ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Wish/hope/others

miriam — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 14:47:51 GMT

Hello, Pastel
I agree with you that we shouldn't buy just anything we see/hear. I prefer books in general, but I use search engines on occasion (not when it comes to grammar, though, unless I find something written by an author I've heard of and whom I can be sure is good).
But I can't say I fully agree with your comment about native speakers. I understand that you would expect a native speaker of any langage to have a good command of their mother tongue but, unfortunately, that isn't always the case. Sometimes, it's more than just a person's inability to provide a grammar rule; you will find people who can't use their own language correctly or even appropriately. It happens in my country too, with my first language. You sometimes hear teachers -of any subject- who speak badly and spell even worse.
Which brings me to something you said in your post:
"Being a ESL/EFL teacher, I have to be nit-picky at learning your language."

English is not my first language, Pastel! Spanish is; I'm Argentinian, and I am, like you, an ESL/EFL teacher... which means I have problems with English as well, sometimes.

Also, I understand what you said about your students asking questions whose answers you may not know. About 18 years ago, I used to worry about that too. But there is no way I could possibly know everything so, eventually, I stopped worrying. Today, if I'm asked a question I can't answer, I simply say "I don't know", and I promise my students to find out for next class. Sometimes I ask them to do research and try to find the answer themselves (I do my own research too, though, every time I cannot answer a question).
So you're not my student here, we're both teachers and students at the same time.

And don't tell me you're sorry, because I don't believe you are!! You enjoy giving me a headache every now and then. ~laughs~

Now, about "hope", both sentences are correct. I know that hope is used in progressive tenses sometimes (at least in the present progressive and the past progressive).
But I'm not sure about the difference in meaning, if any. Perhaps when you use a progressive tense you sound more "confident" that what you hope for will happen? This is just a wild guess.

I looked up "hope" in a dictionary for students and I found examples in the present and the present progressive with the same meaning.

Sorry I cannot be very helpful here.

Miriam

Re: Wish/hope/others

PASTEL — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 07:15:42 GMT

Nowadays, parents indulge the children dreadfully that they not only give everything but also receive a tantrum throwing form their loved sons and daughters.
I hopethat it won't be happening in my family.
I am hopingthat it won't be happening in my family.

As far as I know, you use 'hope' in present tense to express a future idea.

Are both sentences correct? Any difference? I look forward to your answer.

Pastel

Re: Wish/hope/others

PASTEL — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 16:41:24 GMT

Dear Miriam,

Yes. You are totally right at the very begining of your previous post. Any variants of one sentence will be annoying enough to send me to a mental house. The listings on Google are considered as for reference only. One should never buy all the the stories without any doubt in mind.

It is not difficult for native speakers to explain the meaning. Maybe some of them are not well equipped with grammatical rules to teach, but almost all of them can teach how to differentiate between meanings, for example, my wish/hope examples. They know what sounds odd and what doesn't. For us, ESL/EFL learners, it seems to take forever to get there, you know

Being a ESL/EFL teacher, I have to be nit-picky at learning your language. I will never know whether or not my students will bring up any possible questions which I am not able to control or offer them the best explanation. What's worse, some students learn English in a jumping way, they are too anxious to learn. Eventually, they mess up everything. All I can do is provide them with rules as simple as possible. For example,

Wish
1. used to express good wishes, followed by nouns. ==> Wish you a good day.
2. used to express something unreal, impossible or unlikely happened in the future.
==> I wish I could fly.
==> I wish you have a good day. (I saw this sentence in a textbook used to teach junior high school student, secondary education.) I would think it contradictable. How can you wish someone has a nice day unless you really wish so.

See, any slight change in the sentence would kill the curious cat like me. I slept at 4am last night just because one of my class asked me to teach them 'Participle.' I had my nose buried in 5 grammar books, trying to figure out the simplest way to present the most complicated concept. My lecture is just fine for them, they grasp the main idea easily. Haha, you must have thought I was a serious person. Most of the time, I'll play with English happily. But I'm serious here and I need an nice explanation.

Regarding your last paragraph, I must say you are a 5-thumb up teacher. It's honorable to be one of your student here. And I'm so sorry that my posts make your head spinning, and I feel guilty here after reading your excellent posts, because my walking on air makes you suffer in the hell. haha.

Re: Wish/hope/others

PASTEL — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 14:40:35 GMT

Hi, Anonymous British speaker,

Thanks for the help, the Man in the Moon. I personally prefer to giving my gratitute to someone whose name is not Guest though. That was very helpful. Thanks again.

Pastel

Re: Wish/hope/others

miriam — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 08:13:06 GMT

Hello, Pastel

You'll go crazy if you try to analyse everything you find in a search engine in terms of "correctness".

Anyone, literally anyone, can make a webpage or post anything they want on the net. That does not guarantee its correctness. some things will be correct, some others will not. People who have no knowledge of a certain field will post about it. People who cannot construct a decent sentence will write about anything they want; some will even give you advice on that which they do not know! You will find even the silliest spelling mistakes.

And, of course, people who have no clue whatsoever may blindly believe in the "figures" they find in a search engine.
It is evident that not everyone is more intelligent than that, but you are.

In Columbus's times, everyone believed the Earth was flat. If it had been possible to "google" the belief, you would have probably found many more hits for "the Earth is flat" than for "the Earth isn't flat".

Yet, the majotrity was wrong in that case... as in many others.

Go figure...

I still think a good book or a good teacher -and you must have access to both where you live- will be much more reliable in many cases.

Miriam

Re: Wish/hope/others

Guest — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:09:03 GMT

Native British speaker thinks:

Wish/hope.

Number 3, I hope your dreams come true

is the only one that really sounds natural to me.

She's expecting a phone call
She's waiting for a phone call

Both are correct but have very slightly different meanings and it is hard for me to explain very well. Expecting suggests that a phone call should be happening at sometime, you could be expecting a phone call next week. 'Waiting' suggests rather more urgency to me, someone physically hanging around the phone, or at least a little on edge about it. If I were expecting a phone call I would be anticipating one patiently. If I were waiting for a phone call I would be thinking 'come on, ring!'

Is that helpful?

The birthday question.
1. - I'm looking forward to something means that you are anticipating it in a pleasant way, you are expecting to have a nice time.

2. I'm expecting my birthday to come, sounds a bit odd to me, of course your birthday is going to come, unless you die in the meantime!

3.I'm waiting for my birthday to come, gramatically correct but a bit meaningless in itself. Why are you waiting? Are you putting something off until your birthday - but in that case you would simply say 'I'm waiting for my birthday'

Re: Wish/hope/others

PASTEL — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:22:17 GMT

Hi, Aastha,

Thanks for watering this plant.

I know what you said. But I'm afraid you've missed my original post. I was trying to figure out those annoying sentences that drove me a bit crazy. I found all of those alternatives on Google. And I do think they're all correct grammatically, and I also believe there is slightly difference in meanings, isn't it? I need more help with this one.

Pastel

Re: Wish/hope/others

Aastha — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 08:56:04 GMT

1. Wish

a. Wish is most commonly used in hypothetical (or imagined) situations:
I wish (that) you were here. (Unfortunately, you're not, and I miss you.)
b. Sometimes wish is used in greeting and expressions of goodwill:
We wish you a "Merry Christmas."

2. Hope

a. Hope can also be used in expressions of goodwill, but the grammar is slightly different:
I hope (that) you have a Merry Christmas. (some time in the future)
I hope (that) you had a nice Birthday. (some time in the past)

b. Hope can be used to specify a desired outcome. For future hopes, the possibilities remain open, but for past hopes, the outcome has usually been determined already.

I hope you can come to the party on Saturday.(future possibility)
I was hoping that you would come to the party.(but you didn't make it)
I had hoped to see you at the party on Saturday. (but I didn't)

Can it be helpful to you in any manner?

Aastha

Re: Wish/hope/others

PASTEL — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 08:14:29 GMT

Will this thread grow?

Wish/hope/others

PASTEL — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:00:37 GMT

#1. I wish your dreams come true.
#2. I wish your dreams would come true.
#3. I hope your dreams come true.
#4. I hope your dreams would come true.

I found these 4 sentences on Google. But the second one seems to be the least correct. To my knowledge, I would say 'wish' is used to express ideas that are unreal, impossible or unlikely to happen in the future. Therefore, "I wish you feel better tomorrow." sounds funny. It makes me think that the speaker is a wolf in the sheep's clothing, unsincere anyway. So if I say #1 to someone, I don't really express my good wishes to him, rather, I hope his dreams fail. #3 sounds the best, and #4 is OK. If you want to express your good wishes, you should use "wish+noun" as in I wish you all the best.

Am I right on this?

#1. She's expecting a phone call from New York.
#2. She's waiting for a phone call from New York.

According to Michael Swan, #2 is incorrect. But I can't figure out.

#1. I'm looking forward to my birthday.
#2. I'm expecting my birthday to come.
#3. I'm waiting for my birthday to come.

They got me confused! Please get me out of here!

Pastel