Engleski kutak: Improve your English — Chat II (English only)

[antilles]

coming out of recession, you mean ?

[social outcome]

People who are bilingual or multilingual (on this subforum and generally) and whose father tongue is not the English language and don’t speak, read or write the language on the daily basis should restrain themselves from carelessly posting one liners and similar linguistic idiotism and put some more effort than other skilled participants into the composition of their messages so that those messages may appear minimally intelligent.

It is a trait of an uneducated man to write their literary confusion in such a manner as to bring the doubt into the reader's mind of what the writings' unsuccessful intention is and if there's any sense of meaning in it.

Therefore, if you the respected posters are willing to share your creative thoughts and interesting ideas for the common purpose of enhancing collective knowledge of this sub form then write them in understandable semantics that it won't insult the reader's intellect.

[antilles]

absolutely hilarious.
you made my day.

[nezgodan2]

social outcome kaže:

People who are bilingual or multilingual (on this subforum and generally) and whose father tongue is not the English language and don’t speak, read or write the language on the daily basis should restrain themselves from carelessly posting one liners and similar linguistic idiotism and put some more effort than other skilled participants into the composition of their messages so that those messages may appear minimally intelligent.

It is a trait of an uneducated man to write their literary confusion in such a manner as to bring the doubt into the reader's mind of what the writings' unsuccessful intention is and if there's any sense of meaning in it.

Therefore, if you the respected posters are willing to share your creative thoughts and interesting ideas for the common purpose of enhancing collective knowledge of this sub form then write them in understandable semantics that it won't insult the reader's intellect.

You have a bulgarian accent when you write English

[Dilberth]

bavarac6 kaže:

1. She realized that he did not love her any more.
2. She realized that he does not love her any more.

What is the difference? Is it possible to write it as in the 2nd example? Tnx.

I would say, both examples are correct. It depends on what actually happened.

1 She realized that he did not love her any more.
Meaning: She realized (yesterday) that he didn't love her any more (even before yesterday, when she found out that he didn't take her to a party last month.)

2. She realized that he does not love her any more.
Meaning: She realized (then and there) that he does not love her any more (when he told her right at that same time, he doesn't want to see her any more).

All this you can directly translate to Croatian and you'll "feel" the difference.

1. Ona je shvatila da je on ne voli.
2. Ona je shvatila da ju on nije (nikada) volio.

The other examples are about the same. Depending what you are really trying to say, both sentences are correct.

[Dilberth]

Just noticed my Croatian translation is in a wrong sequence. The sentence No. 2 should be No.1. Sorry.

[goldentip]

Can you pronounce the American English sound which is in-between t and d like in water, matter. The Americans never pronounce it like t. However, it's not either a clear d sound. It's much softer, but it resembles the d sound.

[Dilberth]

goldentip kaže:

Can you pronounce the American English sound which is in-between t and d like in water, matter. The Americans never pronounce it like t. However, it's not either a clear d sound. It's much softer, but it resembles the d sound.

You are apsolutly right. It does sound like a soft "d"!

[goldentip]

Dilberth kaže:

You are apsolutly right. It does sound like a soft "d"!

In the Mid-Atlantic accent - which was used by some actresses like Bette Davis they pronounce clearly the t in water and matter. But nowadays no one in America speaks like that.

[slafko]

Wouldn't Mid-Atlantic technically be underwater?

[Dilberth]

slafko kaže:

Wouldn't Mid-Atlantic technically be underwater?

It's a "fake accent" spoken by the NE elite and it sounds awful.

Other upper-class Americans known for speaking with a consistent Mid-Atlantic accent include William F. Buckley, Jr.,[10] Gore Vidal, H. P. Lovecraft,[11] Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, George Plimpton,[12][13] Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (who began affecting it while at Miss Porter's School and maintained it lifelong),[14] Louis Auchincloss,[15] Norman Mailer,[16] Diana Vreeland,[17] Joseph Alsop,[18][19][20] Julia Child,[21] and Cornelius Vanderbilt IV,[22] all of whom were raised, partly or primarily, in the Northeastern United States (and some additionally educated in London). The monologuist Ruth Draper's recorded "The Italian Lesson" gives an example of this East Coast American upper-class diction of the 1940s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent

[goldentip]

Dilberth kaže:

It's a "fake accent" spoken by the NE elite and it sounds awful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent

It depends on who is speaking with the Mid-Atlantic accent. For example, Bette Davis sounds wonderful to me. However, nobody uses it anymore.

To me it sounds a lot better than an Arkansas accent like Bill Clinton. Also, Hillary Clinton changed her accent, while living in Arkansas and after she moved to the White House. She had a fake Arkansas accent which by the way she lost completely after she became a Senator for the state of New York.

[Silenzio]

Hey. I've been learning english fo 8 years in the school. I was good ar english. But after high school I started to learn some other language. This new language I speak better than english now. I didn't realise it until this summer. I was in this country and I spoke only other language but when came one situation where I could speak english I tried but I sounded like biginner.

How could I improve it? And also renew vocabulary and english phrases.

[Dilberth]

Silenzio kaže:

Hey. I've been learning english fo 8 years in the school. I was good ar english. But after high school I started to learn some other language. This new language I speak better than english now. I didn't realise it until this summer. I was in this country and I spoke only other language but when came one situation where I could speak english I tried but I sounded like biginner.

How could I improve it? And also renew vocabulary and english phrases.

It's very simple, next summer spend some time in an English-speaking country. Meanwhile try to improve your spelling and the capitalization rules.
All the best.

[kuhanikrompir]

Hello,

I am asking for some help with past tenses in the following examples.
The Examples are from the websites who teach English but no explanation.


1.

Past simple:
''My parents ate a lot of junk food when they were young''

shoudn't it be:
''My parents were eating a lot of junk food while they were young'' ?


or: ''We played volleyball in the afternoon''
- shoudn't it be: ''We were playing volleyball in the afternoon''?

1st Example was going on for few years,
2nd Example was going on for some time,
So why the Websites wrote in Past Simple instead of Continous?

[Rakkatakka]

Generally, the rule is if there is a certain point in time (in other words, you know something happened for a fact at a certain time), you use past simple. The rule that's taught usually, "if something lasts for a longer period of time you use continuous tenses" is often wrong.

For example, in the first sentence if you were using continuous (as you wanted to) it would mean something like they were eating junk food all the time, non-stop, when they were young. Also, it's just a fact that you're telling someone and you know it to be true, so you use past simple.

In the second sentence you could probably use the continuous tense, but only if you want to point out that that action was important, and then something happened that possibly interrupted it; for example "We were playing volleyball in the afternoon and then it started raining." Not like this. Also, "in the afternoon" isn't really a longer period of time, even if you were following the general rule taught at schools.

[Kaidos]

Dilberth kaže:

It's very simple, next summer spend some time in an English-speaking country. Meanwhile try to improve your spelling and the capitalization rules.
All the best.

this just doesnt sound right. very non-native like

[Kaidos]

Dilberth kaže:

It's very simple; next summer, spend some time in an English-speaking country. Meanwhile, try to improve your spelling and the capitalization rules.
All the best.

there, now its better. not good, but better

[antilles]

Rakkatakka kaže:

Generally, the rule is if there is a certain point in time (in other words, you know something happened for a fact at a certain time), you use past simple. The rule that's taught usually, "if something lasts for a longer period of time you use continuous tenses" is often wrong.

For example, in the first sentence if you were using continuous (as you wanted to) it would mean something like they were eating junk food all the time, non-stop, when they were young. Also, it's just a fact that you're telling someone and you know it to be true, so you use past simple.

In the second sentence you could probably use the continuous tense, but only if you want to point out that that action was important, and then something happened that possibly interrupted it; for example "We were playing volleyball in the afternoon and then it started raining." Not like this. Also, "in the afternoon" isn't really a longer period of time, even if you were following the general rule taught at schools.

very well explained.

however, s/he won't get it.

he should not concern himself with such questions at his level (pre-intermediate, i'd say).
i strongly discourage my adult students from asking them at that level.

[Rakkatakka]

antilles kaže:

very well explained.

however, s/he won't get it.

he should not concern himself with such questions at his level (pre-intermediate, i'd say).
i strongly discourage my adult students from asking them at that level.

Well that's his/her problem if they won't get it; if still interested, they can research further. I don't like the idea of discouraging question asking, even if something is above one's level. However, I disagree that the basics of past simple/continuous do not belong to a beginner level. It's the basics of the English language (if you ask me), since you can't form a sentence without tenses. Besides, if you're retelling any event to a person you will most likely use one of the past tenses.