Guide to English grammar

It was a ghost (that) I saw. What I saw was a ghost. The ghost I clearly saw. The next moment it had disappeared. I saw it myself. What on earth did you see? I really saw it. I was so scared.

A practical guide to English grammar 53

7
Spoken English and written English


52 Summary

Grammar in speech and writing • 53
There is normally more repetition in speech than in writing. In informal speech we often use expressions like Well..., you know and sort of.

Stress and intonation • 54
The voice rises or falls on the new and important information. A rising intonation usually means that the speaker is unsure or that the conversation is incomplete.

Weak forms and short forms • 55
In informal English we often use weak forms or short forms of some words. For example have has a spoken weak form /v/ and a written short form 've.

Punctuation • 56
There are some rules of punctuation, such as how to punctuate correctly between two clauses.

53 Grammar in speech and writing

This is part of a real conversation between three people.

STUCK ON THE UNDERGROUND

Tom: I had one appointment at nine o'clock, I had another one at ten o’clock had another one at half past twelve, another one at quarter past four and then I knew I had to be at Pathway at six o'clock, I reckoned. So I timed it.
Sarah: These appointments were in town?
Tom: Yeah. So I timed it very carefully that I was going to leave at about ten past five - this was in, er, this was in central London. And I reckoned I'd be at Hounslow West just before five to six and I'd jump into a taxi and be at Pathway just after six o'clock. So I got on the Underground at Green Park at about ten past five, no, twenty past five, and erm, we moved along fairly well to Hyde Park Corner and then we moved along about fifty yards and we stopped.
Simon: Why was this?
Tom: And we were there for - well, I'm not quite sure, I think there was a train stopped in front of us and we were there for - really for three quarters of an hour.
(from M. Underwood Have you heard?)

1 A speaker normally uses more words than a writer. For example, Tom repeats some words.

I had one appointment ...I had another one... had another one... another one...
In writing we might express the meaning like this.
I had appointments at nine o'clock, ten o'clock, half past twelve and quarter past four.
Tom uses separate clauses, and this gives him more time to remember the details of what he is saying. It also makes it easier for the listeners to take in the information because it does not come all at once. In writing, more information can be in fewer words.
In speech there are often a number of clauses with and one after the other.