Welcome to Swara Bhaskara’s English.
This site contains bilingual English materials intended especially for those who have difficulties in understanding this language when solely written in English. Here, you will learn the English grammar, the basics that you must know in order to understand the language better. Most of the articles posted here are based on the Cliffs’ TOEFL Preparation Guide written by Jerry Bobrow and William A. Covino, as well as the Understanding and Using English Grammar written by Betty Schrampfer Azar. Because of these two books and my almost seven-year living in Canada, I’d like to note that the articles here are the American English that is quite different from the British one.
As you’ve noticed, this blog is just a newly born one, therefore, you might not find what you are looking for. However, we will continuously update its contents to make it a content-rich English learning site. If you’d like to request certain topics, please feel free to do so. We will put the topic you have requested as a priority and post it sooner than the ones we have scheduled to post. And, if you encounter any mistakes, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Learning from mistakes is one good thing but learning from something incorrect is really bad one. We, of course, don’t want this to happen to our readers. Thank you for coming by, and enjoy!
Best regards,
Swara Bhaskara
30 comments
Mr. Situmorang
December 15, 2009
Salam,
Situs ini sangat baik dan bermanfaat untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berbahasa inggris, dan saya senang bisa menemukannya.
Bagaimana kalau situs ini juga menyediakan TOEFL?
Terimakasih.
Swara Bhaskara
December 15, 2009
Salam kenal juga tuk Mr. Situmorang. How are you ?
My intention is to make this blog useful for everybody. I would be very happy, if I could achieve that.
Menyediakan TOEFL? I’ll see. Thanks for your suggestion.
You’re welcome.
5 SAHABAT BLOGGER MOTIVATOR PENGALAMAN NGEBLOG |tusuda.com
December 30, 2009
[...] dan pengalihan data postingan blog TuSuda, telah banyak dibantu dan didukung oleh pemilik blog Swara Bhaskara’s English ini, [...]
pujiedriany
June 10, 2010
wow… finally i found this site
i have been trying learning english gramar unsing ‘Understanding and Using English Grammar written’ book by Betty Schrampfer Azar since a few month ago. i think that book is really good in explanation and also gives us some helpful exercise. but sir, i found some difficulties to answer some of the question there. so may i post my answer to you so you can help me check my answers. because i didnt have someone who can tell me the true and the mistake which i had made.
btw, i try to write in english and know that i have made some mistake. but please help me correct my messy english sir.
thank you.
Swara Bhaskara
June 10, 2010
Hi Pujiedriany.
It’s such a pleasure to have you here. And, do you know what? Your English is excellent. You’re just being modest when you said “my messy English“, but I like this character though.
If you’d like to discuss questions in that book with us, please feel free to do so. Besides, you’re also welcomed to answer other visitors’ questions. Getting involved in this kind of discussion will help improve your English faster.
Regarding your writing, here are my suggestions.
1. If the verb TRY is directly followed by another verb, the following verb should be in the infinitive form.
I have been trying to learn English grammar….
2. Make sure that countable nouns following “A FEW” or “SOME” are in the plural forms.
a few months ago.
some helpful exercises
some of the questions
some mistakes
3. “… may I post my answer to you so you can help me check my answers?” contains a parallelism problem. “my answer” after the verb POST is not parallel to that after the verb CHECK. This clause should be:
… may I post my answers to you so you can help me check my answers?
or
… may I post my answers to you so you can help me check them?
Or, if the noun ANSWER is singular:
… may I post my answer to you so you can help me check my answer?
or
… may I post my answer to you so you can help me check it?
4. I didn’t have someone????
This sentence has problems of “tense” and “some” usage. It should be in the simple present tense:
I don’t have…
because when you wrote this sentence you hadn’t known whether I would say “yes, please feel free to do so”. Besides, if you use the simple past tense, it is not parallel to the clause “may I post my answers to you so you can help me check my answers” and “who can tell me…” that are in the simple present tense.
Do not use SOME in a negative sentence. In this case, we should use ANY.
I don’t have anyone…
5. “true” is an adjective. Here we need a noun.
…who can tell me the true answers.
Or we can, of course, revise the sentence, for instance, as follows,
…who can tell me whether I have answered the questions correctly.
Kanadeva
December 6, 2010
Can’t take my eyes off this site…
loc
December 11, 2010
Why won’t my comment show up straight away like before?
: Did I use any offensive language? Don’t think so. 
: Is it because you need to moderate them before posting? Why? 
:
loc
December 11, 2010
Oops! Nope, it’s not moderated. At least not here.
: So why didn’t it show up in Conditional Sentences (Part 2): Unreal atau Contrary to Fact Conditionals? Hmm.. 
:
David_willyams
December 13, 2010
this site is Gift From God,isn’t it Mr.swara?
fajar ichsandi
December 14, 2010
hi
liwet
December 14, 2010
hello,Mr.Swara.could you please help me again to explain the use of words that (dalam kurung) on sentences below:
1.An Islamic cleric accused of (helping) fund and (establish) a terror cell and military training camp could face the death penalty, according to the formal investigation (submitted) to prosecutors Monday.
2.”He is suspected with illegal possession of weapons, (sheltering) wanted terrorist suspects and (concealing) information about known terrorists.”
3.Bashir — a religious leader (known) for his anti-Western rhetoric –
my questions are:
1.why does the word”helping” uses gerund and the word”establish” does not?and what is the function of the word”submitted”is is verb,adjective,noun,or adverb,and how to translate it in indonesian?
2.why do the words”sheltering” and “concealing” use gerund(ing)?
3.is that correct if i add “who” infront of the word”known”
thanks for your attention,sir..and i’m so sorry if there are any mistakes in my sentences because i’m still learning in english.this group is interested me:-)
Swara Bhaskara
December 14, 2010
Hi Liwet,
Great questions.
1. In my opinion, the word “establish” should be in its gerund form, as well. The main clause of this sentence is
“An Islamic cleric could face the death penalty”.
The subject of this clause (An Islamic cleric) is modified by “who was accused of helping fund and who was accused of establishing a terror cell and military training camp”, which can be written into an adjective clause,
“accused of helping fund and establishing a terror cell and military training camp“.
NOTE: a passive adjective clause can be reduced by omitting its relative pronoun and be.
Menurut siapa/berdasarkan apa? This information is
“according to the formal investigation that was submitted to prosecutors on Monday”.
Again, “that was submitted to prosecutors on Monday” is a passive adjective clause (in this case, it modifies “the formal investigation“), therefore its “that was” can be reduced, too.
An Islamic cleric accused of helping fund and establishing a terror cell and military training camp could face the death penalty, according to the formal investigation submitted to prosecutors on Monday.
2. To show a better parallel structure, I think it’s better if this sentence is revised a bit to,
”He is suspected of possessing weapons illegally, sheltering wanted terrorist suspects and concealing information about known terrorists.”
As in question 1, after the preposition OF the verbs in question 2 should be in their gerund form.
3.Yes, you can. But, you need to add a be, as well.
Bashir — a religious leader who is known for his anti-Western rhetoric –
liwet
December 14, 2010
thank you for helping me sir.you’re the best teacher that i have known:-)
zee
January 23, 2011
hi Mr. Swara. could you please tell me about present perfect continuous tense..?? some of my friends said that this tense have nominal form and it can changes to passive voice. but I haven’t yet found it. is it right..??
thanks before and i’m sorry if I have made some mistakes. ^_^
Swara Bhaskara
January 24, 2011
Hi Zee,
I am afraid I can’t follow your question quite well. So, before we discuss it, would you please paraphrase it and provide us with an example sentence or two? Thanks.
zee
January 26, 2011
my friend say that Present perfect continuous have nominal form (bentuk nominal present perfect continuous)
example: 1) I have been being a teacher for 10 years.
2) she has been being hungry for 5 minutes.
is it correct…??
Swara Bhaskara
January 27, 2011
Hi Zee,
Yup, grammatically the two sentences are correct. However, what are you trying to say? If you want to say, “Aku telah menjadi seorang guru selama 10 tahun” and “Dia telah lapar selama 5 menit“, respectively, you should use the present perfect tense,
1) I have been a teacher for 10 years.
2) She has been hungry for 5 minutes.
If you use the present perfect continuous tense as in your examples, their meaning is slightly different.
1. Aku telah acting/berlagak jadi seorang guru selama 10 tahun. (Faktanya, aku bukan seorang guru)
2. Dia telah acting/berlagak lapar selama 5 menit. (Faktanya, dia tidak lapar).
Similar cases have been discussed in Simple Present Tense vs Present Continuous Tense
TheRisingSun
March 5, 2011
Mr.Swara, this site is great and very helpful, you have many articles,I want to read them one by one. I hope, I can learn English from scratch. Thank you so much for developing this E-Learning,you’ve helped many people.God bless you!.
tata_13
August 2, 2011
GREAT SITE !!!
edo
September 16, 2011
salam kenal mr. Bhaskara, i’m a new member here, at last i found this great site,
i couldn’t describe how glad i was when i found it.
according to me, it is the best wibesite which contains a lot of english grammar materials that i have ever found, i hope you will accept me favourably.
i’m very thankful to you mr. Bhaskara,
Please sir, correct my writing if it is wrong
coddink
September 16, 2011
where is the chat room? why is it removed?
ihone
October 12, 2011
it’s really rally nice blog ever… just greeting from me sir, im newbie in english..
zereef
October 30, 2011
Hello Mr. Bhaskara…… I’m a newbie in english. I’m really need ur help…
. Thx before Mr. Bhaskara…..
Lia
December 17, 2011
Great site! I thank you very much to you for this site, sir. God bless you and bestow happiness on you.
nunu
January 17, 2012
in this site,. I didn’t find your profile,. where I can find it,.?
Swara Bhaskara
January 18, 2012
Sorry, I am afraid nobody can find my profile here because there’s none.
Hikari
January 18, 2012
Hi Mr. Bhaskara, how do you do..
I’m improving my English,,, and I need your helping,
I hope I get many knowledges in there…
And can be your good student
Swara Bhaskara
January 18, 2012
How do you do. What can I do for you?
I also hope that you’ll get much knowledge from this blog.
Can you be my good student? Yes, of course, you can.
Hikari
January 18, 2012
Mr. Bhaskara, I want to ask you about :
1. What is the different uses of “Don’t ” and “No” in Warning sentence
Example : No Smoking >>>> why is it not use ” Don’t Smoking” ?
Thank you.
Sorry if I have mistaken in my sentences (grammar).
riee
January 24, 2012
Morning Sir, been following your blog since 2011 and I decided to join, because want to improve my English proficiency with your guidelines