THE PAPER

ENGLISH LANGUAGE
SIMPLE PRESENT AND CONTINUOUS TENSE

Lecturer:
Nurfaizah, M.Hum
Compiled by:
Alwiyah

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
We often hear someone says Im not hungry. So the answer that we hear is, Im not too.
In indonesian, the words say saya juga tidak lapar while too means juga so, usually they
say Im not too. But actually this is the wrong use in English, because too is just used for
affirmative sentence. For more explanation about it we come to Elliptical Constructions term.
Elliptical Construction is an easy term because it talks about making simple the sentence,
or omission of word from a sentence with aim to be better and shorter. it is very useful in
conversation and also used in the formal article. Elliptical construction addressed for short
sentence but do not change meaning at all.
The main purpose of Elliptical sentence is to combinate two words which has the same
meaning. Example I am going to school and He is going to school, I and He are the subject
of doing the same thing that is go to school. So, these two words we could combinate become
one word as like I am going to school and he is, too or I am going to school and so is he.
Thats all the little explanation of Elliptical construction and now we have known about
the importance of it. So, I want to explain it more on this paper. My paper is about Elliptical
Construction, it is not the difficult term, so my paper will be so short, and I will focus in the
example.

1.2 Problem Formulation

What is Elliptical Construction?

What is the purpose of Elliptical Construction?
What is the division of Elliptical Construction?

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION
2.1

Elliptical Construction
Elliptical Construction is the formulation to indicate or show that someone, or something do

or do not do a thing, and adding other subject (someone or something) that has same predicate,
do or do not do a thing.
These two sentences have the same predicate, or we could say that the two subject do the
same thing. So Elliptical construction has a function to minimalize the unuseful word or
unimportant word in the sentence. By using the Elliptical Sentence we could make the it simple
and better to hear.
Usually, Eliptical sentence use some word as like too, so, either, neither, but and all of the
words followed by auxiliary verb, depends on its tenses. Elliptical sentence is divided by three
condition, thats are in positive or affirmative agreement, negative agreement, and opposite
agreement.1
2.2. Elliptical function
As I wrote before, that Elliptical Construction has function to me the sentence easier and more
simple by combinating the predicate. We just use this form if those subject has the same
predicate, so we just combinate it, even that is the affirmative or negative agreement and also we
can use it in the ooposite agreemnt.
For affirmative agreement we can use so and too and for negative agreement we use
neither or either while for opposite we use but and while. Actually all of them are
conjunction2 but in this term we just talk about these word in Elliptical construction.
2.3. The type of Elliptical construction
Elliptical Construction are divided by its condition, so there are three type of it.
1 Ahmad Sofihuddin, Makalah Elliptical sentence, Hal 1
2 Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, Hal 348

A. Affirmative agreement
- He is moslem
- I m moslem
He and I has the same predicate, or we can say that I agree with his statement while the statement
is positive sentence. So we can combinate these sentence with So or Too.
-

He is moslem, I am Too
He is moslem, So am I

Other ways to say agreement or elliptical affirmative in conversation

-

He is moslem, Me too
That is good idea, I think so3

But these are not formal use in elliptical, it is the just way we speak
B. Negative agreement
- I am not a childish
- He is not a childish
Because we talk about Elliptical Constrution, of course we always talk about sentence with
the same predicate. As like before, He and I has the same predicate that is childish so, He
agrees with my statement while the statement is negative sentence. Because this is negative
sentence we are not allowed to use So or Too, that will be a big mistake. So we use Either or
Neither.
- I am not childish, He isnt Either
- I am not childish, Neither is He
C. Opposite
- Lulu is an artist
- Alwiyah is not an artist
These sentence has the same predicate, but the difference with affirmative or negative
agreement, in this type the predicate is ooposite. Looking at the example we know that Lulu is an
artist while Alwiyah is not, but they have the same predicate that is artist. So we use But or
While
-

Lulu is an artist but Alwiyah isnt

Lulu is an artist while Alwiyah isnt

3 Imam Baehaqi, Simple English Converation, Hal 24

2.4. The rules of Elliptical Construction

A. Affirmative agreement
1. Use the same auxiliary verb or to be
As we know before, in the type of affirmative agreement we use so and too and we add
the auxiliary verb or to be, as like He is too or so He is. The auxiliary verb or to be that we
used in Elliptical sentence is depend on the first sentence, so these two words have the same
auxiliary or to be.
Auxiliary in every tenses is different. We have learned it before, that auxiliary verbs in
tenses are do, does, did, have, has, will and the to be are is, am, are, be,been. So if in the first
sentence there is to be is of course in the Elliptical sentence we use is.
-

She is fussy
He is fussy
She is fussy, He is too
She is fussy, so He is
2. So is placed in the first and too is placed in the end

Looking at many example I write before, that so and too has different form. Because so is
in the first and followed by subject and auxiliary, but too is placed after subject and auxillary.
-

He is too =
So He is =

Subject + auxiliary/to be + too

So + auxiliary/to be + subject

B. Negative agreement
1. Use the same auxiliary or to be
As like before, because it talks about elliptical sentence so we always use the same
auxiliary in both sentence. And also if the sentence has no auxiliary verb but he has to be, we use
the same to be in both sentence.
-

They dont like brutality

We dont like brutality

They and we has the same auxiliary verb that is don so in elliptical we use it too
-

They dont like brutality, we dont either

They dont like brutality, Neither do we
2. Abridge negative auxiliary

This is the type of negative agreement, and then of course we will always find the
negative sentence. And because Elliptical is about simple sentence so the negative auxiliary or to
be have to be simple by abridging it.
So we have to combinate not and auxiliary verb4 as like do become dont so, it is
forbidden to say do not. The kinds of combinations of negative auxiliary verb are dont,
doesnt, wont, havent, hasnt and the combinations of negative to be are isnt, arent.
-

He isnt doctor
They arent doctor
He isnt doctor, they arent either

3. Neither is placed in the first and Either is placed in the end

As like so, neither is placed in the first, and as like too either is placed in the end.
-

So is He - Neither is He
He is too
- He is Either

We can see that neither is placed before to be and subject, but either is placed after subject and
to be.
-

Neither is He
He isnt either

=
=

Neither + to be/auxiliary + subject

subject + to be/auxiliary + not + subject

Even it negative agreement, for neither we dont need to add not because neither is
abridgment of not either

4 http://mahirbahasainggris.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Elliptical-Sentencedalam-Bahasa-Inggris

CHAPTER III
FINAL
3.1. Conclution
In this paper we can conclude that the Elliptical Construction is abridge the sentence with
the same predicate by using so and too in affirmative sentence and neither and either in
negative sentence and but or while in opposite.
The simply form of Elliptical Construction is
-

Subject + auxiliary + Too

Subject + auxiliary + Either
So + auxiliary + Subject
Neither + auxiliary + Subject

And the additional rules are

-

Using same auxiliary or to be in bith clause

For negative auxiliary, we must abridge it do not become dont

3.2. Suggestion
As the writer, I realize I do many mistakes in this paper, so that I hope the readers
suggestion to repair this paper.