<B>The British Council?s language clinic with ?Dr Danny? </B>

Hello and welcome to the English Language Clinic. This week?s question is ?Which is correct, ?I know it is true? or ?I know that it is true??? The simple answer is that they are both correct. The word ?that?, when used as a conjunction (joining word), is often omitted (left out). If the use of a word in a sentence is not necessary it is described as being ?redundant?. In the example above, the redundant word can be used or omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence or causing it to be an example of a ?pleonasm?. Pleonasm is the use of unnecessary words. For example, ?combine together?; if you combine things they are, by definition, together, therefore the word ?together? is redundant. Other examples include ?may possibly?, ?9 a.m. in the morning?, ?repeat again?, ?personal opinion? and ?foreign imports?. In spoken English, many pleonasms are the result of using ?acronyms?, for example, ?Do you know your PIN number?? sounds like a reasonable question, but if you use the unabbreviated form it is obviously a pleonasm; ?Do you know your Personal Identification Number number?? Other examples of this include ?RAM memory? and ?HIV virus?.

The opposite of pleonasm is ?oxymoron?, from the Greek ?oxy? (sharp) and ?moros? (dull, or blunt). An oxymoron is a combination of contradictory words. For example, ?old news? is an oxymoron as the definition of ?news? is that it is new. ?Most unique? is an oxymoron because ?unique? means that there is only one; the same is true of ?more unique? and ?more perfect?. Words such as ?unique?, ?certain? and ?dead? are absolute, they are either true or false, there can be no degree of ?deadness?, you are either dead or alive. Therefore ?a bit dead? and ?99% certain? are both oxymora (the plural of oxymoron).

Please send your comments, queries and questions to?Dr Danny? at the British Council Language Clinic by emailing [email protected]