Search results for 'tag:Conversations tag:English grammar' matching tags 'Conversations' and 'English grammar'

Re: none of these gadgets matter/matters

CalifJim — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:17:40 GMT

If there's no power, none of these gadgets matters.

The rule is that none always takes the singular verb.

However, the rule is more often broken than observed, so this rule is usually used only in formal contexts (such as English grammar exams), and the proximity rule mentioned earlier in this thread is more often used by real people in real conversations.

Re: how to learn English

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:30:48 GMT

i. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.

When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

ii. Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.

If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you.

Don't worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech -- it is more important that everything you say be understood.

iii. Listen to the 'music' of English.

Do not use the 'music' of your native language when you speak English. Each language has its own way of 'singing'.

iv. Use the dictionary.

Try and familiarise yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation of words that are hard for you to say.

v. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you.

Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.

vi. Buy books on tape.

Record yourself reading some sections of the book. Compare the sound of your English with that of the person reading the book on the tape.

vii. Pronounce the ending of each word.

Pay special attention to 'S' and 'ED' endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English.

viii. Read aloud in English for 15-20 minutes every day.

Research has shown it takes about three months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles for speaking a new language.

ix. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.

Many people hate to hear the sound of their voice and avoid listening to themselves speak. However, this is a very important exercise because doing it will help you become conscious of the mistakes you are making.

x. Be patient.

You can change the way you speak but it won't happen overnight. People often expect instant results and give up too soon. You can change the way you sound if you are willing to put some effort into it.

Quick tips

Various versions of the English language exist. Begin by identifying the category you fall into and start by improving the clarity of your speech.

~ Focus on removing the mother tongue influence and the 'Indianisms' that creep into your English conversations.

~ Watch the English news on television channels like Star World, CNN, BBC and English movies on Star Movies and HBO.

~ Listen to and sing English songs. We'd recommend Westlife, Robbie Williams, Abba, Skeeter Davis and Connie Francis among others.

Books to help you improve your English

Essential English Grammar by Murphy (Cambridge)
Spoken English by R K Bansal and J B Harrison
Pronounce It Perfectly In English (book and three audio cassettes) by Jean Yates, Barrons Educational Series
English Pronunciation For International Students by Paulette Wainless Dale, Lillian Poms

Re: can't;can

Fandorin — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:02:21 GMT

Christanford wrote:
When watching American dramas, I have trouble distinguishing between "can't" and "can".
How are they different in terms of pronunciation?
I sometimes can guess from the context, but when people say something like " I can't not go", I will be very confused and have to look at the subtitle.

Thanks so answering

Hi. So, according the British rules it isn't correct to use can't, there is only cannot. And pronunciation of it is "cAn", i guess you understand me. it is incomprehensible phrase which is in bold. there is no double negation in English grammar. The pronunciation is concerning - listen to conversations more attentive, I suppose there is no way to understand. And there is no need to catch every word when you're watching the film, try to understand sense in generally. It's my own opinion. Good luck

Re: Which way would you sway?

MrPedantic — Fri, 25 May 2007 00:08:15 GMT

Milky wrote:

<I would be interested to see quotations from the early English grammarians that presented spoken English as somehow inferior, or that demonstrated an imposition of inappropriate rules from Latin. >

Do you doubt that was the case?

"Doubt" is too strong a word. I would be interested to see the quotations.

If so, I guess you disagree with this:

"If they have studied "English Grammar", this is probably an encumbrance which they might well put aside for the present, since it is based on a more or less imitative recapitulation of Classical Latin Grammar, which is totally non-applicable to the English language as it now stands.

I would disagree that Classical Latin Grammar is "totally non-applicable" to the English language (or vice versa). It would be truer to say that many aspects of Latin grammar are non-applicable to English.

I would also disagree with the notion that the study of English grammar for any given person is bound to have been based on Latin grammar; though no doubt the statement is true for some people.

[Lowth] condemned "forcing the English under the rules of a foreign Language"¹).

Sounds sensible.

His most famous (or infamous) contribution to the study of grammar was his prescription that sentences ending with a prepositionâsuch as "what did you ask for?"âare inappropriate in formal writing.

Sounds doubtful. Though Lowth doesn't appear to mention Latin in his reasoning:

"This is an Idiom which our language is strongly inclined to; it prevails in common conversation, and suits very well with the familiar style in writing; but the placing of the Preposition before the Relative is more graceful, as well as more perspicuous; and agrees much better with the solemn and elevated Style."

And he seems to limit his prescription to the "solemn and elevated Style", which is a relatively rare form of English.

Thus Lowth condemns Addison's sentence "Who should I meet the other night, but my old friend?" on the grounds that the thing acted upon should be in the "Objective Case" (corresponding, as he says earlier, to an oblique case in Latin), rather than taking this example and others as evidence from noted writers that "who" can refer to direct objects.

I would not agree with Lowth about Addison's sentence; but nothing here suggests that his justification lay in Latin grammar.

"Objective case" doesn't seem a particularly pernicious phrase; "whom" is undeniably an example; and what remains of the objective case in English "corresponds" in some of its functions to the accusative case in Latin.

I know that some popular sources repeat the notion that early English grammarians attempted to impose Latin grammar on English; but I've yet to see any primary evidence.

MrP

Re: Do you know ebooks of English Grammar or English Conversation Practise?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 May 2007 14:36:38 GMT

i care about english convarsation training

Re: Haven't / Didn't

Tam Sadek — Fri, 18 May 2007 12:09:21 GMT

Yankee wrote:
Hi Tam

I certainly did not intend my comment as a comparison of formal written UK English and informal US spoken English. I have to say I find it insulting that you think I would even consider making such a comparison. My comment was based on my own experience with British acquaintances and colleagues.

Beware statements based on nothing but false assumption!

Hi Yankee,

I said that most EFL writers compare US/UK English incorrectly using different registers. I did not mean to say that you personally said this. Sorry if you took that the wrong way

However, if we base our knowledge of the language merely on the people we know from that country then we could also end up with a false distortion of the reality of the language. For example if my knowledge of US English is only based on fifty or so working class/middle class/etc people that I know from Chicago, would it be correct for me to generalise what they say to the whole US population and decide that 'Americans' say this? Likewise if I know a hundred people from London, does that mean I know how UK English speakers use the language, or how fifty people from London use it?

To date there has only been one attempt to identify the real differences between different registers and versions of English, namely the Longman Grammar of Spoken and English (LGSWE), which was the result of a six-year research project published in 1999. As well as looking at four different registers: conversation, fiction, academic, and news; it also looked at differences between UK and US English.

To quote from the findings of this research:

"As for the perfect aspect, it has frequently been noted that AmE (US English) uses the past tense in contexts where BrE (UK English) favors [sic] the present perfect, for example with yet or already... Nevertheless, this difference in usage does not seriously affect the frequencies in conversation." (LGSWE: p 463)

The only register where there is a marked difference in frequency of use regarding the perfect aspect is in the news register, with the perfect aspect being much more common in UK English.

"It remains a mystery as to why a marked difference of frequency shows up main in news." (LGSWE: p 463) The authors speculate that this difference might be due to American newspapers being "renowned for a space-saving drive towards stylistic economy, and that the simple past requires one less word than the perfect." (LGSWE: p463)

Based on the LGSWE analysis of a 40-million-word corpus of texts representing the four registers already mentioned, there is not a marked difference in the frequency of usage of the perfect aspect with regard to conversation, fiction or academic English between UK and US English speakers.

To quote David Crystal writing about the LGSWE, "For the foreseeable future, anyone with a serious interest in English grammar will have to take into account the information this book contains."

Re: can't have been (followed by nationality)

Huynguyen — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:20:30 GMT

Hi Jingtian,
In my opinion, your guess is right. This type of sentence is used to express the degrees of certainty. In the first conversation, two speakers are discussing the girl they have met somewhere else before, so they use the presnt perfect tense here. And in the second conversation, two speakers are discussing the girl who is (maybe) at the same place with them. I mean with the presence of the girl while they are discussing her. So they use the present tense here.

But someone told me that a person might change his/her nationality, therefore, "She can't have been Danish. She must have been Swedish" actually meant that it was impossible that she was Danish then and it was certain that she was Swedish then.

I dont quite understand you here. It's sure that when the speaker use this type of sentence, he/she, basing on some clues (in this situation I think it must be the appearance of the girl), believes that it is impossible for the girl to have been Danish, but Swedish.

Also, the phrase "cant/counldnt have + p.p." is used to express that the speaker is 99% sure of his/her statement ; and the phrase "must have + p.p." is only 95% sure (according to Understanding and Using English Grammar)

P/S: Please correct me if I'm wrong

Re: speak and pronounce english

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:23:53 GMT

firstly, I think you should master English Grammar and Vocab. I mean it's hard to believe that I could speak English smoothly and fluently if I have poor grammar structures and my English vocab is limited. Secondly, it's your opportunity to have conversation with other people (ie. English speaking environment), especially English native speakers. Practice makes perfect, you know.
Hope you find something useful from my comment.
Bye
Wish to see you again
Call me Nguyet. (I'm from Vietnam)

Re: English Grammar - an overrated issue?

Case Assigner — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 17:39:31 GMT

I completely agree that written papers, especially in formal context must agree with grammar aspects. Otherwise ambiguities can arise. @ grammar geek: The stop sign comparison is a very good one. You are right, not using correct grammar does not mean that we do not know how to produce a well formed sentence.
ItÂ´s just a funny phenomena that I have observerd here in Germany. People sometimes tend to avoid conversations because they are not really sure about grammar aspects, itÂ´s just that they forget about the wonderful brain that connects contexts often in an appropriate way. At the moment I do not know why I started that topic here.... but somehow it interested me very much, and still does.

Re: English Grammar - an overrated issue?

Lil' Ruby Rose — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 17:05:08 GMT

I'm sure it's the same for all natural languages. In the flow of conversation, people make mistakes in their grammar. Tenses and agreements go awry, but the benefit of context and non-verbal communication allows the meaning to be understood regardless.

It's harder not to be tripped up and confused by errors in written language though, particularly in formal contexts, because we lack the non-verbal cues given in a live interaction. Wouldn't you agree?