Search results for 'tag:Writing letters tag:Expressions' matching tags 'Writing letters' and 'Expressions'

Re: Formal words? informal words?

pieanne — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 15:32:18 GMT

Thomaas wrote:

I always get confused when writing letters to friends. what words should be used instead of using formal words?

I find it strange when I usie these words, as far as the Genre gender? is concerned, what can I do?

As I am not a native speaker, the informal expressions I've learnt are limited.

I have heard of some of them, such as "kind of" and "way"...

e.g. I kind of like her.
It is kind of boring.

e.g. It is way better than others.

would you be kind enough to give me other examples?

by the way, please check my passage if there are any mistakes.

Thanks alot.

Welcome to the Forums, Thomaas!

As long as you are writing to friends, you can of course use those informal words.

"alot" is informal too

There are so many informal words/expressions that it's hard to make a list...

Formal words? informal words?

Thomaas — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 15:14:24 GMT

I always get confused when writing letters to friends. what words should be used instead of using formal words?

I find it strange when I use these words, as far as the appropriate tone is concerned, what can I do?

As I am not a native speaker, the informal expressions I've learnt are limited.

I have heard of some of them, such as "kind of" and "way"...

e.g. I kind of like her.
It is kind of boring.

e.g. It is way better than others.

would you be kind enough to give me other examples?

by the way, please check my passage if there are any mistakes.

Thanks alot.

Re: Some confused english grammar problems...

paco2004 — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 22:30:12 GMT

Hello MIA6

Are you a native speaker? If so it's very interesting to me. I'm a Japanese, who have learned English rather for a long time but still find it tough to catch the exact sense and usage of English present perfect tense. I'm afraid you might feel ill to hear about the grammar of your native tongue from a foreign person who is learning it, but if you don't mind, please read with a laugh wondering in what a queer way an English learner from Orient understand your mother tongue.

As far as I have learned and as far as I have understood, the basic notion of the English expression "I have done something" is "I now have the result of an experience that I did it in the past".

So "I have written six letters this morning" is "I have now the result of an experience that I wrote six letters this morning". It means you have already finished writing all the six letters. "I have been writing letters all morning" means "Now it is still morning but this morning I wrote some letters and still I am writing a letter".

"I have been writing six letters all morning" sounds a bit weird. "Write letters" can be used to express an activity of writing some letters in a generic sense but "write six letters" sounds to be any specified activity such that you should know what letters the six letters are. So, if I hear "I have been writing six letters all morning", I take it as "This morning you began writing six letters in parallel and you are still continuing the six paralleled activities of writing a letter".

"I haven't eaten chicken" may be commonly taken as "I have the result of an experience that I never ate chicken in the past". Suppose your mother asked you in the kitchen "did you snitch the chicken?" and suppose you answered like "No, I haven't eaten the chicken". This means "I didn't yet eat the chicken this time". The use of THE before "chicken" gives to "eat" a notion of a specified activity.

paco

[PS] When I finished this writing, I noticed CJ had already posted a much better answer. But I will dare to post it hoping it can be served as a material for you and other native speakers to know what understanding an ESL student has about English present perfect tense.