VOA · Everyday Grammar
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01In a recent Everyday Grammar lesson, we explored some language used to talk about the Olympic Games, the words host, compete, and expect.
02We invited listeners to answer our report with their own writing about the Olympics using those words.
03Many VOA Learning English fans sent messages.
04Today, we will give feedback on two of the messages that we received.
05Let's begin with a message written to us by Fernando from Colombia.
06Here is part of what he wrote.
07Please note, that time refers to the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled for 2020, but held in 2021.
08By that time, Paris, the France's capital, was announced to be hosting the competitors to the 2024 Olympic Games.
09During the competition in Paris, people around the world expect to watch a great competition, where it will be broken many records.
10Competitors will expect to be well-hosted, and Paris expect to be the best host.
11Fernando's message is clear and understandable, but we have a few suggestions that might help improve the writing.
12In the first sentence, remove the article, the.
13Instead of saying, Paris, the France's capital, we say, Paris, France's capital.
14We do not need the article, because the possessive, France's, already gives us the exactness we need to know about what is being talked about.
15We might also say, Paris, the capital of France, or simply, Paris, France.
16Overall, the first sentence has a passive structure.
17It might be better to change the sentence to the active voice.
18The active voice will make the sentence's meaning clearer.
19So, we might say this.
20By that time, the International Olympic Committee had announced that Paris, France would host the 2024 Olympic Games.
21Our first suggestion for Fernando's second sentence involves articles.
22Instead of saying, expect to watch a great competition, we might remove the article, a, and say, expect to watch great competitions.
23This makes more sense because the Olympics includes many different sports events.
24We might also remove the pronoun it and slightly change the word order to something like this.
25During the Olympic Games, people around the world expect to watch great competitions where many records will be broken.
26Now let's turn to part of a message from Eleni.
27Eleni is from Greece.
28Eleni wrote to us about the creation of the Olympic Games.
29The first Olympic Games were held in Greece every four years since 776 BC.
30The host town was the ancient Olympia.
31The Olympic Games were dedicated to Zeus, the supreme god of the Greek religion.
32During the Olympic Games, no wars were permitted.
33On arrival, all athletes swore to compete with honor and respect.
34There were a few completions such as foot race, wrestling, pentathlon, horse races, pancreation, a mix of boxing and wrestling, and the athletes competed naked probably for complete freedom of the movement.
35Each city expected its own athletes to win in the Olympic Games.
36When that happened, they were tearing down a part of the city walls to honor him.
37It meant that the city was protected by such great athletes.
38Eleni's message was excellent.
39We have a few suggestions, beginning with the words, on arrival.
40We suggest creating an introductory clause and changing some of the wording to make the sentence clearer in meaning.
41We could rewrite it this way.
42When athletes arrived at Olympia, they swore to compete with honor and respect.
43We also suggest checking the spelling of a few words.
44Completion should be replaced with competition, for example.
45And we think adding punctuation, such as commas, might help make the message clearer.
46Our final suggestion is for the second-to-last sentence.
47Eleni uses the pronoun they.
48But who they are is not clear.
49Does they describe city officials, townspeople, fellow athletes?
50We might also use a different verb form.
51Tore down instead of were tearing down, as in this example.
52When a city's athlete won a competition, the townspeople tore down part of the city walls to honor him.
53All of the messages we received were excellent.
54In terms of grammar, our main feedback is to pay careful attention to articles, to use active voice more often, and to clarify pronouns.
55That is, make sure that the pronoun very clearly refers to an exact noun.
56We hope that all of you get to enjoy the Olympic Games.
57And we thank all our listeners who sent us messages about the international event.
58I'm John Russell.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
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