Search results for 'tag:Prepositions tag:Intonations' matching tags 'Prepositions' and 'Intonations'

Re: I'm interested in Philosophy, Science, Mathematics, and of course you.

Kooyeen — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:34:07 GMT

A Cornish Pasty
I suppose it could be correct as two different things are dealt with in the list, subjects and a person.

If it was: "I'm interested in science, maths, geography and in history", then it wouldn't sound right to me.

Hi,
really? I didn't know that... I mean, I think I have never noticed those structures weren't so flexible. You mean native speakers would not repeat a preposition that way? I'm confused. I agree that it would usually be left out because it's shorter that way and it flows better, but I would not be surprised at all to hear something like:
I'm interested in science, maths, geography, and in history of course.
Or maybe you are also considering commas more carefully thinking of a different intonation... so that might be the reason why I don't understand.
By the way, every time I see you post, and see your nick, and your avatar... I get hungry! Hmm, then I am going to get something to eat now, hehe.

Mistakes made by Chinese Learners

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:30:26 GMT

Hi everyone

I just wondered if anyone could help - I have to write a profile of a chinese learner of English (completely made up). In it I must put any difficulties that the learner has in learning English as an L2. I have got so far:

Intonation transfer from L1 may cause them to be perceived as rude/inconsiderate, more serious transfer may affect comprehensiveness.
No inflections in L1 - tenses difficult to learn in L2 as L1 has no true tenses and concept of time is expressed by adverbs/implicit or contextual assumptions.
Difficulty distinguishing [r] & - Does anyone know why this is as I can't find a reason?!!
Prepositions such as 'on', 'in' & 'at' have one chinese translation in many contexts, 'zai' - may be confused resulting in phrases such as 'on Taiwan' instead of 'in Taiwan'.
Use of awkward gerunds e.g. 'no noising', excessive use of verbs ending in 'ing' e.g. 'do not climbing', confusion of 'ed' & 'ing' verbs e.g. 'i am bored' vs 'i am boring' --- all of these errors occur because verbs are not conjugated in chinese, for tense or pronoun.
No equivalent word for 'the' so may be used excessively when not needed e.g. 'The China' or missed out when needed. May also be confused with 'a'/'an'.
Confusion over countable and uncountable nouns, use of 'how much?' vs 'how many?' - leads to phrases such as 'I want a soup' & 'a lot of shoe'. This is due to there not being plurals in chinese - no inflections.

Switching between 'he' & 'she' - Does anyone know why this is?

If anyone can think of anymore it would be greatly appreciated or if anyone knows the answers to my questions about gender switching and distinguishing [r] & this would also help a lot!!

Thank you in advance.

Shannon

Re: Is American English lazy English?

Marvin A. — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 06:41:22 GMT

Wow, what a lot of nonesense.

Is American English simply lazy English with disregard for the fundamentals of the language, or is it a valid simplification of an overly complex and irregular language?

Huh? What are you talking about?

I was hoping nobody would ask, but since you did, I much prefer the attitude of the British. They have enough respect for the language to use correct spelling

How is modern British spelling more "correct"? Who determines correct spelling anyway? The differences in spelling between the US and the UK are mostly due to there being multiple forms that were considered "correct" at the time: such as "color" and "colour".

(The British have) clear enunciation

Oh they do, do they? Are you referring to RP, which is spoken by about 4% of the population, or are you referring to Glaswegian?

(And the British have the) correct use of prepositions and general grammar (and Americans don't)

Huh?

It is not my intention to offend users of American English, users of the imperial system of measurement or anyone else who cares little for international standards.

By your logic, the imperial system should be the correct one. After all, it was invented in Britain. They simply "dumbed down" their system (as you like to say), and switched to the metric system.

I know literacy levels in most western countries are declining rapidly. Could this be a contributing factor?

What does literacy have to do with it?

they use American enunciation

There are several dialects of North American English.

(The "American enunciation", grammar, etc.) all these also have been standardized

Um, no. There is no standardized pronunciation in North American English.

British is regarded as classical English?

"Classical English"? Modern British dialects, particularily RP, have diverged more from the English that both RP and General American are derived from. The non-rhoticity is one thing.

When one considers that the countries on the following list and a multitude of other nations have deep historical if not current connections with Britain and British English, I think it is quite likely that the use of Bitish English is far more widespread and popular than one might think at first glance.

Canada

Um. Canada does not speak "British English".

Oh, by the way, British English is taught in Australian schools, and I think it would be fair to say that Australians take great pride in the preservation of 'proper' (the Queen's) English

Australians speak *Australian English* not British English. They are not "taught" British English. Their spelling system is closer to the British standard though. As for Australians speaking the Queen's English, nothing could be father from the truth, in fact most non-Australians think that most forms of Australian English sound very much like Cockney.

Interesting that Australians take much pride in using British English - that actually would support the thesis that it'll hardly happen that the British English will be replaced by the American English, what do you think?

Um. They don't use British English... But they're of course not going to adopt an American accent. That would be like thinking that people from Berlin would adopt a Swiss German accent.

As nationalities continually interact around the word, shouldn't there be ONE set standard for both measurement and English? Emagine if you gave a spelling test to students from different English speaking countries. Q. What would be the correct spelling for the word "COLOR/COLOUR" ? (for example) Who would pass the test and who would fail?

Um. Both were used in the past as acceptable variants.

As nationalities continually interact around the word, shouldn't there be ONE set standard for both measurement and English?

No. English is a pluricentric language.

American English now is mostly ebonics lol

Rubbish

In a nutshell American and British English are but two dialects of ENGLISH.

They are not two "dialects". There's really no such thing as "American English" or "British English". There are many dialects of English in North America, as well as many dialects in the Britain.

I don't think I would consider British English "Classic English". British English and American English were assumable one in the same 200 years ago.

Exactly. But remeber, even at that time there was not just one form of English. There were many dialects.

I started this thread in 2003, and I have to admit I now feel a little silly about it.
Thanks to the input in this thread (and others) I realise my stupidity at having been so outspoken.

Good.

U.S. has a very diverse population. The pressure, naturally, is to simplify English so everyone, including the non-native speakers, can understand each other.

Rubbish. How has it become simpler?

They should learn to write properly, that is, English, proper English

Write properly? What is this "correct spelling" anyway?

So you're quite likely to hear a rising 'Australian' intonation in plain statements, for example â which to some BrE ears makes every statement sound like a question.

That's also found in North American English. It's associated with California English and Valley girls for the most part. It has very little to do with Australian influence.

Re: Spanish (or German) student Vs Japanese student!

Raul — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 04:24:52 GMT

Having fun with us Spanish speakers, uh? Oh, well... I admit I also laughed at those lexical problems.

There are some cultural explanations, too. Some Spanish speakers wrongly use "pile" because they "imported" the French word instead of the English one (pile instead of battery). In my country, it is customary to say "pila" instead of "baterÃa" because we also make a difference: a "pila" is usually a cell (I mean, a small 1,5 or 9 volt battery), while "baterÃa" is used to refer a big one (car battery, for instance).

Talking about "constipation", when someone catch cold, you say "estÃ¡ costipado", which looks and sounds similar to "constipado" (meaning exactly what it means in English). The word "constipado" is not quite common in some Spanish-speaking countries. It's widely used in Mexico, but not in my country (Peru) for instance.

In the sentence "Said the teacher that would give we more homework", the student evidences interlingual and syntax errors: "Dijo el profesor que nos darÃa mÃ¡s tarea". Word order, as it was mentioned, is not that strict, but that doesn't mean there are no rules (most people do not follow rules). Pronouns can be omitted in Spanish, but not in English ("I" and "we" are used mostly to emphasize). Using "we" instead of "us" is also a typical mistake in other languages. The real problem here, is that the student is translating word by word from Spanish into English, which is also typical to any learner at the beginning.

I would say that pronoun omission and structure are typical mistakes in Spanish learners. Auxiliary verbs is another calvary: they simply do not exist. Questions, in any tense, are easily formed by a change in intonation or, when writing, by using "Â¿" and "?" at the beginning and at the end respectively. Prepositions are also another problem, mainly "at" which does not have an exact equivalent. Remember that even English native speakers use "in" and "on" differently! I'm sure there are many more problems that I can recall.

Hope this helps!

Raul