Search results for 'tag:Exclamation marks tag:Negatives' matching tags 'Exclamation marks' and 'Negatives'

Re: I used to; Iâm used to

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:19:31 GMT

Eladio wrote:
Whatâs the difference between these two sentences? I read both in a dictionary and Iâm confused.

She wasnât used to him away but she soon got used to it. Now she is used to seeing him once in a year.
She didnât use to him away but she soon got used to it. Now she is used to seeing him once in a year.

The point is that I believe to understand that âShe used toâ is a past tense, so âShe didnât use toâ¦â is the negative form of this past tense. Now, âSheâs used toâ is a present tense, so the negative form of this present tense is âShe isnât used toâ¦â. Now, âShe wasnât used toâ¦â sounds to me like a negative (another?) form of the past tense. Is that correct? In above sentences the use of past forms âwasnâtâ and âdidnâtâ tends to confuse, I believe, to a not English speaker, and to think that both are different forms of the past.
Did you use to play tennis when you were younger? (Past, right?)
Are you used to play tennis? (Present, right?)
I donât know if Iâm being clear in explaining my confusion.

Dear Mister Micawber and MrPedantic thank you for your help with my post âPlease, help!!â. Mister Micawber, your advice related to the title of that post (âPlease, help!!) is important to me. The fact is that Iâm a native Spanish speaker and Iâm certainly learning the real spoken English in streets and with all of you in EnglishForums; I mean, in Spanish âPlease, help!!â doesnât implies necessarily a panic situation. Weâre used to use many exclamation marks. So, Iâm sorry. And I would like to thank CalifJim and Clive for their help with my recent post âNeedless / unnecessaryâ.

Hi Eladio,

In addition to the experts' comment, here is my two cents if that may help...

I used to lived next door to John = sometime ago, John was my neighbor. [used to] is a phrasal expression which denotes the long-gone past . i.e. if someone said "I used to care about you", it means the caring no longer exists any more. The use of this phrase is not so much concerned with the exact past time but what happened in the past.

My parents used to take me to the parks on Sundays when I was little.

Be used to means something differenet. i.e. I am used to having my coffee black. This means I am accustomed to drinking coffee without sugar.

Re: Isn't Bart strong and smart!

J Lewis — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:42:42 GMT

Was that easy! and Am I hungry! are particularly American constructions. I don't think we have this inversion for an exclamation in BrE.
When we use the negative, it's formally an interrogative, so if I say Isn't he clever? it's like asking Don't you think he's clever? However, we often put an exclamation mark here too, because it's not a real question that somebody has to answer.

Re: could someone help me edit my essay, i'll appreciate.

Castellano — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:30:42 GMT

What is your opinion about the importance of a personâs first day of school?

Whether pleasant or terrible, almost everyone remembers their first day of school. (Do you really need the exclamation mark?) In the short story âThe First Dayâ, author Edward P. Jones narrates a little girlâs first day at school, and explores the effects of a motherâs dream for her daughter. The protagonist is a five-year-old girl (unfortunately?) from an unfortunate single family (Do you mean that the girl's family is unfortunate, or that she is unfortunate because she is in a single parent family?) who gets registered by her mother to attend the kindergarten. An ancient Chinese saying goes that âwell begun is half done.â, whereas I think this saying is all-around. (I won't do this for you, but you need to connect these sentences. You talk about a girl who gets registered for kindergarten, then you break the idea with an Ancient Chinese proverb.) Each day of school is important, because everything is accumulated little by little, step by step and day by day. (Excellent!) My own experience has also correctly proven my opinion: I attended the first Canadian school in Montreal, which was a French school. (I'm confused, how has going to the first Canadian school in Montreal proved your idea?)

The protagonist, the little girl, had a memorable first day at kindergarten. This is not only because the first day of school was one of the key moments in her young adolescence, but also because she knew more about her mother, knew more about her motherâs dream for her. (How did she know about her mother's dream, and what was her mother's dream?) On her first day of school, she wore the new clothes and brought along some school supplies. The little girl and her mother originally wished to go to the better school named Seaton Elementary just across the street from the church where the two went every Sunday. Unfortunately, their expectation came to nothing; however the protagonistâs mother didnât give up. (Why didn't the girl go to Seaton Elementary though?) They decided to settle for another school in their area, Walker Jones. In order to register, the mother had to ask for help filing out the form, because she was illiterate. Eventually, with some help, the little girl became registered for kindergarten. At the same time, the girl discovered that her mother couldnât neither read nor write so she felt ashamed for her mother. At last, the loud sound from her motherâs footsteps was imprinted in her memory mixing with the other childrenâs singing and talking all around. (Why were her mother's footsteps imprinted into her memory?)

----

I have stopped editing here, some key notes:

- Use spell check and proofread your work; a lot of the errors could have been corrected if you read over your work.

- Pellucidity! You need to explicate why things happened and why things became important to the characters. We are the readers, we probably haven't read this book so you need to explain things to usâdon't assume we read the book!

----

As I mentioned previously, my first Canadian school was a French school in Montreal. By the time I arrived in Canada, I had no clues about French so that the first day in a French school was totally horrible. I could only understand someone else called my name, whose pronunciation is exactly same as English. I could only speak one sentence, which means âI donât understandâ. Although my parents stayed with me during the whole enrollment, nothing could be changed. All they could do for me was just to encourage and console. After the convoluted speech of the principle, students were split into a few groups, and the teachers led us to the respective classroom. The bell started ringing as soon as I sat on the chair. A bald strong man with a smiled face came into the classroom. âBonjour!â he started to speak, speak a bunch of words I had never heard before. Afterwards, students began to introduce themselves. Time was quickly passing, in no time; it was my turn, but nothing in my mind. âI should say something.â I thought, âBut what? All I can say in French is âI donât understand.â Maybe for the good luck, the bell started ringing again, tediously ringing. The class was over; I could finally quit this hell! Since then, I decided to learn French well. I said it and I made it. I learnt French almost every day. Somehow my French had become better and better. Somehow I could speak more and more. If I hadnât learned French every day, I wouldnât have reached such level in French. The first day of school is not always a good memory; it could even become your nightmare. I donât have a nice first day at school, but I still learn French well. For this reason, I think the everydayness is as important as the first day of school.

Not only the first day of school is important, but also the everydayness is important. The protagonist of the short story âThe First Dayâ has learned the importance of the first day of school, which is an opportunity to get a better life. She has also realized that it is important to study reading and writing because her mother could not register for her for the kindergarten by herself. My own personal experience has proven right the second part of my opinion. It is similar to the protagonistâs experience in some ways, but different in the other ways. The first Canadian school that I attended was a French school. I didnât have a nice first day in that school because I couldnât speak any French by the time I came to Canada, however I have learned it almost every day. At the end of the school year, my French has improved a lot; therefore I think the everydayness is as important as the first day of school.

The message from the short story âThe First Dayâ is clearly that the first day of school is significant and also a good opportunity to get a better life in the future. I feel strongly that not only the first day of school is important, but also the everydayness is important. All in all, a person must deal well with whether the positive or negative feelings from their first day at school. They also need to know what they should do in the future to make their dreams come true.

Re: Exclamation mark (!)

Goodman — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 02:09:20 GMT

One thing I have learned through my learning years is that overly used or misused exclamation in letter, correspondence and e-mails can cause reactions to readers.

A simple âhelloâ signifies a greeting. A âhello!â with exclamation gives an impression of shouting.

Exclamation does cause negative reactions and emotions, especially with group e-mail concernig something or people at work where multiple recipients are addressed. Use it sparingly.

Re: >> Welcome to the RidSoc <<

Arulupinaustin — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:12:43 GMT

hm, source code would be the html code thingummy for the webpage ure on. on Iexplaorer, u go to view, and then click on source : you should get a notepad file with lots of coding stuff. if u know code, that helps. when i started it was all jibberish to me. after intensive training in java, it is still pretty much jibberish to me (hang on, jiggerish is actually gibberish right? damn! ) anyway, the hint will be enclosed with exclamation marks (like <!> look at me i'm a hint!!</!> or something similar, or will be quite noticeable as understandable english words compared to compunglish gibberish (Yay! spelled it rite!)

negative thing about the page need not be on the pic portions, could be any aspect of the page, in the various things u shud note while trying to figure out the page.. there, that would be a hint.

again, sometimes u need to find a form for entering the username and password (ull get them at the same place when u do) neway, u get the form by clicking on something. u know how to do this, move the mouse around until it becomes a pointer...

no i wish i had finished the riddle! am in level 10, i know how to get past it, but need time to sit down and manipulate it around, will have free time only when i get bak to college. how strange...

i know someone who got till 8, another stuck on 4, and one godly being who got to 20, and then got a girlfriend and left off notpron... ***...

lol

neway, something that is negative about this page, has to be made positive. dont be afraid to try things out, if it turns out to be wrong, the back button will be your best friend!

good luck!

Aru

I used to; Iâm used to

Eladio — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 14:02:54 GMT

Whatâs the difference between these two sentences? I read both in a dictionary and Iâm confused.

She wasnât used to him away but she soon got used to it. Now she is used to seeing him once in a year.
She didnât use to him away but she soon got used to it. Now she is used to seeing him once in a year.

The point is that I believe to understand that âShe used toâ is a past tense, so âShe didnât use toâ¦â is the negative form of this past tense. Now, âSheâs used toâ is a present tense, so the negative form of this present tense is âShe isnât used toâ¦â. Now, âShe wasnât used toâ¦â sounds to me like a negative (another?) form of the past tense. Is that correct? In above sentences the use of past forms âwasnâtâ and âdidnâtâ tends to confuse, I believe, to a not English speaker, and to think that both are different forms of the past.
Did you use to play tennis when you were younger? (Past, right?)
Are you used to play tennis? (Present, right?)
I donât know if Iâm being clear in explaining my confusion.

Dear Mister Micawber and MrPedantic thank you for your help with my post âPlease, help!!â. Mister Micawber, your advice related to the title of that post (âPlease, help!!) is important to me. The fact is that Iâm a native Spanish speaker and Iâm certainly learning the real spoken English in streets and with all of you in EnglishForums; I mean, in Spanish âPlease, help!!â doesnât implies necessarily a panic situation. Weâre used to use many exclamation marks. So, Iâm sorry. And I would like to thank CalifJim and Clive for their help with my recent post âNeedless / unnecessaryâ.

Re: Help

John C. — Wed, 19 Nov 2003 22:44:36 GMT

Hi Sonia

"Humiliate" is very severe embarrassment. Imagine being told off in front of a large crowd of people.

"Criticize" is to make an observation of a mistake. It can be positive or negative (usually negative).

"Sarcastic" is to criticize in a cruel, mocking way, using irony. For instance, if you told someone that you were training to be a nurse, and he said in a sneering tone, "Oh yeah, you'll be great considering that you can't even look after yourself." - This would be a sarcastic way to say that he doesn't think you'll be a good nurse.

Punctuation: You don't need a period (full stop) after a question mark or an exclamation mark - they include a period at the bottom!

Cheers

John.

P.S. Please give your posts more descriptive titles.