You’ve had the experience. You’re mid-conversation, looking someone eye-to-eye, and their face practically screams it. You aren’t making sense.
What’s worse? You aren’t making sense to yourself. You’re pregnant with an idea, trying to coax it out, but it’s just not happening.
I’ve been wanting to write some blurbs about English: the language, how it works, how we speak it. Every job I’ve ever had has been about getting messages across. I went back to school at twenty six to study English.
I think about this stuff a lot—but it’s not as difficult as you think.
If this goes well, I’ve accumulated a few topics to hit. But I want to keep them short, so let’s jump in.
Lovely airport, innit?
Last summer I traveled to the UK. I joked with the first friend I made about how quickly after landing the accent started to develop. It was his first time, too. He felt the same thing.
Totally involuntary.
Airports are busy places. All around were travelers speaking a familiar-but-unfamiliar tongue. I on the other hand was fairly quiet. I made it out of the gate and through baggage claim, to a little coffee station where drinks were purchased via kiosk. No speaking required.
I made my way through a tunnel and to the outdoor transport. Between stepping off the plane and onto my bus, I’d been in the country ten minutes.
Imagine my surprise, then, when the words fell out of my mouth: “Will you alert me to my stop?”
When have I ever spoken like that? Here in the US, I’d say, “Will you let me know when we get to my stop?” Eleven words versus seven.
But it’s not just brevity that makes the first sentence clearer. It’s the verb, ALERT.
Say what you will about the Brits; they know how to pick a verb. As my favorite prof here in the states taught me, “English is a language of verbs.”
Want to get better at communicating? Start here: zero in on your verbs.
Let’s take a look at the sentences from earlier.
Will you alert me to my stop?
Here the verb, ALERT, is one word. It carries the action of the entire sentence.
WILL is a support verb, but that doesn’t matter here. It simply turns this sentence into a question.
I’m asking you (subject) to alert (verb) me (direct object) to my stop (indirect object).
This is a basic sentence structure. That may not mean much now, but you’ll see the alternative in a moment.
Will you let me know when we get to my stop?
Here the main verb—the action of the sentence—is spread across multiple words, LET ME KNOW. This is called a phrasal verb.
There’s nothing wrong with your verb being a phrase per se, although here it’s not particularly needed. LET ME KNOW doesn’t accomplish anything that ALERT wouldn’t.
Again, WILL is here, acting as support.
To make it worse, though, the phrasing of this sentence introduces even more verbs. What is GET doing in there? Well, GET TO is another phrasal verb, describing the arrival at my stop.
But it’s messier than that. In the middle of LET ME KNOW is ME. Whereas in the first sentence ME is a clear direct object, here it’s ambiguous whether ME is the object, or part of the verb, or both.
WHEN WE GET TO has a similar dynamic. The phrase acts like an adverb, modifying the “verb” LET ME KNOW. We’ve established that WHEN WE GET TO introduces a second phrasal verb, but it also introduces a new object… WE. Not only am I asking YOU to let ME know some information, but now WE are involved in a new, third action of GETTING TO together.
Really guys, there’s not that much happening in this bus. I just need a little wave at my stop.
You might think, “It’s only complicated because you’re making it so. No one does all that in their head. Isn’t it a bit much?” And the answer is… sort of.
Read both sentences again:
Will you alert me to my stop?
Will you let me know when we get there?
It’s true that, in both cases, any English speaker immediately knows what’s being asked.
But under the hood, your brain does this calculus indeed. It’s the reason the “English” sounding sentence feels cleaner, even before you break down why.
Is “alert me” a phrase we should start using daily? On this side of the pond, probably not. It’s a trite example, but the point stands: if you want to clarify your speech, pick a good verb.
So there’s your Presidents Day lesson on the King’s English. Happy Birthday, George Washington.
Like I said, I’ve been collecting more thoughts along the lines of communication. So if you want to hear more, let me know.