Search results for 'tag:Conversations tag:Present continuous' matching tags 'Conversations' and 'Present continuous'

Re: questions

Goodman — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:34:27 GMT

Newguest wrote:
Goodman wrote:
Newguest wrote:

Hi

I have a few questions.

1. We were having a chat while we were waiting. IT IS BETTER TO WRITE "We had a chat while we were waiting" Are both sentences OK, or not?

2. Is it possible to say: The instructions to this exercise are saying that you have to... or The instructions to this exercise specifies that you have to... I THINK THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT.

3. You better find out what do you have to do or You better find out what you have to do. IN MY OPINION THE SECOND EXAMPLE IS CORRECT.

4. What does this sentence mean: They stack the odds 'til we take to the street .... make the odds to your favor / take advantage of the situation

Thank You

Hi

As for the first one; why is it bad to say "we were having a chat"?

As for the second question, I was just interested if it's better to use present continuous or present simple tense in such cases. So, according to you I shouldn't write "The instructions say ...," but rather "specify"?

I didn't say it's bad or wrong. Many times we will encounter this type of questions. In my opinion, âwe were having a chat while waitingâ = you were waiting for something, and then you met someone while standing in line, and you started a conversation with him/ her. So the conversation is something that happened while you were standing in line. Logically, I prefer to use simple past to describe the âchatâ and past progressive for âwaitingâ which was a longer event.

Thatâs my take.

Re: simple present tense exercise

Yankee — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:55:13 GMT

Hi Anon

I'm glad that someone finally decided to try to do this test. I assume that in this test you are supposed to decide whether to use the present continuous or the simple present tense . (A few of the sentences will also work with a tense other than a present tense).

The words in pink letters are my corrections. Sentence number 12 can use either the present continuous or the simple present tense.

Anonymous wrote:
Yileililly wrote:

Fill in the blanks with the correct form of words given:

1.                 I __am reading__(read) a very interesting book now.

2.                 Joanne __works__ (work) eight hours a day.

3.                 Tonight we ___are seeing____ (see) a play at the theatre.

4.                 Who __are __ you __speaking___(speak) to just now?

5.                 I __don't know ___ (not know) him very well.

6.                 What will you do if she __comes___ (come) late?

7.                 My wife __likes___ (like) coffee for breakfast.

8.                 What ___does___ Tom usually __have___(have) for breakfast?

9.                 Your train ___leaves____ (leave) at 17.25 from platform 3.

10.             What ___does___ Mary ___do___(do) ? She's a student.

11.             My whole family ___goes___(go) to church once a week.

12.             My wife and I ___are going/go___(go) to the beach in the summer.

13.             Listen! The phone ____is ringing____(ring) in the other room.

14.             Rain seldom ___falls___(fall) in the Sahara.

15.             He is thirteen years old now, and his voice ___is changing___(change).

16.             Let's change the conversation. It ___is getting___(get) too serious.

17.             Leap year ___comes___(come) every four years.

18.             My grandfather ____is growing____(grow) tomatoes in his garden this summer.

19.             He ___grows ____(grow) them every summer .

20.             The children ____are leaving___(leave) for school right now.

21.             The children ____leave____(leave) at 8:30 every morning of the week.

22.             Shu! The baby _____is taking____(take) her nap.

23.             In the north the season ___changes____(change) four times a year .

24.             Unfortunately, the patient ____is dying____(die).

25.             The monsoon season ____comes____(come) once or twice a year.

26.             It's spring and the days ___are getting___(get) longer.

27.             The weather ___gets___(get) very cold in Moscow in the winter.

28.             It ___is raining___(rain) hard, and I don't have an umbrella.

29.             It's November and the birds ____are flying____(fly) south.
30.     Many birds of Europe ___fly___(fly) south to Africa every winter.

I am doing (Future) VS I am going to do (future)

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:19:20 GMT

Hi,
Can anybody help to clarify the difference between the two?
according to Raymond Murphy:
'' We use I am doing(present continuous) when we say what we have arranged to do- for example, arranged to meet somebody, arranged to go somewhere: i am meeting Ann this evening; I am leaving tomorrow. I've got my plane ticket.

we use I am going to do something (to be going to) when we say what we have decided to do(but perhaps Not arranged to do it) : I am going to clean my shoes(i've decided to clean them but i have not arranged to clean them); I am going to look for somewhere else to stay(I have not arranged it).''

Now,once this is clarified, later in his units I think there is something contradicting. have a look:
'' Paul: Liz, i need somebody to take me to the airport tomorrow morning.
Liz: That's no problem. I will take you. what time is your flight?
Paul: 10.50
Liz: Ok, we will leave at about 9 o'clock.
Later that day, Joe offers to take Paul to the airport.
Joe: Paul, do you want me to take you to the airport?
Paul: No, thanks,Joe. Liz is going to take me. ''

I've got a feeling, that from the above, Murphy contradicts the definitions given at the begining. As we can see from the conversation it is clear that Paul and liz made an arrangement. Now, why To be going to if we have arrangements here? does not he say that we use present continuous for arrangements and to be going to for our decisions but perhaps not for arrangements? I am quite unclear about this particular detail.

Can anybody comment on this?

Re: future time

Teo — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 06:36:54 GMT

Will vs. be going to

What is the difference between will and going to as in âIâll go to townâ and âIâm going to go to townâ?

Batya
batya_l@macam.ac.il

A quick answer to your question about the use of will vs. the use of be going to is that will expresses an action the speaker is willing to perform and has the intention to perform; the speaker may have just decided to express his/her intention. On the other hand, going to expresses something that the speaker has already planned to do. Itâs necessary to put your sentences in context to see the difference.

One situation in which will (but not going to) is appropriate is to make an offer:

Donât carry that big bag of groceries, Mrs. Jones. Iâll take it for you.

If you want to sell your car, Iâll buy it for $10,000.

Iâll go to townâto the pharmacyâright now if you need that medicine immediately.

Another situation where will (but not going to) is appropriate is to make a promise:

Iâll finish this work by 7:00 tonight.

Iâll call you later.

Iâll go to town for the big celebration if my team wins the championship.

On the other hand, you can use going to (but not will) to express a prior plan:

Weâre going to take our vacation in the winter this year, not the summer. Weâve already planned a trip to Antarctica.

Sorry I canât be at work next weekâIâm going to have minor surgery.

Iâm going to go to town next Thursdayâmy class is having a reunion at the Central Hilton. Iâve bought a new outfit and Iâm very excited about it.

The last three sentences are also frequently expressed with the present continuousâWeâre taking, Iâm having, and Iâm going.

Some clarifying examples appear in a paper, âFuture Shockâ by Marilyn Martin (the paper appeared in On TESOL â78: EFL Policies, Programs, Practices. Washington D.C.: TESOL, 1978).

Martin notes the difference between the following two conversational exchanges:

(a)

A: What about your motherâs birthday?
B: Iâm going to get her a new mop.

(b)

A: What about your motherâs birthday?
B: Iâll get her a new mop.

As Martin explains in sentence (a), âspeaker B is reporting a prior decision,â while in sentence (b), âhe is making what seems to be a spur-of-the-moment decision as he speaks.â

She continues:

âIn order to test this intuitive judgment, however, let us consider the conversation one could have with oneself, as in

What can I get my mother for her birthday? Oh, I know! Iâll get her a new mop.

X Oh, I know! Iâm going to get her a new mop.

There emerges here the impression that the be going to future carries a sense of prior decision that is lacking in will.â

This is only one example of a difference between will and be going to. There are other meaningful factors to consider when choosing the ways to express future time (Martin clarifies them in the article mentioned above). For the question that Batya asked, however, it seems that the choice can be made based on whether the context expresses volition (one's choice, intention at the moment, will) as in "Iâll go to town" or the intention to do something because of a prior plan as in "Iâm going to go to town."

http://www.longman.com/ae/azar/grammar_ex/message_board/archive/index.html

Re: Hello

abbie1948 — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 12:28:37 GMT

Hi Jazz,

Thanks for saying I could correct your post on line.

Re: your reply to Ali;

1. In English we always begin a new sentence with a capital letter, and we use a capital letter for people's names, and for names of places such as London, the Indian Ocean etc. So your greeting should be:

"Hi Student ..."

I know that when we use the internet or text, we often leave out things like capital letters and punctuation, but when you are learning, it's a good excercise to pay attention to the details.

We also always use a capital letter for 'I'

2. It is important to use a dictionary to ensure your spelling is correct. (But we all make mistakes!)

Here is a list of your spelling errors:

articale; indifinint; pronounse; diffecult; difinint; resturant; papular; studing

See if you can find these in a dictionary and correct them.

3. Verbs - these can be quite difficult to understand. This site might help.
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/wordgame_current_frame.html

* "here are the using..."
This needs to be present simple + noun. "Here is the use...."
Use is a verb, but also a noun, and you are using it as a noun here. As it is singular, the verb also needs to be singulr.

* "A" is called (NOT is calling) - I agree, it sounds as if you should use the present continuous here, but in fact we don't; we use the simple past. I was called X when I was born, and it is a long situation.

* "and use with only nouns ...."

Here you need the present tense of "be" + the participle "used"

"and is used with ...."

* "book is A noun and began with 'b'"
The simple present here - it is a permanent situation; book begins with 'b', and will always begin with 'b'. the same goes for "nice BEGINS with 'n' "

Also, pay attention to your articles, particularly as this post is about articles!

* I went to a restaurant and I have had ...."
Here you need the simple past: "I had my lunch there" because having lunch is a short, quickly finish action.

"Which restaurant I talked about ...."
The past progressive is better here; it is used for temporary actions and situations in the past.

"Which restaurant I was talking about" Presumably you didn't talk for years about the restaurant, nor did you repeatedly talk about it!

OK, here's the corrected item - although I'm leaving the spelling mistakes in so you can look them up!

Hi Student,
Here is the use of these articales:
"A" is called THE indifinint articale and useD with only nouns or adjectives which already begin with A CONSONANT, FOR example; a book, a nice rose. Book is A noun and begINS with b, nice is AN adjective and begINS with n, and so on.

"An" is also dealT with it as AN articale, but we can use it with nouns or adjectives which begin with vowelS such as "a,u,i,o,e,and someTIMES 'h' when we pronounse IT like: honest , so we can say an honest boy!

To MAKE IT easIER for you, try to use "a" with apple. You will note that IT IS more diffecult TO say an apple, isn't it Ali?

"The" is THE difinint articale: IT is usED for someTHING we already know, or someTHING we HAVE mentionED in our conversation; so when we want to repeat it again we use "the" before it, eg: I went to a resturant and I HAD my lunch there, I saw my old friend in the resturant. WE USE 'THE' BECAUSE YOU already know which resturant I WAS TALKING about. Also we use it with something UNIQUE in the world, eg. The Indian Ocean, but we can't use it before people'S names, OR meals, like lunch,dinner ETC. So "the" has many uses.

By the way, u r studing in THE UK. It is A GOOD place to LEARN BETTER English. I AM jealous u coz I WISH I WERE there!

P.S Re; full membership: I think this is very reasonable question, because I didn't know at first. I think it depends upon how many times you post a question or response to the forum, so keep on working, and it will just happen.

Do keep on answering posts, as you did to Ali, because it helps everyone.

Re: Infinitive or present continuous

pieanne — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 16:56:18 GMT

Hello, Edward,
To me (but I may be wrong),
"I like to swim" should be I'd like to swim"

"I like swimming" is OK, it means you like the activity of moving in the water with the help of your arms and legs.
It is not a present continuous.
P.C. is "S + to be + V-ing"
Suppose you have a waterproof cell phone, and it rings while you are relaxing in the middle of a blue lagoon; here's the conversation:
X: "Hello, Edward! What are you doing?"
Edw: "Oh, hello, X! Well, I'm swimming!"

Re: Meaning of structures

david — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 21:10:11 GMT

Regretably what is used in every day conversation and what is grammatically correct are not always the same thing. I am having breakfast. (Present Continuous ) I will have breakfast soon ( future ). Hope this helps Arabella.