How to Speak E-Prime

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E-Prime is a variation of the English language developed by linguists to experiment with certain ideas. E-Prime is the same as English, except that no forms of the verb "to be" are permitted. Structuring speech and writing in this way is theorized to be more clear and avoid the problem of eliminating point of view. For example, instead of saying "This food is good," you would have to say "I like this food," implying correctly that you were talking only about your opinion.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Step1

Think about all the forms of the verb "to be," including is, am, are, was, were, be, been and being. It can take a while to eliminate all of these forms from your regular speech, since they seem to sneak in very frequently. However, if you want to speak E-Prime, this is the main objective.

Step2

Describe sensations when they are involved in events, instead of using passive verbs. For example, you could say "The paper looks red," "The cake tastes sweet," or "This sweater feels soft,." instead of using the verb "is" in any of these constructions.

Step3

Identify the point of view. Since the constructions you end up with in E-Prime are generally more subjective than those your would find in standard English, it is more often appropriate to indicate who is doing the acting or perceiving. In the example mentioned above, you might say "The cake tastes sweet "to me".

Step4

Change passive verbs to active verbs. Instead of saying "I was given some mail," say "The carrier gave me some mail." This transformation can also be applied to similar sentences. Instead of saying "I was asleep," say "I slept."

Step5

Describe systems instead of using labels. If you want to say that a tree is a kind of plant, what you are really trying to say is that a tree could be "described as" or "considered to be" a plant. Of course, you would have to say this in a different way, for example, "I consider a tree as a plant."

Step6

When all else fails, say "exists." Exists is a fairly extreme objective description of a phenomenon, much like the being verbs, but technically it is permitted when speaking E-Prime. You can say "A way exists," instead of "There is a way."

Tips & Warnings

Like any language, E-Prime grows more familiar with practice. Try speaking it in your daily life, especially if you have some friends who are interested in trying it too, and get more practice by reading E-Prime documents or translating some of your own.