Re: Will you suggest me an effective way to learn Idioms and phrases

A Cornish Pasty — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:12:19 GMT

I don't know where you are from so you may or may not have this feature in your own language:

Because French has noun genders (masculine and feminine), French schoolchildren learn all their nouns with the article, for example "le nez", "la bouche", so they always know what gender the word has. This is in contrast to English-speaking schoolchildren who just learn "nose", "mouth".

It's just an idea that I thought of while reading your post but you could try to use this method for learning phrasal verbs. Always remember that there's two parts and without the final part it can change all meaning. If you hear "take off", don't just learn "take" but think of it as one entire verb "take off".

I hope this helps a bit...

Re: Grammar Mistakes & Ambiguities

Danyoo — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:48:19 GMT

Good questions Rishonly...

(1) Is 'often wondered' a wrong construction?
It's not wrong but it implies that 'wondering' was in the past and now you no longer 'wonder.'

(2) Reason for 'might attend only fewer phone calls' being wrong?
Actually there is only a very subtle difference, if at all. A person may or may not get to do an assigned task because of a circumstance beyond his/her control. Whereas a person might or might not do the same task, possibly due to his/her laziness or forgetfulness. More significant correction is attend --> attend to. It's a phrasal verb meaning to deal with something or help someone.

(3) Reason for using 'may attend' in the first sentence and 'might get' in the second sentence?
If your follow up argument is negative, it's better to say "....might...but he will only handle easy calls." If your follow up argument is positive, it's better to say "...may..but he will deal with a lot more complex issues requiring longer times to resolve."

(4) Is 'many phone calls' grammatically wrong , or is it a preference?
It's grammatically correct. Just a preference.

(5) "but he may not handle any complicated cases". I think changing the subject from 'Customer' to 'he' carries an implication of gender bias. Doesn't it?
Traditionally it has been acceptable to use 'he' in these situations to mean both genders. But lately it has become more common place to see the usage of he/she. But I think the correct way to say it is he and/or she, which then gets to be too long and cumbersome. Personally I think picking either 'he' or 'she' is fine...so is saying 'customer.' Your call.

Search results for 'tag:Phrasal verbs tag:Genders' matching tags 'Phrasal verbs' and 'Genders'

Re: Will you suggest me an effective way to learn Idioms and phrases

Re: Grammar Mistakes & Ambiguities