16/05/2016
Substitution
Look at these two sentences and their differences:
'I have never been to America but my sister has been to America.'
'I have never been to America but my sister has been there.'
'Not those plates, I mean the plates in the corner.'
'Not those plates, I mean the ones in the corner.'
To shorten sentences and still retain the meaning we can sometimes drop some words and substitute them with a single word.
In the above examples the word ‘there’ is substituted for the word ‘America’ and the word ‘ones’ is used for the word ‘plates’.
Instead of just leaving the word out, we substitute it with another word, usually ‘so’, ‘one(s)’, ‘do(es)’ and ‘did’.
Look at the below example sentences, rewrite them with a suitable substitute:
Example one:
Would you like a piece of cake?
Yes, I would like a piece of cake.
Example two:
Did she buy the apartment?
Yes, she bought the apartment.
