Search results for 'tag:Prepositions tag:Learning English' matching tags 'Prepositions' and 'Learning English'

Re: for learning English vs. to learn English

Cool Breeze — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:41:36 GMT

1. Only I'm going to Spain to learn Spanish is right. For learning Spanish could be used in a sentence like: This is a good book for learning Spanish.

2. In theory, the preposition is needed since live can't be used as a transitive verb: He lives a place. We have to say: He lives in a place. In practice, many people omit the preposition and say: I have a place to live.

for learning English vs. to learn English

Scw72 — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:50:04 GMT

Hi all,

I have some questions about the usage of to-infinitive:

(1) What would be the differences between ' I'm going to Spain to learn Spanish ' and ' I'm going to Spain for learning Spanish ' ?

(2) Which would be grammatical? 'I have a place to live' vs. 'I have a place to live in'

If the first sentence is correct, why should the preposition be included in the sentence like ' I have a chair to sit on' or 'I have a pen to write with'?

Thanks for your answers in advance!!

scw

Re: preposition+cds

CalifJim — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:00:30 GMT

Hee, hee. I knew I'd get a rise out of somebody! The three most overworked are di, a, and in, I think. Poor guys. They have to do almost everything.

My point is that language pairs work both ways. What's a headache going in one direction is almost always a headache going in the reverse direction!

So don't feel like the lone ranger! We English speakers have just as much trouble learning other languages as you do learning English!

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: Gramatical Mistakes Common to Chinese English-speakers

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:01:29 GMT

If we really want to split hair, Iâll say a mistakes is something done incorrectly, because of not knowing how to do it correctly, or simply misunderstanding the proper method or procedure. On the other hand, an error is the result of oversight or carelessness which is different from a mistake. These are subtle distinctions that requires different remedies.

In English, we learn the grammar rules which we try to apply conscientiously in our writing or speech. Depending on the individual, his background, learning environment and the level of enthusiasm, progress and the kinds of errors experienced vary from person to person. The ones I pointed out are the ones I personally experienced and noticed among the follow Chinese learners. The problems which Hao mentioned are much deeper than the âcommonâ variety in my view. and are more of the grammatical variety. Observations from various English forums have convinced me that preposition, article and participle usage are difficulties commonly shared by almost all learners. Unless one is exposed to a completely English speaking environment and immersed in complete usage, meaning using English only, eliminating these problems seems almost impossible. Itâs only when we use and expose to natural English long enough, that we will get a hang of what is or sounds correct.

If I may apply the same comparison in ballroom dancing to learning English, I âd like to confess that I have the same problem in ballroom dancing as the English learners do in English. My dance instructor taught us different variations and forms of a dance each week and weâve practiced and practiced in the class which seemed fine at the time. A week went by and we went to the next session, the variation and moves which weâve learned and practiced were partially forgotten or executed incorrectly. But if we review and practice each night for 15-21 minutes, we can feel the difference and do much better as a result of repetitions, exposure and practice. The point of this is, if we really want to be good at something, we have to keep pushing forward until we reach a level of âsecond natureâ. I understand, what works for Tom may not work for Ted. But it worked for me. This is only my opinion but I hope it helps.

identyfying preposition

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:58:29 GMT

i have just been learning english. on the way i found many misunderstanding of preposition as so far i knew it should be learnt by rote it like manifold irregular verb we know. what i want to ask about is whether the preposition itself can be easy-identified and characterized to make it more understandable than any other general one. i mean that some words need some particular prepositions and instead of memorying them i prefer to look the easier way. i hope u guys understand what i'm talking about.

peace.

Re: at what on in?

nona the brit — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 13:01:57 GMT

Hello Hamoody,

Welcome to the forum. I think people were a little bit daunted by the number of questions here, you might get more response if you ask everything separately.

let's start with days, months and year. on a day (on Wednesday) but in a month or year (in September, in 1987).

i am on my way to come to you ? is it right. correct

or i am in my way.? incorrect

please, if u can tell me some differences between at.and on?

thank you so much

Prepositions are one of the hardest parts of learning English. They are not always very logical. Sometimes it's just a case of learning which is correct in each context. If you use the search facility in this forum you can find lots of help and advice and previous questions on prepostitions.

by the way, i have small question about clean and wash

do they have the same meaning. can i say i wash my dishes

or i am cleaning my dishes? We usually say wash dishes in British English but it doesn't really make much difference.

how about body? wash your body, or clean ur body? normally wash your body.

.. before i finish. really smaaaal point

how about wipe and swap? I think you must have a mistake here as there words are not even slightly similar in meaning.

do they have the same meaning , too?

thank u very much

i really appreciate ur helps

Are there differences between "in" and "on", when I say about my street?

Chris27 — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:13:22 GMT

Why some people say: I live in the street.

And someones say: I live on the street.

Which preposition is correct? Or maybe both are.

I've been learning English and my book which I'm using to learn says that "in the street" is right and "on the street" is wrong when I want to say where I live.

Re: Jump

Yoong Liat — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 06:14:26 GMT

Kooyeen wrote:
Ah, yes, I forgot "onto".

We do love our adverbial particles and prepositions!
I'm afraid those who are learning English don't think the same, lol

Thank you.

What does lol stand for?

Re: Jump

Kooyeen — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 01:28:47 GMT

Ah, yes, I forgot "onto".

We do love our adverbial particles and prepositions!
I'm afraid those who are learning English don't think the same, lol

Thank you.