Search results for 'tag:Definite articles tag:Present tenses' matching tags 'Definite articles' and 'Present tenses'

Looking for some tips and/or curriculum suggestions

mikesusangray — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:50:11 GMT

Hi all!

I've been giving English conversation lessons to a theology professor for about a year now. He's getting on in the years - a couple years from retirement - and his primary goal has been just to get his spoken English going a little stronger. His mother tongue is French but he's been teaching at a German language university for many years.

I'd like to add some more specific inputs to our lessons but I can't seem to find the right material. His passive skills are excellent - he reads widely and with perfect comprehension in his field - and he can communicate quite understandably. He is a linguistics specialist and can grasp any concept about the language immediately. I brought along Cambridge Advanced Grammar in Use and he could plow through a chapter in five minutes with perfect conceptual comprehension.

However, he also continues to make very simple errors - for example, he has trouble choosing between present simple and continuous or often uses the present tense for past events. Sentence order tends to get wander hither and yon while definite and indefinite articles come and go with the tide. (Prepositions are a problem too, but I won't beat him to hard there - prepositions are difficult in any new language.) In many cases his mistakes are typical of French or German speech patterns.

One other limitation is that he enjoys the weekly lessons (a good hour), but doesn't have much time to study in between.

Right now we spend about 15 minutes reading a chapter from Advanced Grammar in Use and about 45 minutes talking about just about anything under the sun, while I take notes and show him problems under the categories Pronunciation/Articles & Prespositions/Word Order/Other Grammar/Vocabulary/Idioms. However, I don't think the work book is a good choice - particularly since he doesn't do the homework - and it seems like he isn't making very good progress with his typical problem patterns - though he greets them like old friends when I point them out.

Any tips here?

Re: decline.

Huevos — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:43:34 GMT

New2grammar
stores and restaurants are seeing sharp decline in sales ...

Just to clarify about the indefinite article: it's OK to say "stores and restaurants see sharp decline in sales" without the article when using the present tense; in fact it has the ring of a newspaper headline. On the other hand when using the gerund not using the article in this context sounds very wrong to me as a native speaker.

Re: articles

Clive — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:06:27 GMT

Hi,

It depends on the context, but I think that in most cases you'd use #1.

Your grammar is also a little awkward. The definite article suggests that you are talking about a specific policeman. The present tense suggests that you are describing his habits/routine. That all seems like something you would seldom want to talk about.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Conditional dilemma

Cool Breeze — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 15:06:10 GMT

Believer wrote:
Side question: A lot of dictionaries seem to indicate that the word 'subjunctive' is usually precede with the article 'the', but lately I seem to see cases where it is made plural or it with 'a' in front of it (like 'a subjunctive'). Are they correct? are

Hi Believer

Grammatical terms are often used with the:

This sentence is in the passive (voice).
The past tense is different from the present tense.

However, even though they often take the definite article, nothing prevents you from putting them in the plural or using a with them when it seems appropriate:

There isn't a single subjunctive in the entire paragraph.

Cheers
CB

Re: Sentence questions Thank you

Demetrius — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 19:52:33 GMT

WANG CHUN wrote:

1. Ancient and modern human beings use their great intelligence to invent machines that help people lead a comfortable and convenient life.

My problem with this sentence is that it is not possible for ancient human beings to do anything any more, so using the present tense just doesn't sound right. Other than that, there is nothing wrong with the grammar. It could be fixed by changing to the present perfect "have used", but not without changing the meaning.

WANG CHUN wrote:

2. What is a colossal distinction between humankind and machines is that former is learning animal and latter is like a robot.

"One colossal distinction between humans and machines is that the former are learning animals and the latter are like robots."

1) You cannot use "What is" here.

2) "Humankind" is a singular collection. A collection cannot be "an animal" or "animals".

3) You must use the definite article with "former" and "latter".

4) As "humankind" has changed to "humans", the number of "is" and "animal" changes to plural. By the way, it would have to have been "a learning animal", not "learning animal".

5) "machines" is plural, so "is" should be "are", and "robot" should be "robots".

WANG CHUN wrote:

3.It is James Watt who had the intelligence to invent the use of steam for power and improve a steam engine that began the Industrial Revolution in which people saw these machines as a tool that enabled them to improve all aspect of lives.

"It was James Watt who had the intelligence to invent steam power and improve the steam engine, which began the Industrial Revolution in which people saw these machines as tools that enabled them to improve all aspects of their lives."

1) It must be "It was James Watt" to agree with "who had".

2) "to invent the use of steam for power" sounds unnatural and clumsy. It is better to simply write "to invent steam power".

3) It should be "the steam engine".

4) It should be ",which began" not "that began", because we are not trying to restrict steam engines to specify the one that began the Industrial Revolution.

5) "a tool" must agree in number with "machines".

6) "aspect" must be plural to agree with "all".

7) You need a possessive pronoun "their" to refer back to the "people" whose "aspects of life" were changed.

WANG CHUN wrote:

4.All technological innovations can be described as an implement of human intelligence, helping people to live a comfortable life.

"All technological innovations can be described as implementations of human intelligence, helping people to live a comfortable life."

1) "an implement" must agree in number with "innovations".

2) "Implements" is the wrong word. I'm not happy with "implementations" either really, but it is the closest in sense.