Eprime

E-Prime Tutorial, by Dick Mills

Madam Toastmaster,  Miss Flowers, guests, and inmates. 

Words have importance. The words we choose influence how other people think of us. I want

to tell you about a dialect of English called E-prime. UF says that students taught to use E-

prime increased their marks by a full grade point. E-prime can help you to get a job. E-prime

can help you to keep a job. E-prime can help you avoid conflicts.

Start with English, take away the verb to be in all its forms, and you have E-prime. The

forbidden words include be, am, I’m, is, that’s, are, was, were, being,

and been. That one small change in your language makes a profound difference.

That’s it. Whoops. I can’t say that’s in E-prime. Let me say, Now you know it all.

Here are 5 reasons I like E-prime.

1. E-prime Exposes Opinions Disguised as Facts

Suppose you and I walk out from a movie. I say, That was a good movie. You say, No it

wasn’t. Those are opinions, not facts. Saying it using the language of facts sets the stage for a

needless argument. Yes it was. No it wasn’t.

In E-prime, I would have said, I liked that movie. You say, I didn’t like it. We have

nothing to argue about. But we can talk about our opinions.

2. E-Prime Forces You To Speak More Clearly

In English, I might say, Manal is smart. What does that mean? What about Manal made me

say that? My sentence did not make that clear.

In E-prime, I have to be more explicit. Manal gives good speeches. I said what I think and

why I think that. The Manal is smart, version hides my thinking.

3. E-prime Avoids The God Mode

Suppose I say, The Earth is round. The word is makes it sound like there is no way for me

to be wrong. My truth is absolute and eternal. It sounds like a voice came out of the sky.

The Earth is round. An ordinary person should say, The Earth looks round to me.

In E-prime we show humility, and the very way we say things shows that we understand that

things may look different to you than to me. That does not make you weak. Speak with

conviction and force, but you don’t need God mode to do that.

4. E-prime Avoids Prejudice and Labeling

Compare the statements Fawzi is Muslim, with Fawzi believes the teachings of

Muhammad. Those two sentences sound alike, but the English version hangs the label

Muslim on Fawzi. We all know how it can hurt when someone labels you, like felon or con.

Perhaps you didn’t intend to label Fawzi at all, but putting the word is in your sentence

trapped you into saying something you didn’t mean.

It even applies to self-references. Don’t say, I am a pig, when you really mean I ate too

Much.

5. E-Prime Eliminates The Passive Voice

The ball was thrown by the pitcher. OMG what a weak and wimpy sentence. Say, The

pitcher threw the ball. Dammit. Other people will respect you for being direct.

How about this one? Mistakes were made. Yuck. You say that someone screwed up but you

don’t want to say who. Say, Alice screwed up, or One of us made a mistake. I don’t know

who. But do not leave the identity of the person hanging in the breeze. You don’t want the

audience to think that you know who the actor is but we don’t want to tell them.

I repeat: You can’t speak passive voice without using the verb to be.

But

But not all uses of “to be” words are evil.  Where is the light switch?  It is over there.

There is no trophy for speaking 100% pure E-prime. Even a 50% reduction in to be words

makes an improvement. Variety is also a quality of good speech. Therefore, every rule in the

book should be broken once in a while, just for purposes of variety.

I find E-prime hard to learn. But I can use it in written form. I wrote this essay in English.

Then, I translated it to E-prime by taking out more than 20 places where I used those forbidden

words. You can do the same the next time you write something.  Maybe in the near future, you will write a speech for gavel club.

Madam Toastmaster