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

Re: improvement of sentence

Goodman — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:02:55 GMT

Ant_222 wrote:
No help from your last post, but after re-reading our little conversaton over I have come up with a reolutionary hypothesis! The problem is that there're two possible omisions: 1. There are time when... (and one has to use present tenses, as I argued) 2. There are times which... (and that seem to be your case, right?) Plus the "from" from your original sentence ("you can recollects event from"), I didn't interpret it correctly, having ascribed it to the following "(from) years ago", which I hope is incorrect. Hope I have now understood you. My incorrect understanding of your sentnce was this: There're times _when_ we can recollect events that took place long ago but what we ate last evening is forgotten. â It does sound ridiculous, one may hear it form a person periodically suffering some memory problems. While you sentence says: "There are times _which_ we can recollect events from..." I should have understood it much quicker! Thanks! P.S: Does the number of 2's in your spelling of my nick indicate the level of excitement?

1. There are time when... (and one has to use present tenses, as I argued) - When is always relating to time, not "which".
2. There are times which... (and that seem to be your case, right?) No! You are actually making a case bigger than it need be.

"There are times" and "it happens sontimes" are general adverbial clause often follwed by the main sentence body. They are often expressed in present time; except when specified by the verb tense. i.e. if I say "There are times you don't feel like getting up in the morning". I am making a general statement.

If I said "When I was working for XYZ, I hated my work so much that there were days when I felt like calling in sick". I am referencing to pthe past and this context definetely required past tense.

Oh, about the extra "2" on your logon name, My typing fingers have a tendency of misfiring sometimes!

Re: improvement of sentence

Ant_222 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:28:39 GMT

No help from your last post, but after re-reading our little conversaton over I have come up with a reolutionary hypothesis!

The problem is that there're two possible omisions:

1. There are time when... (and one has to use present tenses, as I argued)
2. There are times which... (and that seem to be your case, right?)

Plus the "from" from your original sentence ("you can recollects event from"), I didn't interpret it correctly, having ascribed it to the following "(from) years ago", which I hope is incorrect.

Hope I have now understood you.

My incorrect understanding of your sentnce was this:

There're times _when_ we can recollect events that took place long ago but what we ate last evening is forgotten. â It does sound ridiculous, one may hear it form a person periodically suffering some memory problems.

While you sentence says: "There are times _which_ we can recollect events from..."

I should have understood it much quicker!

Thanks!

P.S: Does the number of 2's in your spelling of my nick indicate the level of excitement?

EDIT:
This separation of "which" and "from" in "which we can recollect events from" is the culprit. Not long ago one would put it more simply using "wherefrom"...

Re: Spelling of Plural noun /vs/ the Third-person-singular verb inflection.

CalifJim — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 07:07:21 GMT

All the rules for adding S are the same for plurals as for third-person singular present tense verbs, including the words that end in y.

That said, there are a few exceptions that you will encounter from time to time, for example, words that end in f or fe. There are so few that you can just make a mental note of them when you encounter them.

Noun: loaf, loaves
Verb: loaf, loafs
Noun: knife, knives
Verb: knife, knifes

CJ

Re: attended

Neeraj Jain — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:56:22 GMT

Hi,

Your spelling of "distinction is wrong". I believe that statistics are expressed in the present tense. So the correct sentence, according to me, should be:

Nine out of ten students who attend this university graduate with distinction.

Re: giveth and taketh

Feebs11 — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:14:39 GMT

This is the archaic way of spelling the present tense of "give". It has now been superseded.

English has changed a great deal in syntax and grammar over the past 400 years. Books published any time before 1850 will reveal usages that are now defunct.

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: Native-speaker intuition.

Cool Breeze — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 08:36:44 GMT

Englishuser wrote:
A non-native speaker who has immersed himself or herself with highbrow literature written in a foreign language could very well have a more vivid vocabulary and a better knowledge of the grammar of the language than the average native speaker. At least as far as the 'standard version' of the language is concerned.

Englishuser

Hi Englishuser

I agree, learning the grammar of a language can be relatively easy for a person who is familiar with the grammatical structures of his native language. As far as I am concerned, English grammar was a piece of cake for me even though it differs considerably from Finnish grammar. It was easy because there is so little of it; an English word has very few forms: write, writes, writing, wrote, written. That's all there is written as single words. Of course has written, having written etc. exist in addition to the five basic forms.

However, in Finnish, for instance, you need six forms just to say something affirmative in the present tense, a different inflection for every person (I, you, he, we, you, they). You need another six forms to ask a question etc. Nouns have more than a hundred forms and an adjective has hundreds of inflected forms. Some English people have said to me they don't belive me when I say that. That's because they think the languages they may have some knowledge of, usually German or French, are as complicated in structure as a language can be. They know of nothing else.

What is difficult about English are the countless idioms and spelling.

By the way, when I am abroad I try not to sound British or American even though I have been told that I am able to mimic the American accent quite well. Finland was never a major country in world politics or colonization and I often get good service just because people don't really know anything about my country. They have no preconceived notions.

I was once having a drink in a hotel bar in New Orleans. The man sitting next to me asked me: "Where do you come from?" I said: "Finland." He said: "Which state is it in?" So I got wise and a couple of days later when a fiftyish woman asked me the same question, I said: "I'm from Europe." Her face lit up: "That's marvelous! I've got relatives in the same country."

Cheers
CB

Re: the "s" sound in "pals" and in other plural forms of other nouns

CalifJim — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:12:39 GMT

You're in the right place!
It's not a regional thing. The pronunciation of the pluralizing "s" is standard throughout the English-speaking world. The sound of the "s", as you point out, can be a true "s" sound or a "z" sound. And the only thing you need to know is which sound comes immediately before that final "s".

If the sound of "p", "t", "k", "f", or "th" (as in "thin") is the last sound before the written "s", then pronounce it as a true "s". Otherwise (and this is most of the time), pronounce the "s" as a "z".

In your list, for example, the words which have p, t, k, f, or th sounds just before the final "s" are hawks and rats, so pronounce final "s" in those words as a true "s" sound. In all the others, the final "s" is pronounced "z".

Remember: What's important is the sound that comes before the final "s", not the spelling. For example, in laugh, the final sound is the "f" sound, even though it is spelled "gh". So pronounce the final "s" of laughs as a true "s".

Note: The "s" that forms the third person singular of a present tense verb follows the same rule.
Note: The "s" that forms the possessive follows the same rule.
Note: In words like witches, the "es" is pronounced "iz", so the "i" sound is the last sound before the final "s". The use of the "z" sound for the final "s" is therefore correct according to the rule stated above.

Note: A final "s" which does not form a plural, present tense verb form, or possessive does not necessarily follow this rule: analysis, for example, is a singular form. Both "s"s are true "s" sounds.

CJ

Re: hi would you re-pharase this for me. pleaseee

Clive — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 23:20:45 GMT

Hi,

I'll do part of it for you.

When we tell a story like this, we can use either all present tense or all past tense, not both together. You had some past tense, so I've used past tense. Here's what I suggest. You should go through the rest and correct all your tenses. Also, as was suggested before, check your spelling. Then repost the story, perhaps in the writing forum, and I or someone else will be happy to give you more help. OK?

Best wishes, Clive

Le crick /car jack

There was once a man who was used to people looking down at him and he was not happy with that, obviously.

Many times he tried to find something that he was good at to prove to his friends, neighbours and family that he was good at something, but he always ended up embarrassing himself.

He once tried to prove that he was financially successful, as that was a big issue for him. People usually looked down on him because he was not financially successful. Or maybe , just because he was used to that, he thought that everybody was looking him down.

Maybe it was ALL in his mind.

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.