Search results for 'tag:Speak english tag:Clauses' matching tags 'Speak english' and 'Clauses'

Re: Two question about "where"

Goodman — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:49:04 GMT

<<<<Such concepts as tense, gerund, participle, clause (and classification thereof) are wihtout a slightest doubt useful and sometimes even essential to the learning of English (at least, this is so for me).

<<<Furthermore, I try to undrstand things logically and find explanations for every problem so that I won't have to simply memorize things! - I agree with you. However, I see room for tone and structure improvements!

Without taking side, I would like to share my 2 cents' worth. I always feel that if one is not born an English speaking native and his ultimate goal is to be able to write and speak English like a master, he is in for a long-agonizing journey. I have been at it for 20 years and still painfully working on getting it perfect. I realize that I often made careless errors, such as missing an "s" here and there and misspellong word etc. That, I think is something I have to work on but is tolerable to myself, as long as I know my speech and sentence structure are gramamtically sound and the meaning is getting across. For learners, it's extremely benifitial to possess a good understanding on all aspect of English, but in real life I dare say, many are not in that category, including natives. Frankly, more than a few don't even know and could care less what "past perfect tense" is. I don't mean to antagonize anyone. That's how I see it. That's said, learners must in time learn to develop a balance in learning. By that, I mean learning the fundanentals and applying them gramamtically correct in their writing without suffering from the"unnatural" sound. What I see is, many learners are too focused on the grammatical aspects and neglected on structure and tone, or vise vera. Ultimately, their writing is often compromised. I have been there. Believe me!

Re: Two question about "where"

Ant_222 — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:43:25 GMT

Thanks for that long and interesting post, Velimir!

«Let me be allowed to advise you not to fall for that kind of reasoning.I mean "Look at me,I'm a miracle,I speak english gorgeuously and I don't have to learn grammar",that kind of reasoning.»

I didn't get me right. I was talking about the usefullness of certain aspects of grammar. Part of them (a greater part!) I of course find useful. It's just that some very deep theoretical investigations in the field a purely of scientific interest. Plus I can use the word "where" very well without having to decide which part of speech it is first.

Such concepts as tense, gerund, participle, clause (and classification thereof) are wihtout a slightest doubt useful and sometimes even essential to the learning of English (at least, this is so for me).

Furthermore, I try to undrstand things logically and find explanations for every problem so that I won't have to simply memorize things!

«If you give proofs that it is just a useless entertainment for idle men then you'll make a scientific breakthrough,and not only in the field of language.Here goes one smiling smiley.»

Nah, I am not gonna do no such thing for I do agree with the opposite!

BTW, it is so good a post that I'd make it a sticky so that every ESL learner could read it, frankly!

P.S.: So don't fall into the delusion that you have _converted me_. I already was of that opinion.

Re: participle clause

Wanwo — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 04:11:18 GMT

Like most people who speak English as a first language I can't admit to knowing a lot about grammar terms or how to express their various 'rules', but the clauses you've written at the top of your post are correct and can be used practically.

Re: it

Cool Breeze — Tue, 29 May 2007 21:46:31 GMT

Hi Taka

Some information on the most common uses of preparatory it:

1. with an adjective:

It is easy to speak English.

It will be impossible to swim across the river.

2. with an expression of opinion followed by a

that-clause:

It is a pity that you can't come with us.

It was a great surprise that he won the match.

3) in expressions relating to weather, especially with a verb or an adjective:

It is raining heavily.

It was stormy yesterday.

4) in expressions of distance:

It is a long way to Newcastle.

How far is it to the North Pole? - It's over 1,000 miles.

5) in expressions relating to time:

What time is it? It is six (o'clock).

It is morning. It is summer.

6) for emphasis:

It was those boys that/who broke this window yesterday.

It was yesterday that those boys broke this window.

It was this window that those boys broke yesterday.

I hope this helps you.

Cheers

Re: It's them

CalifJim — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 20:14:53 GMT

The noun after the verb is to be in nominative case and not in accusative.

I think you mean this to be true in the case of a pronoun after a linking verb only. Taking your "rule" literally, we must have

They invited we.

because the pronoun is after the verb, the conditions under which you say the pronoun must be nominative.

That aside, this "rule" is only a rule for those who persist in thinking of English as a language which must obey the rules of Latin.

In English, the rule is that pronouns are in the accusative whenever they are not the subject of a finite clause. Those who wish to speak Latin, coded into English words, will use the nominative pronouns after a linking verb. But why speak English with Latin grammar -- unless we wish to sound like idiots?

CJ

A poor English speaking Japanese

paco2004 — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 01:54:17 GMT

Hello Teachers

I'm seeking a good expression (without using a relative clause) to mean "a Japanese person who cannot speak English well". "A nearly non English speaking Japanese", "A poor English speaking Japanese", "A Japanese with limited English skills", "A Japanese with poor English skills"... which would be most natural? Or are there any good expressions?

Thanks

paco

Re: Little understanding of reported speech.

munchun2004 — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 23:18:14 GMT

Thank you JTT, for your replya and your special advice on the English system we have. I am not a native speaker so I have been trying quite hard just to learn how English speaker think when they try to communicate with a Laguage full with rules. Sometimes I just don't get it that in such a short time they could produces so many different pronunciation and rules that occur in on long sentence. I just dont how I should follow them but to try to learn English from the mistake by talking as much as I can with the native speaker.

I think one of the reason I can speak English as fluent as the native speaker is because I have to think twice for the rules of grammar before I can speak out an English statement in a conversation.

I started reading the threads you wrote in the forum after getting the "different" answers you provided. I think you got a point that there are many special cases in English where a person can only learn the essense of English in daily conversation, not from book.

I don't know if you would do this, but could you list out the rules that you would use when you speak with other people about things you saw or heard in the past. Following is my own rules that I got from all the questions I have asked. I hope you could correct them for me.

Rule 1: Use the present tense if what you heard is still related to current situation or yet to come.
Ex: I heard from Jams last week that you are going to join the street race tomorrow.
Ex: I promised him I would finish the job before I go home. (Because of different task in time)
Ex: At first we were hesitate to ask you but finally we decided to tell you that we are against the act too.

Rule 2: Speakers have the choice to choose which tense they want to use (present tense or past tense) if what they heard still relate to current situation.
Ex: I saw from the TV commercial yesterday where it said your company is offering a special deal for all the retailers regardless of how small the retailers are.

Rule 3: If what you learned or found in the past still holds true for you, especially the thing you learned is being put in a clause, you can use the present tense to describe your dicovery.
Ex: Today at school, teacher taught us how to give a proper shut down to our computers if the computers hang suddenly.
Ex: Once I was in Hong Kong with this new friend of mine. While we were in the bar, he told me that if you meet the girl you like, you better introduce yourself to her. He said that if you ask, you have fifty-fifty chance, but if you don't, you don't have a chance.
Ex: My grandpa used to tell me that a good name is what a man can leave behind for over a hundred year. (!!!Do I have to strictly put the sentence in past tense if I am doubtful what my grandpa told me was true? That's why I always wander on which tense I should use in this dilemma of mine.)

Rule 4: There are special cases where you have to ignore the grammar rules from time to time.
Ex:
Marcus: Did you know that people here are suffering from a special disease called the skin painter?
Darrel: I did know that people here are(were also can be used) suffering from the disease. That is why I am here.
Ex: I was wondering if you want to go to theather with me tonight.
Ex: I was just thinking why this lamp post is being put here instead of the darker spot over there. (I am not sure if 'is' could be used instead of 'was'. Could you correct this for me?)

Rules 5: You can use present tense or past tense when you describe scene or story of a movie. This rules also stands for book and websites content.
Ex: I saw the movie last night. It was a movie about how a orphan becomes a greatman through years of struggle.
Ex: I still remember I screamed out as loud as I could when I saw the ghost suddenly turn it head towards the serial killer after the killer has just murdered a new victim. It was horrible.
Ex: I visited a website last week where it says there are currently 5 million people out of job. I think I might be as well as one of them. (!!!I am not sure if I can use present tense here because web contents tend to be changed from time to time. Should I use present tense?)

I think above are the 5 rules of mine that I would use from now on when I talk to other people. If anyone has anything to add to my rules, please write them down in this forum. I am just wondering if JTT has his own rules towards that English grammar. I really hope I could see a totally different view point from JTT.

Comma in English

M. Hus — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 15:37:38 GMT

I've been learning English for 8 years and I think I speak English relatively well. However, commas in English keep bothering me. No matter how I put them in the text, they always seem to be misplaced, according to my teacher, who is on the other hand incapable of telling me the exact rule, when comma shoud be used. Would please somebody tell me the rules of comma usage in English? I'd be very grateful.

In my language, there's a simple rule. We use commas to seperate clauses. Whenever you have have two finite verbs in one sentence, there must be a comma between. Does this rule apply to English as well? I am asking, because I've seen clauses without commas many times...

Thank you in advance.

Re: Someone and me

miriam — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:19:58 GMT

Hello again, Mask.
I musunderstood your question, but I see what you mean now.

Just like many other English words, "than" belongs to more than one class. It is a preposition in sentences like "She is taller than me", and it is a conjunction in sentences like "She is taller than I (am)."
In other words, "than" is regarded as a preposition when it is followed by an object, and it is a subordinating conjunction when it introduces a comparative clause (or a structure that can be expanded into a clause).

I also agree that "but" is mostly used as a conjunction, but in certain constructions it acts as a preposition. It can also be an adverb and a noun.

"And", however, is different. unless it is used in initial position, to join two sentences, it is always a conjunction. And that is not capricious really. "And" is a conjunction because you use it, as was said before, to join two words, phrases, clauses, etc. that have the same grammatical status.

You can say "You and me". But that construction will be correct only if it appears in the right place in an utterance. Unlike other grammars -such as that of my mother tongue- English grammar is based mainly on word order. There are categories (word classes, structures, etc.) which you can use in a certain position in a sentence but which will be incorrect if you move them to a different position... unless you change their form.

Returning to "You and me", it wil be correct if you use that construction in object position for example, but it will be incorrect if you use it as subject. Why? Because "me" is the objective form of the pronoun "I", regardless of whether or not you are using "and".
You say "you and I speak English", and you say "English is spoken by you and me".
There is no doubt that "and" is a conjunction in the first example. Now, if you look at the second example, you will see that "and" has exactly the same function as in the first one. Its function hasn't changed, so it is no necessary to think of a different category for that word. It is joining two words of the same grammatical status in both sentences.
"And" will not become a preposition just because the word that comes after it is an objective pronoun.

I don't know if this is clear enough or if it answers your question. I hope id is, and that is does, though.

Miriam

Re: IT'S US WHO + singular or plural?

dinosm — Sun, 25 Jan 2004 01:31:27 GMT

And who says all British magazines speak English correctly?

My way of thinking about this one would be that we use the nominative case ('I', 'he', etc.) when the subordinate clause refers to its subject (sorry, I don't know how to say this in grammatically correct terms), as in 'It is I who have to apologize', and we use the causative case ('me', 'him', etc.) when the subordinate clause refers to its object, as in 'It is her you should take with you.'

Collins English Dictionary says:
Although the nominative case is traditionally required after the verb 'to be', even careful speakers say 'it is me' (or him, her, etc.) rather than 'it is I' in informal contexts.