Search results for 'tag:Present tenses tag:Punctuation' matching tags 'Present tenses' and 'Punctuation'

Re: whenever and when

Mr Wordy — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:34:21 GMT

You changed the tense. Did you mean to?

If you meant "When you are ready, I am waiting for your answer." then, yes, it's very similar in meaning to "Whenever you are ready, I'm waiting for your answer.", and the two are often interchangeable. "Whenever" has slightly more of a sense of "any time at all". To me, though, this sentence isn't punctuated correctly. As written, to me it means "At the future time at which you are ready, I am waiting for your answer", which has mixed-up tenses. It only makes sense if "When you are ready" is used in the conversational sense of "You go ahead and do it when you're ready". One punctuation possibility is therefore "When you're ready! I'm waiting for your answer."

"When you are ready, I will be waiting for your answer." can be interpreted in two ways. The first is "When you're ready! I'll be waiting for your answer..." which is slightly unusual (the present tense, "I'm waiting", is more natural). The second is "At the future time at which you are ready, I will be waiting for your answer", which sounds not unreasonable, but is IMO also a slightly unusual thing to say. Something like "When you arrive, I'll be waiting for you." is, in my view, a better sentence with which to illustrate this construction.

Re: supposedly to be present tense or past tense

Eimai_Anglos — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:35:12 GMT

Your sentence makes absolutely no sense to me. Please try using correct punctuation and spelling. In particular, avoid "txt-spk" which many people don't understand.

Re: essay

julielai — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 03:12:12 GMT

Just a few comments. Hope they help!

The question has been debated many times (punctuation) whether or not Christopher Columbus should be celebrated and acknowledged for his accomplishments. There has been 500 years of controversy and praise. Was he a great explorer and discoverer, a hero for America? Was he a slave trader who took what he wanted regardless of the consequences? Or was he simply a man, looking to fulfill his dreams?

When Christopher Columbus set out on his expedition after many meetings with the King and Queen of Spain, he was excited (sounds off in a formal essay. You weren't there...) to be on this wonderful journey. His main goal was to find the most direct route to open up trade with the Western (isn't the Western World Europe?) world. Columbus was a merchant and seaman. He was in his element and was hoping for the best of both worlds (What do you mean?). When he sights (tense) land for the first time he explores the land. They find houses abandoned, the natives had fled when they saw the strangers come ashore. When he comes upon the houses he treats them (them meaning houses?) with respect. He says (something missing here) to treat the nativeâs belongings with respect and to take anything, âI ordered that nothing which they had left should be taken, not even the value of a pinâ (Columbus 121). In the beginning he was very considerate of the natives.

While exploring the islands and (no need to repeat) charting the islands, his search for precious metals are returning slim findings. Among his âtalksâ with the natives, they tell him of great treasures and metals but they are always on the next island or further away. The communication between Columbus and the natives is limited because of language barriers. Columbus derives a plan that will (going back to present tense again...) be beneficial to him as he plans return trips to this newly discovered world âI then sent ashore to one of the houses, and took seven women and three children: this I did that the Indians might tolerate their captivity better with their company,â¦Besides, these women will be a great help to us in acquiring their language, which is the same throughout all these countriesâ (Columbus 127-128). To take the freedom away from these simple people was selfish of Columbus. This is what I think played a great part in his downfall (we haven't come to that conclusion yet)from hero to villain. He treated these peoples as objects and therefore lost his humanitarian vision for one of commerce.

Then we take a look at Columbus as a man. Was he simply out to better himself and seek fame and glory for his findings? Columbus wrote down important facts for not only historical purpose but to present evidence that he âachievedâ his goals to his benefactors, the King and Queen of Spain. Columbus was foremost a businessman, he was out to make money and a name for himself. In his writingâs he builds (going back to present tense again) a case for returning yet again to the West in hopeâs of finding even greater riches and more undiscovered lands.

Does a man have the power to destroy nations? Do we honor a man who enslaved free people? Do we blame him for thousands of deaths because of disease, war and struggle? From the journal entries, Columbus appears to be an intelligent, strong individual. He was doing what men of his time and profession were all doing, and that was exploring and creating new avenues of commerce. He was intent on his journey and made decisions to better his cause. Whether or not we can put the name of villain on him is undecided. Throughout history the Strong (Columbus) vs. Weak (the natives of the land) has always been natureâs pattern for survival (this is assuming that the natives were weak. Did you establish that?). Columbusâ decisions made him famous for his discoveries and explorations. For over five hundred years people have debated the subject and five hundred years from now, the debate will still be there. (good ending)

Re: Hello

abbie1948 — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 12:28:37 GMT

Hi Jazz,

Thanks for saying I could correct your post on line.

Re: your reply to Ali;

1. In English we always begin a new sentence with a capital letter, and we use a capital letter for people's names, and for names of places such as London, the Indian Ocean etc. So your greeting should be:

"Hi Student ..."

I know that when we use the internet or text, we often leave out things like capital letters and punctuation, but when you are learning, it's a good excercise to pay attention to the details.

We also always use a capital letter for 'I'

2. It is important to use a dictionary to ensure your spelling is correct. (But we all make mistakes!)

Here is a list of your spelling errors:

articale; indifinint; pronounse; diffecult; difinint; resturant; papular; studing

See if you can find these in a dictionary and correct them.

3. Verbs - these can be quite difficult to understand. This site might help.
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/wordgame_current_frame.html

* "here are the using..."
This needs to be present simple + noun. "Here is the use...."
Use is a verb, but also a noun, and you are using it as a noun here. As it is singular, the verb also needs to be singulr.

* "A" is called (NOT is calling) - I agree, it sounds as if you should use the present continuous here, but in fact we don't; we use the simple past. I was called X when I was born, and it is a long situation.

* "and use with only nouns ...."

Here you need the present tense of "be" + the participle "used"

"and is used with ...."

* "book is A noun and began with 'b'"
The simple present here - it is a permanent situation; book begins with 'b', and will always begin with 'b'. the same goes for "nice BEGINS with 'n' "

Also, pay attention to your articles, particularly as this post is about articles!

* I went to a restaurant and I have had ...."
Here you need the simple past: "I had my lunch there" because having lunch is a short, quickly finish action.

"Which restaurant I talked about ...."
The past progressive is better here; it is used for temporary actions and situations in the past.

"Which restaurant I was talking about" Presumably you didn't talk for years about the restaurant, nor did you repeatedly talk about it!

OK, here's the corrected item - although I'm leaving the spelling mistakes in so you can look them up!

Hi Student,
Here is the use of these articales:
"A" is called THE indifinint articale and useD with only nouns or adjectives which already begin with A CONSONANT, FOR example; a book, a nice rose. Book is A noun and begINS with b, nice is AN adjective and begINS with n, and so on.

"An" is also dealT with it as AN articale, but we can use it with nouns or adjectives which begin with vowelS such as "a,u,i,o,e,and someTIMES 'h' when we pronounse IT like: honest , so we can say an honest boy!

To MAKE IT easIER for you, try to use "a" with apple. You will note that IT IS more diffecult TO say an apple, isn't it Ali?

"The" is THE difinint articale: IT is usED for someTHING we already know, or someTHING we HAVE mentionED in our conversation; so when we want to repeat it again we use "the" before it, eg: I went to a resturant and I HAD my lunch there, I saw my old friend in the resturant. WE USE 'THE' BECAUSE YOU already know which resturant I WAS TALKING about. Also we use it with something UNIQUE in the world, eg. The Indian Ocean, but we can't use it before people'S names, OR meals, like lunch,dinner ETC. So "the" has many uses.

By the way, u r studing in THE UK. It is A GOOD place to LEARN BETTER English. I AM jealous u coz I WISH I WERE there!

P.S Re; full membership: I think this is very reasonable question, because I didn't know at first. I think it depends upon how many times you post a question or response to the forum, so keep on working, and it will just happen.

Do keep on answering posts, as you did to Ali, because it helps everyone.