Feel Good Grammar: How to Make Sentences in Business English (2) (updated)

Do you want to stand out at a meeting? Do you want to impress your coworkers? So you probably have to make suggestions, right? Now read the following suggestions.

I suggest to enter the China Market.

or

Our department planned expanded the market share.

If you say something like the above, your co-workers will laugh at you. So to save your face, there is a Feel Good Tip for you: Be really really careful when two verbs come together!   In other words, in English it is absolutely wrong to say: 

suggest + to enter (WRONG)

planned + expanded (WRONG)

In other grammar books, ‘suggest’ and ‘planned’ are named finite verbs but the verbs followed by them (to enter and expanded) are non-finite.  What are finite and non-finite verbs? Sorry I am not going to tell you about them. What? Am I kidding? No!

Instead, I will introduce you the concepts, the concepts of finite and non-finite verbs, but with less threatening terms: Big Verbs and Small Verbs.





What are Big Verbs & Small Verbs?

Although men think that sizes matter, in the world of English it is different. Big Verbs are not bigger in size. They are big because they come first in a sentence, pretty much like a first born child in a family. In other words, a sentence is like a family, in which a first born child is privileged.  (What is 'privileged'?  Having special rights.)

That is, a verb can be big or small, depending on its position in a sentence. Any verb that comes first in a sentence is a big one; any verb that comes second is a small one.  The following examples illustrate my points:

	Big Verbs	Small Verbs
We came here to introduce our product.	came	to introduce
This post introduces you concepts in grammar.	introduce(s)	X

So in the sentence, ‘Our company planned expanded our market share’ is wrong as there are two Big Verbs coming together.  

	Big Verb (1)	Big Verb (2)
Our company	planned	expanded	our market share.

If you still remember the problem of two cars running to each other, Big Verbs and Small Verbs come to solve them. You may just add ‘to’ before the second verb (expand) to solve it, as shown below:


to + expand -------------------------> to expand (Small Verb)


So to get the ideas of Big Verbs and Small Verbs, you may visualize sentences. Whenever you read a sentence, try to look for the first verb (Big Verb) and then the second verb (Small Verb). For example, the following sentence will be something different.

We plan to reduce our budget on travel allowances.

We plan to reduce our budget on travel allowances.

Well, peace forever? Not so soon. More about Big and Small Verbs are to come.

Big Verbs

Big Verbs usually come in two forms:  be and non-be verbs.  For example, the big verb (is) in the following sentence is a grandchild of ‘be’

	Big Verb (Type 1)	Small Verb
	Be
The aim of this report	is	to discuss	the potential of China market

So you may imagine ‘be’ is a grandfather or grandmother who has lots of grandchildren, such as:
                                                                                                   Be (Grandparents)

                 

Grandchildren

Is /am / are

was / were

will be / shall be

has been / have been

b. non-be verbs

The big verb in the following sentence is ‘decided’.

	Big Verb	Small Verb
	Non-be Verb
Our company	decided	to renew	the contract with Apple.

Unlike ‘be’, non-be verbs are usually much more active and outgoing. In English there are lots of non-be verbs. What follows are those important to business English: agree,   deny, suggest, persuade, request,  warn, inform, notify, and guarantee.

The case of Suggest

However, why is it wrong to say 'I suggest to enter the China Market'?  What is the problem with putting 'Suggest' and  'to enter' together?  You’ll get the answer in the next post of Small Verbs. 

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This post is adapted from the book:

FeelGoodGrammar: 

How to Make Sentences in Business English


Buy the book:

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