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

Re: How do you spell "automotopia"?

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:45:39 GMT

the correct spelling is automotopia. its an english grammar term used to express an action in a way. example. when u open a soda can, it POPS in a loud manner. i hope that helped you =)

Re: i have a question releating to "get"

Mister Micawber — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 09:02:30 GMT

.
Get is a common verb in various verb phrases. These are used:

Could you please get my car working? It doesn't seem to work.

Could you please get my car to work?

I will get my staff to work on it. -- Get to do has 2 common meanings here: (1)convince or coerce, or (1) cause to begin

I will get my staff working on it -- This means only 'cause to begin'.

There are many 'get' expressions. HERE are some.

In future, please use care in spelling and capitalization. This is an English grammar website.

Re: Reduplication com'on guyyyyyyyyyyz

khoff — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:18:53 GMT

Hello, welcome to the forum. I just wanted to let you know that you are more likely to get a response if your post includes capital letters and punctuation, and avoids abbreviations like "how r u" and "plz." I don't mean to offend you -- but the people here are all volunteers, and we choose how we want to spend out time. Many people will be more inclined to help you if you make an effort to use standard English. Correct spelling is also a plus -- of course we don't expect English learners to spell everything perfectly, and typos do happen to everyone, but if you are studying linguistics you should at least know it is not ligustic.

Also, although personally I am not familiar with "reduplication," it sounds like the Linguistics section is the appropriate place for your post -- you don't need to "reduplicate" it in General English Grammar Questions and Basic English Grammar.

Re: Improvement of english grmmar

Goodman — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:45:43 GMT

Guest wrote:
how do i improve my english grammar?

Take the advice already given to you and write with proper capitlaization and in full spelling. "Chatroom" style writing should be avoided because bad habits, once it's formed" is hard to break.

Re: Proficiency alongside "poverty".

milky — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:43:46 GMT

1. <<3. that the inflectional morphology, though complex, is regular Correct again. Someone has said that there are ten rules in English grammar and 10,000 exceptions and 10,000 rules in Finnish grammar and ten exceptions. That's not quite true, though." src="/emoticons/emotion-1.gif">>>

Most people who talk about an enormous amout of exceptions in English don't know how to evaluate the language. Can you post the exceptions that you have had difficulty with?

2. Can I tell you how difficult it was/is to learn Spanish for this Englisman? It was also very difficult to learn French - even as a child.

Re: Proficiency alongside "poverty".

Cool Breeze — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:02:24 GMT

Hi Forbes

Thank you for your long reply. I do appreciate it. I would just like to say that I my opinion is based on the knowledge I have of the Germanic and Romance languages and it is of course very subjective. I fully understand that not everyone agrees with me and what I consider easy may be difficult for some others as I have already said. However, I have given my honest opinion and I don't think you or anybody else would want me to lie on this forum? I'll add some comments.

I thought that might be what you were getting at.

I think it is a mistake to equate complexity solely with the degree of inflectional morphology of a language. I agree. I was talking about morphology only. To my mind I made no mistake. I do know what is difficult about English.

I have never studied Finnish, but I would be willing to bet that at least one of the following is true:

1. that a language with at least 30 cases has a corresponding lack of prepositions

There are only about 15 cases in Finnish - I don't actually remember the exact number and didn't bother to check, but we always
have a different form for the plural and that explains the 30. It is true that Finnish has fewer prepositions than English. In my opinion the number of changes made to words and the number of inflections cause far more difficulties for nonnative learners than the number of English prepositions, though..

2. that word order is fairly free and is used to express different emphases Correct.

3. that the inflectional morphology, though complex, is regular Correct again. Someone has said that there are ten rules in English grammar and 10,000 exceptions and 10,000 rules in Finnish grammar and ten exceptions. That's not quite true, though.

4. that it is perhaps not quite so difficult to learn once you begin to get the hang of it That is a matter of opinion and dispute. Quite a few nonnatives have said it is very difficult. They say it is hopeless to try and master the grammar from books. There may or may not be some truth in this. The number of "rules" must seem endless to some and people say it's a better idea not to worry too much about all the inflections and changes in the middle of the words but just go where people talk and learn the grammatical complexities by ear.

I have to say that I have met one or two Finns and they do seem to relish the idea that Finnish is a "difficult" language. I have also met some "Swedish Finnish" (I am not sure what the correct term is) and they all tell me that they are bilingual in Swedish and Finnish. They will of course have been helped in acquiring Finnish because either they live in a bilingual community or started to learn the language at an early age (I am not sure how it works) so they would not have been prejudiced by any concept of "difficulty". I expect that your idea that Finnish is difficult is confirmed by the fact that you do not know many foreigners living in Finland who have mastered it. This will be because:

1. It is more difficult to learn any language when you are an adult That is true about all languages.

2. Someone who is working full time will not be able to devote more than an hour or two a week to learning the language That is true about all languages.

3. Everyone will find it more convenient to speak to foreigners in English and there is therefore little incentive for them to learn Finnish There is a lot of truth in this. However, there are lots of people who have come to Finland for good and want to learn the language.

4. You keep harping on about how difficult the language is and put them off! I have spoken to Brits in Finland who say the opposite. They say they get encouraged in their efforts to speak Finnish. I don't think we are any better or worse than other people in this respect.

(I live in Spain and all the above applies to expats.)

You think that English is "simple". I venture to suggest that this is because you started to learn it at an early age and were introduced to it gradually so that you did not perceive its difficulties; you acquired your mastery over a long period. Also, I suspect that Finns are "subjected" to English in a way that the English are not subjected to foreign languages. A lot can be learned without realising it.

No. I have perceived its difficulties all right. They are the spelling and the idioms and the exceptions, for me anyway. The grammar, as I understand it, and structure are the easiest of the languages I am familiar with. Mind you, I don't pretend to be perfect in English. Actually, I don't think I deserve the icon, or whatever is the right word, that says I have a good grasp of the language. I would say I have a good grasp of the grammar but my vocabulary isn't at all on a par with native speakers. My knowledge of idioms and colloquialisms could also be much better.

Consider the following:

There is no single way of negating verbs in English. I do not eat, but I must not. I do not have any eggs, but I have not got any eggs.

There is no single way of forming questions. Do you come here a lot? but Can I go out?

True. And a third way: Who came? What happened?

It is not always easy to know when to use the continuous form of the verb. Try and explain why you can say Are you having cakes for tea? but cannot go into a shop and say Are you having cakes?

The meaning of prepositional verbs is not always transparent. John has got it in for me.

English is a highly analytic language and meaning is often derived from context:

A. You keep complaining. Have you got it in for me?

B. I asked you to bring in the shopping. Have you got it in for me?

These are just a tiny example of the complexities of English and they have nothing to do with inflectional morphology.

I am familiar with these things and I admit I make mistakes using expressions and tenses. However, I was referring to the fact that English words have only a handful of forms and the fewer inflections there are the easier it is to learn them. Using them correctly is indeed another thing, I agree with you there. Other languages have their "difficulties" too. I admit that English is difficult, at least for me, in this respect. No language is easy in every respect, or if there is one, then it is impossible to express nuances in that language.

As I said in my previous post, what is easy for some may be difficult for others. My views are based solely on my experience and I certainly don't expect everybody to agree with me.

Cheers

Re: How to make sentences?

Yankee — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:50:28 GMT

Maverick9211 wrote:
I can't differeniate between ~~abt~~ nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.

I am not very bad at English. I do understand English very well. I can speak English, but not in fluently. I can't write it very well. Let's ~~make~~ do it this way: You give me some topic and I will write 10-20 lines about that topic. Then you will ~~come to know~~ be able to see where I am lacking or what ~~is the~~ my problems are. Or you suggest what to do.

Hi Maverick

Judging from your posts here, spelling, capitalization and punctuation are some of the things you need to improve.

If you want to practice grammar, you might try English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy.

Your idea about posting a few sentences isn't bad. You can post sentences for correction, but you should limit the number of sentences you post in each thread to a maximum of about 5. You can write about any topic that interests you. You can also post specific questions. This would be a specific question, for example:

What is the difference between "I do speak English very well" and "I speak English very well"?

Re: Could anonimity be useful?

Anonymous — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:45:34 GMT

Hi, everybody!

Maybe I should have started with "well," but I can ensure you that I'm the original poster, while this guy

Anonymous wrote:

Well, I have a half-finished game of noughts and crosses tattooed on my forehead. If you do too, then I guess...

is not (but I found his/her post amusing! )

First, I'd like to thank those who have really answered my question. The topic was not "Guess who I am" but to what extent anomimity in answering questions can be useful both to the questioner (will s/he tend to rely less on the answer?) and to the community (could it avoid useless quarrels?).

Pucca wrote:

And going back to the topic..an anonimous post would be helpful if you want to ask something but you don't want others to see who is asking so.

Let me disagree with you. If the community can se who is asking a certain question, the answer will probably be better tailored to specific needs and interests. For instance, if Kooyeen (by the way, sorry for misspelling your nick! ) posts a question about present perfect, he will probably receive more answers related to AmE than I would, because everybody knows that "he's learning American English"!

My point was exactly the opposite: while anonimity is NEVER useful in asking, it could be in answering.

Kooyeen wrote:
Ok, point no.1: my English is not good at all, I'm learning and I ask questions, but I also try to answer to other posts. I do it mainly because I think it helps me try to express myself. Plus, answering questions, I can share what I know, and in that way if I have learned something wrong, I can easily get corrected. And trying to answer questions I often end up asking, instead.

This is a very good point.

Kooyeen wrote:
Point no.3: as I already said in some thread, I always and only rely on native speakers. I don't even trust proficient members or advanced learners. Only natives. This doesn't mean I don't want their opinions or that I think their English is not good. I just think that in every thread, in order to be considered "resolved", there have to be some native's replies. This comes from the way I see grammar, that in my opinion should only be "descriptive".

I completely agree. I've studied English grammar extensively, and although I still make too many mistakes, I'm not concerned about them. Whenever I have a doubt on grammar and vocabulary, I always search by myself.

What I really, really lack is the feeling for what would be the natural way to express a complex idea, and this is whay I prefer receiving answers from natives. I don't want to resemble one of those dusty, ancient grammar books you can find in a library!

Pucca wrote:
I have another suggestion about that person! I clicked on "not readed", and saw a name which was pretty similar, I started to read his posts and..Bingo! I thnk it's him! He posted a paragraph and Philip didn't find any mistakes..so, in conclusion, that Anon wasn't you either MrP!

Sorry, but I think you're barking up the wrong tree!

Learn How to Communicate in English

Manga — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:25:26 GMT

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Re: Possessive of singular noun that ends in S

Tanit — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:19:36 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

what's the rule in english grammar for forming the possessive of a singular noun that ends in s?

When I was in high school, I was taught to add only an apostrophe and not an "s". Only later did I discover that both forms are possible.

Read:

" To make the possessive form of a SINGULAR noun that ends in -s, some style guides say to add just an apostrophe ('); others say you should add an apostrophe and s ('s). Some say that either way is correct.
The best answer: when dealing with SINGULAR nouns, find out what the expectations are wherever you're writing and go by that. In most cases, you can just ask your teacher what he or she prefers. (...)
So, to give a couple of examples...
For "nucleus" (singular noun ending in -s), write is as:
nucleus' or nucleus's
depending on the rules where you're writing. "

on this page, second issue.

And, from the BBC website:

" However, if the singular noun ends in âsâ as in your example, Everson, you can either just add an apostrophe (â) or apostrophe 's' (âs):
- 'All of Dickensâ novels have now been adapted for television.'
- 'All of Dickensâs novels have now been adapted for television.'
Note that these spellings are pronounced differently. If you simply add an apostrophe, the pronunciation does not change, but if you add apostrophe 's' (âs), the possessive is pronounced /iz/.
With singular nouns ending in double 's' (...) I think it is more normal to add apostrophe 's' (âs) because the spelling with apostrophe s then indicates the pronunciation required:
- 'The bossâs secretary resigned.'
- 'The princessâs diamonds were worth two million pounds.' "

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

Re: How do you spell &quot;automotopia&quot;?

Re: i have a question releating to "get"

Re: Reduplication com'on guyyyyyyyyyyz

Re: Improvement of english grmmar

Re: Proficiency alongside "poverty".

Re: Proficiency alongside "poverty".

Re: How to make sentences?

Re: Could anonimity be useful?

Learn How to Communicate in English

Re: Possessive of singular noun that ends in S

Re: How do you spell "automotopia"?