.

We can use a ‘to’-infinitive after many other adjectives to give more information about something.
Examples
He was afraid to go out in the dark.
I am happy to see you.
He was powerless to do anything about the problem
She was ashamed to tell her mother about her secret marriage.
This lesson is easy to follow.
I am sorry to disturb you.
I am glad to receive your letter.
When adjectives which refer to someone’s beliefs or feelings  are used predicatively they are often followed by a that-clause.
Here is a list of common adjectives which are often followed by a that -clause:
Afraid        certain        happy        sorry        upset
angry         confident    pleased     sure         worried
anxious      frightened       proud       surprised
aware       glad           sad       unaware
Examples
He is afraid that he might miss the bus.
She is angry that she has lost her necklace.
We are anxious that she is not recovering from her heart attack.
I am aware that our English is poor.
We are certain that he will do well in the exam.
I am confident that he will win in the election.
She is frightened that she may not get the job.
I am glad that your mother is getting well.
We are happy that you have done well in the exam.
We are proud that you have come first in the competition.
I was unaware that she had got married.
She was upset that her father was ill.
I was pleasantly surprised that he was awarded the first prize in the essay competition.
We are worried that she has failed in the exam.

Exercise
1.Make your own sentences with the following adjectives:
accustomed  adjacent  similar  injurious
devoted  fond  incapable  heedless  full
2.Fill in the blanks with appropriate prepositions:
He is not answerable—-anybody.
She is stricken—-an incurable disease.
It is incumbent—–us to abide by the rules
I am prepared——-face any situation.
He is unwilling ——step down from his position.
3.Complete the following sentences with a that-clause:
She is confident ——
I am sorry—–
We are happy—-
He is sure—–
She anxious—-

More about Adjectives

Here is a list of adjectives which are usually or always used predicatively (after the linking verbs) and are followed by the preposition ‘to’:
Accustomed    close     prone     resistant    adjacent    conducive    proportional   similar        allergic        devoted    proportionate        subjectattributable       impervious      reconciled         subservient
attuned               injurious       related            susceptible
averse                integral         resigned          unaccustomed

Examples
Accustomed to (something that we usually do):
We are accustomed to three meals a day.
Close to (near):     His school is close to the mosque.
Prone to (likely to suffer from something):     He is prone to accidents.
Resistant to (opposing something and trying to stop it happening):
Elderly people are often resistant to change.
Adjacent to (next to or near something): My house is adjacent to my office.
Conducive to (providing the right conditions for something good to happen): Walking is conducive to health.
Proportional to (appropriate size, amount or degree): Salary is proportional to qualification and experience.
Similar to (the same as): His income is similar to mine.
Allergic to (having an allergy to something): She is allergic to milk.
Devoted to (having great love for something or somebody): He is devoted to his family.
Proportionate to (increasing or decreasing according to changes in something else): The number of accidents is proportionate to the increased volume of traffic.
Subject to (likely to be affected by something): We are all subject to death.
Attributable to (probably cause by the thing mentioned): His failure is attributable to his            neglect of studies.
Impervious to (a person who is not influenced or affected by something): He is impervious to criticism…
Reconciled to (We accept it though we are not happy about It.): Most people are reconciled to their fate.
Subservient to (You do whatever someone wants you to do): The press is subservient                    to the management
Attuned to(able to understand and appreciate something): Her mood is attuned to the festive occasion.
Injurious to (harmful): Smoking is injurious to health.
Related to (connected): He is related to a high-ranking official.
Susceptible to (easily influenced or harmed by something): She is susceptible to cold.
Averse to (strongly disliking or opposed): He is averse to smoking.
Integral to (necessary or important as a part): Clubs are integral to the social life of the              city.
Resigned to (calmly accept something unpleasant): The party is resigned to its defeat in the election.
Unaccustomed (not used to) He is unaccustomed to getting up early in the morning.

There are a few adjectives which are followed by the preposition ‘of’ when they are used predicatively (after the linking verbs).

Here is a list of those verbs:
Aware               desirous          heedless           mindful
Bereft                devoid             illustrative       reminiscent
Capable              fond                incapable         representative
Characteristic     full                  indicative

Aware (knowing that something exists): I am aware of my weaknesses.
Bereft (lacking something or feeling great loss): With his wife dead, he is bereft of all hope.
Capable (able to do things effectively or achieve something): Although old, he is capable of hard work.
Characteristic (typical of a person or thing): Hospitality is characteristic of this family.
Desirous (wanting something) He is desirous of meeting you.
Devoid (to lack or be without something): He is completely devoid of common sense.
Fond (like something very much): She is fond of music.
Full (very happy): He is full of joy.
indicative of his lack of interest in the issue.

There are a few adjectives which are followed by the preposition ‘with’ when they are used predicatively (after the linking verbs). Here is a list of those adjectives:

Compatible        conversant       fraught       tinged
Consonant         filled                riddled

Compatible (ideas, methods which are able to exist together without causing problems): His conduct is not compatible with his precept.
Conversant (knowing about something): You need to become fully conversant with the rules of this company.
Consonant (something that fits or agrees with something else very well): His work is consonant with his way of thinking.
Fraught (filled with something unpleasant); The problem is fraught with danger.
Tinged (to add a small amount of particular emotion or quality): His voice was tinged with
Remorse.
Filled (make something full): Her eyes were suddenly filled with tears.
Riddled (make a lot of holes in somebody): His body was riddled with bullets.

Exercise
1. Make your own sentences with the following adjectives
Accustomed         close       prone         adjacent       similar
Devoted     impervious       related         injurious     averse
Incapable resistant        desirous     subject      bereft
2. Complete the following sentences with appropriate adjectives:
a.    She is—–of chutney.
b.    He is not——of the danger facing him.
c.    She is—–of writing correct English.
d.    He is—-of pride.
e.    His answers are—–of his carelessness.
f.    He is—–of the consequences of his actions
1.    Complete the following sentences with appropriate prepositions after the adjectives:
a.    His conduct is not compatible——his position.
b.    The glass is filled ——milk.
c.    He is reconciled——to his defeat in the election.
d.    Smoking is not conducive—–good health.
e.    He is mindful——his obligations to his family.
f.    She is prone—-accidents.

In the previous lessons we have explained and illustrated the use of intransitive verbs and the adverbials that go with them. In this lesson and the following ones we take up another kind of verbs and the adjectives that follow them. The verbs are called linking verbs because their function is to link together the subject and the adjective-complement which describes the subject. Take, for instance, the following sentence:
Kamal is intelligent.

In this sentence the verb is links together the subject Kamal and the adjective-complement intelligent. The adjective modifies the subject, i.e. it describes the kind of man Kamal is. All forms of be verb can function as linking verbs:
Mina is pretty.
You are handsome.
They are strong and healthy.
He has been sick for a week.
She is being foolish.
He may be late for the meeting.
I am sorry for being late.
Notice that in each of the above sentences a form of be has been used and the adjectives following the verbs are descriptive of the subjects. The adjectives say something about the subject by way of describing its quality. Apart from be, there are some other linking verbs. They are as follows:
Appear        seem    come    get    become      run      go      grow
keep      look      prove      remain  smell      sound      taste      turn
Examples:
appear: She appears (to be) pale.
seems: He seems unhappy.
come: She came third in the essay competition.
get: He is getting bald.
become: In his youth he was slim, but he became fat in his old age.
run: The river runs dry in summer.
go: He went mad when he lost his job.
grow: He is growing rich.
look: He looks cheerful.
prove: He proved wrong in his calculations.
remain: He remained unshaken in his faith.
smell. Roses smell sweet.
sound: He sounded unhappy.
taste: Honey tastes sweet.
turn: He is turning grey.
The adjectives which come after the linking verbs may be classified as follows:
Colour adjectives: Here is a list of main colour adjectives:
black  cream  orange  red  white
blue green  pink  scarlet  yellow
brown  grey  purple  violet

Question                                             Response
What colour is your hair?                   It is black.
What colour is the shirt?                     It is cream.
What colour is the dress?                    It is orange.
What colour is blood?                         It is red.
What colour is milk?                           It is white.

Use the other colour adjectives in the forms of questions and responses.
If you want to specify a colour more precisely, you can use a sub-modifier such as ‘light’ ‘pale’ ‘dark’ ‘deep’ or ‘bright’ in front of a colour adjective:
light brown hair
a pale green shirt
a dark blue dress
bright blue eyes
If you want to talk about a colour which does not have a definite name, you can use a color adjective with ‘ish’ added to the end:
a greenish curtain
a yellowish flower
Adjectives of shape: Here is a list of common adjectives of shape:
square   rectangular  round  oval  semi-circular

Questions                                           Responses
What shape is your room?                It is square.
What shape is your dinning table?   It is rectangular.
What shape is a ball?                        It is round
What shape is your office?               It is oval.
What shape is your office-table?      It is semi-circular.

Adjectives of size: Here is a list of adjectives of size:
big  fairly big  small  rather small  tall  fairly tall  short  rather short
Questions                                    Responses
How big is your bedroom?           It is rather small.
How big is your living room?      It is fairly big.
How tall is your brother?             He is fairly tall.
How tall is your sister?                 She is rather short.
Note that we use ‘fairly’ with a desirable quality and ‘rather’ with an undesirable quality.

Adjectives of physical condition: Here is a list of adjectives of physical condition:
strong  healthy  robust  spruce  stout  heavy
weak  sick  tired  delicate  fragile  slim  thin
My friend Kamal takes regular exercise and he is very strong.
All members of my family are fairly healthy.
My classmate Rahim is a sportsman. He is robust.
My uncle who is in his fifties is getting stout.
My aunt is rather delicate.
Don’t touch the vase. It is rather fragile.
I couldn’t sleep well last night. I feel tired.

Adjectives of mental condition: Here is a list of adjectives of mental condition:
happy  unhappy  depressed  worried
nervous  disappointed  frustrated  sad
My colleague Hamid is happy with his position in life.
My classmate Zakir is unhappy because he has got poor grades in the exam.
My sister gets nervous before the exam.
I am worried about my father because he has broken his leg.
Don’t feel sad about your grades. You will do better next time.

Exercise
1.    Fill in the blanks with adjectives:
a.    She is a blonde. Her hair is —-
b.    He has been without food for the whole day. He must be—–
c.    He is a rich man. The house he has built is very—–
d.    He has got poor grades in the exam, so he looks—-
e.    Porcelain goods must be handled carefully because they are——-
f.    He takes little exercise, so he is getting heavy.
g.    I get —–when I go for a check-up.
h.    Keep ——whatever may be the problem.
2..    Make your own sentences with these adjectives:
sleepy  weak  disappointed  delighted   uneasy
spruce  tired  hungry  thin  greenish  youngish

Adverbials of degree

Adverbials of degree broadly answer the question ‘To what extent?’ They can modify adjectives, verbs and adverbs. In this lesson we will explain and illustrate the use of adverbs of degree which modify intransitive verbs and adverbs.

Quite:        I quite agree with you.
(I agree with you to a certain extent)
I quite forgot to post your letter.
(I completely forgot to post your letter)
Absolutely:     I absolutely disagree with you.
(The adverb emphasizes the meaning of the verb)
Completely:     I completely agree with you.
(The adverb emphasizes the meaning of the verb.)
Simply:      He simply disappeared.
Just:         She has just arrived.
Very:         He drives very carefully.
(The adverb ‘very’ modifies the adverb carefully’)
Almost:      I almost (nearly) forgot to lock the door.
Really:     Things have changed really dramatically.
(The adverb ‘really’ modifies the  adverb ‘dramatically’)
Fairly:         He lectured fairly well.
(‘Fairly’ suggests ‘less than the highest degree’. It modifies ‘well’.)
Rather:     He did rather badly in the exam.
(‘Rather’ suggests ‘to some degree’. It modifies ‘badly’)
Too:         He arrived at the station too late. (‘Too’ modifies ‘late’.)
(He missed the train.)
A little:     He speaks a little slowly. (‘A little’ modifies ‘slowly’.)
Enough:     He did not arrive at the station early enough. (He missed the train.)
Hardly:     He hardly plays.
Barely:      He plays barely well enough.
Scarcely:     He scarcely comes to visit us.
(Hardly, barely and scarcely are negative words and do not combine with not or             never. They can be replaced by almost never)
I almost never go to Dhaka.

There are some special adverbs of degree. They are used in negative sentences. They include the following.
much:         My home town, Satkhira, has not developed much.
These grammar books do not help much.

The comparative adverbs ‘better’ and ‘worse’ can be used as adverbs of degree:
Better:         She is doing better these days.
worse:         It is the country which suffers worse.

‘Most’ and least’ can also be used as adverbs of degree:
This is what I want to do most.
This is the least I can do for you.
The noun phrases ‘a bit, ‘a great deal’ ‘a little’ and ‘a lot’ are also used as adverbs of degree.
He hesitated a bit in taking decision about the matter.
The situation has changed a great deal since the last elections.
The law and order situation in the country has improved a little.
He thinks a lot about the country.

‘More’ or ‘less’ can be used as comparative adverbs of degree.
A house heats up more when there are no trees around it.
A house heats up less when there are trees around it.

Position of adverbs of degree
We rarely use an adverb at the beginning of a sentence. For example, we do not say: ‘Quite I agree with you’. A few adverbs of degree are nearly always used in front of the main verb. These adverbs are:
almost    largely    nearly   really    virtually

We usually say:
: He almost got there.
Not: He got there almost
He largely depends on his father.
Not: He depends on his father largely.
He nearly drowned.
Not:  He drowned nearly.
The man is really starving.
Not The man is starving really.
With the death of his father, Hamid virtually broke down.
Not: With the death of his father, Hamid broke down virtually.

Some adverbs are almost always used after the main verb. They include:
altogether       hard       somewhat       well
enormously     outright      tremendously

Bengali sentence structures differ altogether from English sentence structures.
He works very hard to do well in the exam.
He exaggerated somewhat in praising his wife’s beauty.
She has done well in the exam.
The prices of vegetables vary enormously from place to place.
Neither candidate won outright.
They played tremendously well.

Exercise

1. Fill in the blanks with appropriate adverbs of degree.
a.    He failed in the exam because he did not work—–.
b.    She spoke —–at the meeting.
c.    I —— forgot to bring my umbrella.
d.    He—–comes late.
e.    A university differs—–from a college.
f.    He did—–in the competition.
g.    He walks——slowly.
h.    He arrived at the meeting——late.
i.    I—–go to the cinema.

2. The adverbials of degree have been wrongly placed in the following sentences. Put them in the correct place.
a.    He utterly failed to answer the questions
b.    I agree absolutely
c.    I altogether differ from you.
d.    He died nearly last night.
e.    He depends largely on his wife’s income.

3. Make your own sentences with the following adverbials of degree, using as far as possible, intransitive verbs.
always      nearly      almost      hardly      barely       scarcely     somewhat       tremendously     enormously      outright
completely       absolutely      hard           really         virtually
a great deal       a little       a bit           fairly          rather
well

Sadruddin Ahmed