Kibbitzer 43 | Although ... but |
The following revision is taken from the dissertation of a Malay-speaking student of Political Science (points not here at issue already corrected in the original)::
Original | Revisions |
---|---|
Although the Malay-Muslim intellectuals see things from different perspectives, and give various interpretations of the government's Islamic programme, but most of them agree that Islamic values alone without the Islamic system as a whole are not enough. | 1. Although the Malay-Muslim intellectuals see things from different perspectives, and give various interpretations of the government's Islamic programme, most of them agree that Islamic values alone without the Islamic system as a whole are not enough. |
2. The Malay-Muslim intellectuals see things from different perspectives, and give various interpretations of the government's Islamic programme, but most of them agree that Islamic values alone without the Islamic system as a whole are not enough. |
The important point to notice here is that the original sentence, which looks so strange to English eyes, shows the normal grammatical pattern for a number of languages of the Far East including Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese, which require two connectives 'although' and 'but' rather than one or the other alone as in English. Other languages of the region such as Thai allow, but do not require, doubled connectives:
Language | although | but | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Bahasa Malaysia | walaupun | tetapi | Connectives must be used in combination |
Chinese (Mandarin) | suiran | keshe | Connectives must be used in combination |
Thai | meiwa | tae | Connectives may be used singly, or in combination |
The following further examples, like the one discussed above, are taken from two pages of the student's draft:
5th June 1998 | Consultant: Tim Johns |
Back to Tim Johns EAP page |