One of the delightful things about my work is to hear people who (a) English is not their first language and/or (b) have little to no religious background show that sometimes they understand (a2) our language or (b2) the Christian faith better than we do.
For now let me share an interesting example of (a2). When foreigners know our language better than we do.
Two Friday nights ago. English Conversation. My lesson focuses on “green companies”. Part of the lesson is to spot hyphenated words. There are three. I point out that even native English speakers sometimes have trouble understanding the rules governing hyphenated words. That includes me.
One of our Chinese friends notes that there is a consistent pattern. Each hyphenated word (or expression) combines words that are not adjectives to form a new word/expression which functions as an adjective.
So “diseases borne by mosquitoes” becomes “mosquito-borne diseases”. You see? A noun plus a passive verb(?) now equals an adjective. Cool hunh?
I am a native English speaker. I have taught writing to university freshmen and taught English Conversation to internationals for several years. And I never noticed this. Sometimes “outsiders” see things more clearly than we “insiders” do.
