Search results for 'tag:Tenses tag:American English' matching tags 'Tenses' and 'American English'

Re: Difference between "lately" and "recently" ?

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:12:10 GMT

There is a difference in sentence position, it seems. At least in American English, "lately" does not seem natural between the subject and the verb, whereas "recently" sounds fine there.
For example: I've recently been studying Norwegian in earnest. (sounds okay)
                    I've lately been studying Norwegian in earnest. (weird)
Both can stand at the beginning and end of these sentences.
Also "lately" doesn't work in simple past sentences.
For example: Recently, I began studying Norwegian. (okay)
                    Lately, I began studying Norwegian. (weird)
The two words seem equal in the perfect tenses, except for the positional problem that "lately" has before the main verb.

Re: British/American Spelling for Realize/Recognize

Sausages — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:09:14 GMT

The words you mention are all words that are spelled differently in British English and American English. There are quite a few of them (color/colour, theater/theatre, realize/realise etc.) If you are concerned with using a specific spelling standard, I would advise you to google "british american spelling" or something of the sort, to aquire some basic knowledge in the matter. Also, be sure to set your spell checker to the correct standard in your word processor.

To answer your specific question, British English uses the -ise forms in both present and past tense.

Present Perfect / Simple past (american english)

YSchneider — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:59:24 GMT

When do you guys use the present perfect! (americans!)?

I had asked a similar question before and I got many diffrent answers! One was like:

So, we can say that generally we use the present perfect to talk about experiences, changes over time, accomplishments, and uncompleted actions we expect to be completed. Examples: Experience: I have been to England many times. Change over time: You have grown since I last saw you. Accomplishment: My daughter has learned to drive.
Uncompleted task expected to be completed: The snow has not stopped.

Then how about these: The train has arrived/arrived!
or I've attached a picture to the e-mail!
or I've changed my address!
or I've started smoking

Would you use the present perfect there as well? And if yes why? What makes you choosing this tense?
(please only native americans)

Is it because they have a relation with the present then what about: I broke my leg! or I lost my key! These are also related with the present but I've been told that americans they usually wouldn't use present perfect there! Is there a difference of how it affects the future! Please help!

Re: dreamed and dreamt

Grammar Geek — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:00:22 GMT

Hello anon,

I'm not sure why you chose to stand on your soapbox about the declining state of English on a post that was almost two years old, but you are mistaken.

Regarding dive:http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dive - usage Dive, which was originally a weak verb, developed a past tense dove, probably by analogy with verbs like drive, drove. Dove exists in some British dialects and has become the standard past tense especially in speech in some parts of Canada. In the United States dived and dove are both widespread in speech as past tense and past participle, with dove less common than dived in the south Midland area, and dived less common than dove in the Northern and north Midland areas. In writing, the past tense dived is usual in British English and somewhat more common in American English. Dove seems relatively rare as a past participle in writing.

Regarding sneak: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sneak - usage From its earliest appearance in print in the late 19th century as a dialectal and probably uneducated form, the past and past participle snuck has risen to the status of standard and to approximate equality with sneaked. It is most common in the United States and Canada but has also been spotted in British and Australian English.

Regarding fun: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fun - note the adjective function, making "so fun" perfectaly acceptable.

Regarding hang: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hang usage For both transitive and intransitive senses 1b the past and past participle hung, as well as hanged, is standard. Hanged is most appropriate for official executions <he was to be hanged, cut down whilst still aliveâ¦and his bowels torn out â Louis Allen> but hung is also used <gave orders that she should be hungâ Peter Quennell>. Hung is more appropriate for less formal hangings <by morning I'll be hung in effigy â Ronald Reagan>.

Next time, try consulting a dictionary instead of your own sense of indignation.

Re: I have met him before.=I met him before.

Mr Wordy — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:33:29 GMT

It's the same deal for "met" and "heard", so to keep it simple I'll just use "met" in the examples.

"I met him" means that I'm talking about a specific time in the past when I met him

"I have met him" means that I've met him on one or more occasions on the past. It's not important when those occasions were; all I'm trying to get across is that I have met him at some time.

However, if the word "before" is added, and the sentence ends there, then this often implies the second meaning (because "before" itself often means "at some time(s) in the past"). I would therefore usually say "I have met him before" to avoid an inconsistency between the tense and the word "before". But other speakers may not agree with this, and so you might well hear "I met him before". I get the impression that the latter form might be more common in American English, but a native American English speaker would need to confirm that. An additional complication, though, is that "before" can also be used to mean "recently", or "a little while ago". In this case I would not use "have". For example, if I was introduced to a visitor for a second time then I might say "I met him before".

If "before" is followed by a time reference then "have" is normally not used. For example, "I met him before I joined", not "I have met him before I joined."

Re: Archaic Past Conditional?

CalifJim — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:17:17 GMT

badegine

'Behind the doors there were to be other chambers, possibly a succession of them, where we should find the coffin lying.'

It is a characteristic of British English, and of American English to a lesser extent, and especially in older forms of the language on both sides of the Atlantic, to substitute shall and should for will and would with a first-person subject.

Hence, this substitution in mind, the sentence is equivalent to the one which ends: where we would find the coffin lying.

It is therefore nothing more than the backshift of where we will find the coffin lying.

Just as will find is the future of the present, would find is the future of the past.

A paraphrase might be: where (eventually) we were going to find the coffin lying or where we were about to find the coffin lying.

I don't find anything remotely subjunctive or conditional in the sentence.

The future of the past is used frequently in narrations to alert the listener (reader) to events which happened after the time that is central to the point of view of the narrative as it has developed to one particular point in the narrative. The events which then were about to happen may or may not be referred to again later in the narrative. It seems to me that I hear this tense most often in documentaries -- but not with the old-fashioned substitution of should for would after I and we, of course.

Little did we know at the time that we would soon regret the decision we made. (Older form: that we should soon regret ...)

The political situation was bad, but in the next decade things would take a dramatic change for the better.

Several more disasters would befall our heroine before she finally triumphed.

PS. I don't see any anachronisms here either.

Re: Long instead of short vowels

Kooyeen — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:10:39 GMT

Hi,
there are several different ways to classify vowels (also tense vs lax, for example). What I call vowel length is what is considered in linguistics, I think. It's the difference you hear in General American English between the vowel in GOT and the vowel in GOD, which is the same but in "god" it is longer, not clipped or anything.
Now, I think that happens in stressed syllables, but even in that case I realized there seems to be several exceptions. In other words, I think sometimes (or often?) American native speakers use long vowels instead of the short ones. One example is in the video: at the beginning, she says COP with a long vowel, the one you would usually use in COB instead. If she hadn't released the final P in that COP, like it's often done, I would have understood COB.
Can anyone comment and tell me more about this? Thanks.

Re: correct sentences 24/11

Teo — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:09:54 GMT

They won't smoke ever since they saw a film on lung cancer.

What does "won't" mean here?

Re: correct sentences 24/11

Teo — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:09:49 GMT

http://forums.eslcafe.com/student/viewtopic.php?t=22113&highlight=

Re: got/gotten

Yankee — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:42:30 GMT

Fandorin
Hi. Yes, both of the words may be used. Simply "have(has) got" tend to be used side by side with have (has,had).
have(had,has) got = have(has,had). But the expression "had got" is rarely used in contemporary grammar.

Hi Fandorin

You seem to be mixing things up.

Angliholic's sentence is not an example of the idiomatic "to have got", which means basically the same thing as "to have" or "to possess".
In that idiom, it is not possible to change the word 'got' to 'gotten' -- not even in American English. It would be unusual to find "to have got" used in the past tense (i.e. had got).

Angliholic's sentence uses the verb "to get" in the past perfect. To form the past perfect of the verb "to get", you need had+gotten in AmE or had+got in BE.
The past perfect of the verb "to get" is in current use and is used just as often as the past perfect of any other verb.