Search results for 'tag:English grammar tag:American accents' matching tags 'English grammar' and 'American accents'

Re: AMERICANS PLEASE HELP!!

Kooyeen — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:19:02 GMT

First of all, you need some grammar too, because I noticed typical Asian mistakes, or non native constructions anyway.

Anonymous
i'm live in PRC <-- I live in...

Here's the best tips I can give you:

1 - Get a grammar book, and read it, learning the most common structures. "English grammar in use" by Cambridge University Press seems a good one.
2 - Learn how to recognize the sounds of vowels and how to speak like a native speaker. I used "American Accent Training", by Ann Cook. It is one of the best.
3 - Practice, replacing your first language with English every time you feel like it. You should start to think in English.

Point #2 is the most important. I improved my listening skills by at least 50% (from understanding 25% to understanding 80%). The link is http://www.americanaccent.com/ ,if you want to take a look.

Re: Which of the following dictionaries would you recommend?...

Kooyeen — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:40:35 GMT

Hi,
my English is not good at all, really, but I'm improving. If you want to know how I improved and how I'm improving, then... let's just say I used to read some stuff in Practical English Usage by Michael Swan and English Grammar in Use (Cambridge University Press), but then I stopped relying on grammar books. They are oversimplified, confusing, and often too prescriptive, even those that claim to follow a descriptive approach. So I can't recommend any grammar, because I have yet to find a good grammar, and I think I don't really need one anymore. I don't think a bunch of rules to keep in mind is the key to fluency. However, I think the grammars by Cambridge University Press are acceptable, to get started.
Then I learn a lot in this forum, asking, writing, reading natives' answers. Dictionaries help me a lot too. I use the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, and the Merriam-Webster, all online versions. I use the Merriam-Webster mainly for pronunciations, the others help me with collocations, patterns and examples.
American Accent Training by Ann Cook helped me improve my listening skills. The problem is that I don't read much, so my vocabulary is extremelly limited, and therefore this limits my listening skills too. I hope I'll soon be good enough to rely mainly on spoken English (listening), which I believe is the best source of reliable English for ESL students.

Re: Native-speaker intuition.

Cool Breeze — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 08:36:44 GMT

Englishuser wrote:
A non-native speaker who has immersed himself or herself with highbrow literature written in a foreign language could very well have a more vivid vocabulary and a better knowledge of the grammar of the language than the average native speaker. At least as far as the 'standard version' of the language is concerned.

Englishuser

Hi Englishuser

I agree, learning the grammar of a language can be relatively easy for a person who is familiar with the grammatical structures of his native language. As far as I am concerned, English grammar was a piece of cake for me even though it differs considerably from Finnish grammar. It was easy because there is so little of it; an English word has very few forms: write, writes, writing, wrote, written. That's all there is written as single words. Of course has written, having written etc. exist in addition to the five basic forms.

However, in Finnish, for instance, you need six forms just to say something affirmative in the present tense, a different inflection for every person (I, you, he, we, you, they). You need another six forms to ask a question etc. Nouns have more than a hundred forms and an adjective has hundreds of inflected forms. Some English people have said to me they don't belive me when I say that. That's because they think the languages they may have some knowledge of, usually German or French, are as complicated in structure as a language can be. They know of nothing else.

What is difficult about English are the countless idioms and spelling.

By the way, when I am abroad I try not to sound British or American even though I have been told that I am able to mimic the American accent quite well. Finland was never a major country in world politics or colonization and I often get good service just because people don't really know anything about my country. They have no preconceived notions.

I was once having a drink in a hotel bar in New Orleans. The man sitting next to me asked me: "Where do you come from?" I said: "Finland." He said: "Which state is it in?" So I got wise and a couple of days later when a fiftyish woman asked me the same question, I said: "I'm from Europe." Her face lit up: "That's marvelous! I've got relatives in the same country."

Cheers
CB

Re: Have a question about British accent.

tragically_l33t — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 02:56:45 GMT

yeah water is one of the more difficult words to say with an american accent because the brits say it as

"war ter" the americans... i think its "wha tuh" there arent many british sounds like that, its like the russians they use lots of sounds that just dont exist in english as do the chinese and japanese.

the other hard word to say with an american accent is "squirrel" i overheard and english man and his american wife/fiancee/girlfriend asking their little son what this thing was, the father said "its a squirrel" and the mother said "no its 'squirl'" and they argued for 15 minutes like this (i followed on a path next to it just to hear this interesting argument)

now ive just took some painkillers and im going to go to bed because, and i know your all going to laugh, but my eyebrow hurts!

infact thats something that your not supposed to do in english writing but its necessary to properly transcribe speech patterns... the pauses are showed with commas. that sentence should be read with a pause at each comma as it shows one thought being interrupted with a second, related thought and then the first thought being finished. I forget what thats called, but its against the rules of english grammar but necessary to properly get across thoughts. like capitals show shouting or angry, italics or underlining shows emphasis on a word... all necessary to make a thought understood.

id have an example but you might not read them right, if i could record and play it to you... infact it just doesnt work... this is the reason people dont understand british humour, its subtle, and if you dont come from britain, then you dont read it with a british accent and you miss the subtle changes in tone and pitch that make british jokes funny.

this is why british TV is said to be "dumbed down" for american audiences... its only because you dont use and therefore wouldnt be receptive to the subtleties (is that even a word? i dont know, or frankly care, if it is) (( infact, that there is another example of subtle tone change, the bit "or frankly care" should be said with a lower pitch, as if it was aimed at yourself, said under you breath kind of thing, read that without changin tone and it comes across as "i dont know and i dont care!!!" but lower your tone with the commas and it becomes something with a different meaning alltogether: "i dont know, and it doesnt really matter anyway so why am i telling you that im not sure how its spelt, ha ha, isnt this funny how im saying things that arent important" and a brit would laugh at that... maybe you will (if your not british) when you read it spelled out for you... and thats why its seen as 'dumbing down' because we have to spell it out or you miss it as a quirk of the british accent

i hope that made sense because its a zillion degrees in here (maybe im ill... that would explain the eyebrow hurting, at least its better than being crazy, or maybe its because im in an enclosed room with a computer on heating the air to 40 degrees then spitting it out, ill open a window) and its 3 am

Easy as Pie, Almost!

Teacher Eric — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 20:34:11 GMT

In reply to the original query, it's possible to get rid of your accent by watching TV a lot. Try to mimic how they speak and sound in various English TV programs. If you work hard enough, you may get an authentic-sounding American accent in no time at all. But this may not work if your native language has a 'strong', 'heavy' or very pronounced accent, like say Indian, or Arabic. I believe that Indians in general have the best English grammar and the widest vocabulary among non-native English speakers in the world (even better than many Americans I know!). But the accent is just so distinct that it doesn't completely go away, even after some time in the US or UK.