E-Prime | Kaelan

E-Prime eliminates all forms of “to be” from English. No is, are, was, were, be, been, being. D. David Bourland Jr. developed it building on Korzybski’s general semantics. The discipline forces you to specify what you actually mean.

“The movie is boring” becomes “I found the movie boring” or “The movie bored me.” The first version hides the speaker, presenting judgment as fact. E-Prime makes the speaker visible. You can’t hide behind “is.”

Korzybski argued that “is” confuses map and territory. “John is a failure” treats failure as an essential property rather than a judgment from a particular perspective. “John failed his exams” says something verifiable. “I consider John’s recent performance unsuccessful” owns the evaluation.

The “is of identity” particularly concerned him. “A rose is a rose” or “Boys will be boys.” These statements assert fixed essences. But roses differ. Boys can change. The construction forecloses complexity.

Writing in E-Prime proves surprisingly difficult. The verb “to be” appears in about 25-30% of English sentences. Eliminating it requires recasting thoughts entirely.

“There is a problem” becomes “A problem exists” or “I notice a problem” or “We face a problem.” Each alternative says something slightly different. Each says something more precise.

The difficulty reveals how much “to be” conceals. Writers use it to avoid specificity, to present opinions as facts, to hide agency.

Critics argue E-Prime goes too far. Some uses don’t hide anything problematic. “The meeting is at 3pm” states a fact economically. “The cat is on the mat” describes a relationship clearly.

I think the value lies less in strict adherence than in occasional practice. Write a paragraph in E-Prime and you’ll notice your habits. See where you hide. Discover what you actually mean.

Use it as a diagnostic tool rather than a rule.

Go Deeper

Books

Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa — Accessible introduction to general semantics.