Today is Halloween, a festive time in the United States marked by people dressing up in costumes of their favorite movie star or cartoon, or traditionally a monster such as Dracula or Frankenstein. So when explaining the origin of Halloween, my students were confused reading the word observance.

The word observance is immediately thought by non-native English speakers to be “watching something”. But often the word is used to mean “follow” or “recognize” something. Here are some sentence parts to show how to use this word.

You can read about the origin of Halloween here. Additionally, check out the origin of the Jack O’Lantern here. Lastly, do you really know about Dracula? Read about the Count here.

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The words because, due to, and as a result of may be problematic for non-native English speakers, but careful instruction can provide them with a formula for using it correctly. Let’s look at some examples to explain when and how to use the word because. The first example has to do with an airplane that was flying to Miyakojima but because someone became ill during the flight, the airplane stopped in Naha.

Because our plane suddenly arrived at Naha Airport, our plane was refuel gasoline.

First, let’s fix some grammatically mistakes. arrived is the past tense, so refuel must be used in the past tense. So now our sentence looks like this

Because our plane suddenly arrived at Naha Airport, our plane was refueled gasoline.

However, we are missing a word that connects the action of refueling with the item that is used in this action (i.e. the gasoline.) If you say “…refuel gasoline.” it means something is put into the gasoline itself, but actually the gasoline is being put into the airplane. So you need a preposition to connect this action with the noun. The sentence should therefore read

Because our plane suddenly arrived at Naha Airport, our plane was refueled with gasoline.

However, the sentence still is not correct. The reason for the action comes after the word because. Is “…suddenly arrived…” really the reason? The sentence is grammatically correct, but the real reason the plan stopped in Naha, was because there was an emergency on board the airplane. So the sentence should read

Because our plane made an emergency landing at Naha Airport, our plane was refueled with gasoline.

Although school teachers teach that a sentence must not begin with because, this is not true. But just to satify them, let’s rearrange the sentence to please them.

Our plane was refueled with gasoline because our plane made an emergency landing at Naha Airport.

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Non-native English speakers have a difficult time figuring out when and how to use the prepositions by, with and in. I have not found anything that seems to logically explain when and how to use a pattern, and often seem to tell my students, “sorry, you are just going to have to memorize examples. So here are some examples:

What is the difference in the second example above? The first one uses by to mean the document was not written using any other type of device except a pen. The second indicates whose pen, so the correct preposition is with. An often used phrase that does not use by, but uses in, is

The document is written in ink.

Furthermore, a typicial instruction on tests is

Please write your answers in ink. Do not use a pencil.

Still not conviced?!

Think of using by when the object is not included in the end result. Huh? This means if you make something, the word coming after by is not part of the finished product. So baking bread by moonlight, means the moonlight is not part of the bread; it was just used so you could see what you were doing while you were making the bread. NOTE: You do not use an article (a/an/the) or a pronoun (my/your/his/her/our/their) after the preposition by. For example, “Make a reservation by phone.” not “Make a reservation by a phone.“

Think of using with when the object is included in the end result. Huh? This means if you make something, the word coming after with is part of the finished product. So baking bread with flour, means the flour is part of the bread.

Think of using in when the object is surrounded by the word coming after in. Huh? This means if you make something, the word coming after in is not part of the finished product, but used to make the product. So baking bread in an oven, means the oven helped to make the bread, but is not part of it.

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The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) is often used in Japan as criteria for promotion. I use Barrons Guide to the TOEIC, but sometimes there explanation is not very thorough. One such insufficient explanation is about causative verbs. Verbs like let, make, have and get appear in some of the test questions, but students trying to use the pattern described in the book may find they answer incorrectly.

So what form of the verb comes after a causative verb? Many students answer with the past tense (e.g. ate, saw, waited) when they should have chosen the present tense of the verb (i.e. eat, see, wait). So…let’s first describe each causative verb.

Now let’s look at some example sentences:

Notice that the past tense of causative verbs (make -> made, have -> had, get -> got) is also often used.
So just remember CAUSATIVE VERB + PERSON + VERB and you will score well on the TOEIC.

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The gig has a number of formal definitions, but it is most often used as slang to mean a job, generally one that is short in duration such as playing music in a bar. People providing training services to corporations might use the phrase “I have a corporate gig with company XYZ.”

gig is also short for gigabyte which is a unit of measurement for the amount of memory in a computer. Instead of saying “This computer includes a 100 gigabyte hard disk drive.” you can say “This computer comes with a 100 gig hard drive.”

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