This test covers broader aspects of English structures. You got that score because you hadn’t reviewed most of the topics on this blog. So, please don’t feel bad about the result. I strongly believe that if you had finished reading most of them, your score would have been a lot better.

Your sentences can be easily understood by native English speakers especially in speaking. This means that you have had capability of communicating in English well. Congratulation …!

However, the following suggestions are to be used in formal writing.

I got only 40% correct. Ha ha ha!!!
That was so terrible. Atau:
My English is still bad.
Please correct my English if it is wrong!

(Gunakan it karena yang diacu adalah my English. INCORRECT jika digunakan pronoun I). Penggunaan I akan benar jika kalimatnya:

Please correct me if I am wrong!

And, jangan lupa gunakan to be setelah it (i.e. if it is wrong) atau setelah I (i.e. if I am wrong) karena wrong adalah sebuah adjective.

Atau, jika anda tidak suka pakai to be, clausenya akan benar jika it atau I juga dihilangkan. (i.e if wrong).

Please correct my English if wrong!
Please correct me if wrong!

Hi Imranraif09,

You’ve understood which words or phrases functioning as the subject, as the verb, and as the object of this sentence, haven’t you? And, the only confusing part is the word “happy”, whether it should be preceded by a verb “be” or not. Great!

First of all, the pattern “S + V + O” is never followed by a verb “be”. It, however, can be followed by a modifier(s) or another object in a form of either an infinitive, a gerund, a verb1 (verb in simple form), a direct object, or an adjective, and so on, depending on the verb used in the sentence and the meaning to be expressed. Infinitive or gerund that follows the object functions as indirect object, while the adjective functions as modifier of the object. If it has an object (or objects if there are more than one), it is called a transitive sentence. On the other hand, if the sentence doesn’t have an object, it is called an intransitive sentence. The modifier is optional; it can be present or not in the sentence.
So, the patterns can be:

S + V + O + modifier
S + V + O + O (in infinitive form)
S + V + O + O (in gerund form)
S + V + O + O (direct object)
S + V + O + adjective
S + V (intransitive), and soon

Examples:

1. I studied English at his house last night. (Aku belajar bahasa Inggris tadi malam).
2. I forced myself to stay up all night. (Aku paksa diriku (sendiri) untuk tetap terjaga semalam suntuk).
3. The teacher gave a choice of taking another exam to us. (Guru itu memberi pilihan untuk mengikuti ujian lagi pada kami).
4. I made myself stay up all night. (Aku paksa diriku (sendiri) untuk tetap terjaga semalam suntuk). Perhatikan: Kalimat ini polanya sedikit berbeda dengan kalimat kedua di atas, tetapi maknanya mirip. Di kalimat ini, “stay” adalah dalam bentuk kata kerja dasar atau verb1), dan karena digunakan “make” maknanya lebih keras dengan “force”.
5. He gave me many tips. (Dia memberiku banyak tip/trik).
6. I will make you happy forever. (Aku akan membuat kamu bahagia untuk selamanya).
7. I just ate. (Aku baru saja makan tadi).

Now, let’s compare your sentence to mine:

I am happy.
She will make me happy forever.

Yours uses:

S + V + M

while mine uses:

S + V + O + M

In your sentence, to be “am” functions as the verb, while the adjective “happy” functions as the modifier of the subject. “Am” should be present, and in this case “am” is a linking verb because it links the subject “I” to its modifier “happy”.
In my sentence, the adjective “happy” modifies the object “me”, and verb “am” is not needed because this sentence consists of only one clause and it has already had a verb (in this case, a verb phrase “will make”).

What about the following sentence?

She thinks I am happy.

Do we need “am” in this sentence?
Yes, we do.

This sentence consists of two clauses, namely an independent clause “She thinks” and a dependent clause “I am happy”. The dependent clause functions as the object of the independent clause. The two clauses will look clearer, if we put relative pronoun “that” in between the two.

She thinks THAT I am happy.

And, it will be obviously INCORRECT if we omit the verb “am”:

She thinks THAT I happy. (INCORRECT because the dependent clause doesn’t have a verb).

Note:
1. A sentence or a clause MUST have a verb.
2. Object is never followed by verb “be”, and that’s why we never heard native English speakers say: “me am”, him is”, her is”, them are, “us are”.

You’re welcome.

1. Is it a formal note? If yes, you shouldn’t use the words “reason” and “why” at the same time because both have the same meaning. This is called redundancy (pengulangan makna). Other similar problems are “the time when”, “the place where”, “return back”,and so on. How to solve this problem? Use one of the two words. You can just use “reason” or “why”.

2. A title can be a word (i.e. Taxi, Titanic, Speed, 2010, etc), a phrase (i.e. Gone with the wind, Noting Hill, Sleepless in Seattle, etc), or even a clause(s) (i.e. I know what you did last summer, etc). In your title, because you use the word “should”, then it must be preceded by a subject (i.e. subject + should) and the most appropriate one is “we”. I don’t know whether stones are beneficial for our body, but they really are for chickens to speed up seed grinding in the chickens’ digestion system.

3. Is the verb “eat” suitable for “stone”? Eating is an action in which we put the object into the mouth, CHEW it, and then swallow it. Do we chew stones? No. we don’t. They’re really hard to chew. . Some people just swallow them though. So, it’s better to use verb “swallow” instead of “eat”.

The reasons we shouldn’t swallow stones. OR
Why shouldn’t we swallow stones?

You can also omit the auxiliary “should” and change the verb “swallow” into its infinitive form. In this case, the subject is not needed. Although it is omitted, the title still has the meaning of “should”.

The reasons not to swallow stones. OR
Why not to swallow stones?

1. Yup. It’s correct.

Thank you.

Or in a more casual way:

Thanks.I’m so glad WITH your EXPLANATION. (You missed one word. Note: It’s more common to use “with” instead of “OF”.

2. The adverb “really”. It’s better to put this word before “great”:

You have revealed a REALLY great comprehension OF using either “chew” or “swallow”.

3. I’m so pleased to have you here. Please don’t hesitate to ask whenever you find any problems in learning English.

A. SUGGESTIONS TO YOUR WRITING

1. Use preposition “OF” after the word “bunch”: BUNCH + OF + NOUN. Moreover, this word should only be used in informal occasions.
2. Don’t use “again” after a noun that has been modified by “another” or “other” because “other” and “again” have the same meaning. Redundant!
3. The word “sure” is an adjective, so it should be preceded by a verb be.
4. The word “words” is a plural noun, so the possessive adjective used to refer it should be “their”.

I just found another bunch OF words forming a sentence somewhere. I AM NOT sure about THEIR meaning. Here are my questions:

B. BACK TO YOUR QUESTIONS

a. I Ask Only But…..
It would’ve been much clearer it you had provided me with some sentences. To be honest, I’ve never seen or heard this expression. However, the paired conjunction “not only…but also” is commonly used.
I am not only asking but also suggesting you. (Aku tidak hanya bertanya tetapi juga menyarankan kepadamu).
Not only did she break my heart but also lower my self-esteem towards girls. (Dia tidak hanya menyakiti hatiku tetapi juga menurunkan rasa percaya-diriku kepada cewek).

b. The word “though”

1. The word “though” has the same meaning as “although, even though, but, however, or nevertheless”, namely: “tetapi or namun”. However, the word “though” can only be placed in the end of a sentence.
2. No, we don’t have to. However, by using “though” or the other conjunctions, our listener(s) or reader(s) will be easier to follow what we are talking about.
3. “though” is a conjunction. In “Some people just swallow them though”, the conjunction “though” expresses an opposite idea to “No, we don’t (chew stones)”. These two clauses can also be written as follows:

No, we don’t (chew stones). However, some people swallow stones.
No, we don’t (chew stones). Although we don’t chew stones, some people swallow stones.

4. The word “also” is an adverb that has similar meaning to “too or either” and to conjunction “moreover, plus, in addition, besides, as well as”. This word adds additional idea to the previous one(s). An adverb doesn’t affect the sentence structure. It can be placed in the beginning, in the middle (the most commonly used), or in the end of a sentence. However, if you put it in the beginning, you should put a comma afterward. By doing so, you will notice that after the adverb “also” it is the subject of your sentence. A subject can start with a gerund, isn’t it? And, If you put the adverb “also” in the beginning, the gerund form is used because of the form of noun used as the subject, and not because of the adverb “also”.

Loving her makes me happy. ALSO, loving her makes me afraid.

These two sentences can also be written as follows,

Loving her makes me happy. Loving her ALSO makes me afraid.
Loving her makes me happy. Loving her makes me afraid ALSO.

UPON? Yes, you can use UPON here. I’d suggest you to use ON though (i.e. check on). It is not only because it is much more commonly used, but also because I don’t want you to look “kurang gaul”. ?
5. The first part has been answered in point 4, however, for the second part, I am afraid I don’t quite get what you meant here. Could you paraphrase this question please! Thank you.

It’s a good start and motivation though.

Now, I am. What can I do for you?

Hi LarX,

C. In your case right now, the correct tense should be the simple present tense.

I am just able to speak and express something, but truly my sentences are still wrong.

My question still the same as above is why it should be in the simple present tense? The answer is because till now or probably till a month later you still have problems in making correct sentences.

Now, let’s say that from now on you start studying the English grammar so intensively that by a month or two, your grammar will have been excellent. At that time (say November 10), to describe the grammar you have now (October 10), you then should use the simple past tense.

“I was just able to speak and express something, but truly the sentences that I made were mostly still wrong. But now, the English grammar is a piece of cake“, says LarX.

There are several ways to express “daripada“. The most commonly used one is the word “than” that you often see in comparatives. Besides, you can also use “instead“, or “to” as in “prefer…to“. Using the sentence you provided, I come up with the following sentences:

Instead of sleeping, you had better study in order to be smart.
Instead of sleeping, you should study in order to be smart.
In order to be smart, studying is better than sleeping.

The following sentences are hopefully not too far away from your Indonesian sentence.

He is smart because he prefers studying to sleeping.
In order to be smart, study more, sleep less!

1. Yes, ‘instead of‘ is followed by a noun. If it’s followed by a verb, the verb should be in a gerund (or verb-ing) form.

2. I’m given a friend a like you.. ???

Sorry, I’m afraid I don’t get what you’re trying to say. May I have its Indonesian version, please? Thanks.

Oh, I see,

The correct one should be either:

Those sentences were given by a friend like you.

OR

I got them (those sentences) from a friend like you.

How to say “aku salah mengetiknya“?

I mistyped it.
Sorry for the typo (salah ketik).

None corrected.