Comments on: Sharpen Your Critical Thinking With E-Prime

By: Mark Forster

Mark Forster — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:04:07 +0000

I test. I do. I walk. ??

By: Luciano Passuello

Luciano Passuello — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:52:40 +0000

Hi Charles,

Although “e-prime purists” probably have a different opinion, I am actually OK using “to be” as a gerund helper compound, because in this instance it doesn’t perform its typical ambiguous function. In short, in this case, I don’t think it improves language trying to come up with a (potencially convoluted) alternative.

If you’re still interested in getting a “proper e-prime translation”, I’d recommend you post your sentece in the E-Prime forum.
Hope this helps!

By: Charles Herold

Charles Herold — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 05:37:19 +0000

I found this a very interesting idea, and so I went to the E-Primer to
see if I could write in e-prime. The difficulty came immediately when
I thought to describe my current activity, which in non-e-prime would
find expression in a phrase like “I am testing e-prime.” Clearly,
that would put me in violation of the e-prime directive. But I could
not see any other way to express a simple description of a current
activity. How else would one express this? I googled e-prime and
phrases like “i am testing,” “I am doing,” “I am walking” to find an
example of another way to phrase it, but I failed to find anything of
use. The examples in the e-prime tutorial did not seem relevant to
the issue. I felt as though I had found a huge hole in the e-prime
concept. I am testing something. If I am walking, I would say “I am
walking down the street.” I would not say “I feel the pavement as my feet traverse it,” or “the street passes beneath me,” or “I ride my feet as they roll across the ground.” These all seem awkward and inaccurate. “I am walking” strikes me as truthful, accurate and succinct.

I do not mean with this comment to invalidate the e-prime concept,
which still strikes me as an interesting mental challenge. I just
feel that if a sensible way around this particular issue exists, my
mental abilities appear inadequate in finding it.

So, can someone suggest an e-prime way of saying “I am testing the
e-prime site?”

(I will note that outside of my examples of what I have failed to
translate into e-prime, the e-Primer considers this e-prime-proper.)

By: Luciano Passuello

Luciano Passuello — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:58:34 +0000

Hi Linda,

Thanks for letting me know about this!

Another book written in E-Prime is ‘Quantum Psychology’, by Robert Anton Wilson.

By: Linda Adams

Linda Adams — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:54:41 +0000

Science Fiction writer David Gerrold wrote two novels using E-Prime. He noted though that it was hard to do and that he couldn’t have done it without having a computer to find the words. He discusses E-Prime in his writing book Worlds of Wonder.

By: Luciano Passuello

Luciano Passuello — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:10:22 +0000

Hi Andy,

That’s a great resource, and I’m glad it reopened Andy! Thanks for taking the time to let us know about it!

Cheers!

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:11:01 +0000

Greetings Luciano,

I read your wonderful e-prime article and wanted to let you know that the e-prime forum has reopened:
http://forum.eprimer.net/

Perhaps you’ll come discuss E-Prime?

Wishing you a fun day,

Andy

By: Marcio Farias

Marcio Farias — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:27:49 +0000

As an ESL learner I have experimented with E-Prime for about four years now. After joining an E-Prime language discussion forum back in 2008, I continued on learning.

If you happen to to like E-Prime, you might consider reading the book _E-Prime III! A Third Anthology_, by D. David Bourland, Jr. and Paul Dennithorne Johnston. Amazon.com has it new and used.

By: Amit Sodha

Amit Sodha — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:06:39 +0000

Wow this concept is totally new to me! I’ve never even come across
the term e-prime before but I will certainly going to give it a go!

Thanks Luciano!

(I think that was e-primed!)

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:47:17 +0000

David,

Thank you for the time you’ve already donated. If you could spare just a little more time, please answer the following three questions, stated with just a little introduction.

1. In English, to express one’s existence, we can say either “I am” or “I exist”. Are there similarly two (confusing!) ways to express existence in Hebrew?

2. In English, to express equality (or identity), we can either use the verb “to be” and say (e.g.) “I am as tall as he is” or avoid “to be” and say something similar to “We have equivalent heights”. Are there similarly two options in Hebrew?

3. In English, to describe an attribute (predication), we can either use the verb “to be” and say (e.g.) “You are handsome” or avoid “to be” and say something similar to “You have handsome features”. Are there similarly two options in Hebrew?

By the way, if David is too busy to respond and if anyone else knows the answer to those questions, please respond. In addition, if someone knows an oriental language (such as Chinese, Japanese,…), I’d be grateful if you’d provide similar information. Asked differently, the question is: is it only the languages derived from Latin that are so screwed up (“a genuine tragedy of the race”)?