Improve your English (in English, please!)

[Kathrin74]

Woden kaže:

P.S
How is basking in the streets going?

It's going quite well ! Not always the same, of course, but that is normal. Sometimes I play a long time and make very little, and then suddenly a lot at once .

And the weather is wonderful......
I think in America they would call this Indian Summer, how about in Britain?

[Woden]

Kathrin74 kaže:

It's going quite well ! Not always the same, of course, but that is normal. Sometimes I play a long time and make very little, and then suddenly a lot at once .
?

It is nice to hear that some cultivated people still appreciate arts and are willing to put a couple of dollars into a busker's hat.
I went to a public library today and borrowed a book called "101 Hits for Buskers".

Spanish Flea - Etcher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APJu4yscqAs

I misread it as Spanish Fly ( an aphrodisiac ).


Top of the world - Carpenter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1u6628Rdqs


Leaving on a jetplane - John Denver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLBKOcUbHR0



I must say this with regret that as I'm growing older and older I can not play a guitar to entertain other people anymore. The innocence of youth is gone.

There is no money in the world that could be paid for me to make some idiots (no matter what social status they have) forget their worries for a day and give them a therapeutic value and happiness only the music can deliver.

They can have their cortisol reduced by happy pills prescribed on a piece of paper from their doctor.



I might do it for a good friend, though.

And the weather is wonderful......
I think in America they would call this Indian Summer, how about in Britain?

Indian summer is called different names in Britain and around the world depending what a saint's name day it falls on in October or November. But I like the one when it refers to warm periods of weather in the fall as Old Wives' Summer.


I get a picture that men use their wives for hot water bottles at nights and days to keep warm.

[Woden]

Can you recognise this girl?

Well her name is Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor. She is half Irish and half Croatian.

And her photo appeared on the front page of a popular magazine ELLE.



Here is a small part of her interview:

“It’s very specific. I have definitely learned how to be flexible. Before, I would just be like, ‘Fuck it.’ I have such a strong idea of what is cool and great for me. If I think something is shit, I express that. But now the circle of people I work with all the time is huge and spans continents, and you have to be quite conscientious. So it’s, like, learning not to hurt people’s feelings. Obviously, I am hanging out with more people now who are not teenage; I’m in different circles. But I am a teenager. My brain is, like, a certain age. Everyone is talking about you. You have to learn not to care as much.”

http://www.elle.com/news/culture/lor...r-shoot-photos


She is so young as 17 or 18 and so smart.


I bought the magazine just because of her to read the full interview.


Lest me forget that she can sing as well:

Royals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcIKh6sBtc

[Kathrin74]

I actually write and sing my own songs )).

> and happiness only the music can deliver.

here the "the" is wrong. I think that is because we are talking about music in general.
Similar to:
Milk is good for you. (general) (ok let's not discuass about whether or not milk actually IS good for you, that is controversial)
versus: The milk in the fridge is old. (a particular carton of milk).

> Old Wives' Summer

That is used in German (Altweibersommer) as well as in Croatian (bablje ljeto); I just read these days that it comes from (or may come from) a sort of spiderwebs that shine in the warm autumn sun:
(link is in Croatian, sorry):
http://www.crometeo.hr/zasto-bablje-ljeto/

[Woden]

Woden kaže:

There are only three articles in the English grammar books and they are governed by complex rules.

More on this a littler bit later.

Woden kaže:

Lets start with this table



I have a book.

The book is on my desk.

The book is in the table. <--- I don't know why this sentence is correct. Can anyone explain?


In this example the noun 'book' goes from indefinite to definite so we change articles according to the table.

P.S.
More later

sunshinestar kaže:

The comes from word that.
SOm, maybe it will be easier for you that you imagine to put "the" everywhere you could put "that".

Woden kaže:

And that’s a smart trick to use when working out the 'the' article and its placement in a sentence. That suggestion goes to my treasure trove of English language. Thanks


P.S.
Why do you call me Som(e)?
I am Woden.

Emericzy kaže:

Just as a and an come from the word (or number) one. You can (and should) put a/an ahead of a word when it's OK to put one.

Lunarna. kaže:

This is a great explanation. Thank you.

Please, how you would explain where to put 'the' or better how to know when and where put it?

Emericzy kaže:

Well, sunshinestar has given a very good explanation:



If you can put 'that' before a noun in a sentence -- without changing the meaning -- well, that's the place where you should put 'the'.

Emericzy kaže:

BTW, there's a similar recognition trick for the choice bewtween 'which' and 'that'. If you can (or should) put a comma before it, it's 'which'. If you cannot, it's 'that'.

Another trick is to ask yourself whether it's possible to replace 'which' with 'which one'. If you can, than it's proper to use 'which'. If you cannot, you had better use 'that'.

deonisa kaže:

Why "a Croatian alphabet"? There is only one Croatian alphabet, so you should say "the Croatian alphabet".

Woden kaže:

Remember lurkers, when there is one of the kind of anything you should think it is one and only and you put an article "the" infront of it.

Put that in your treasure trove.

Credits go to deonisa for giving us a valuable hint free of charge.

Thanks.

Thanks Kathrin74.

> and happiness only the music can deliver.

here the "the" is wrong. I think that is because we are talking about music in general.
Similar to:
Milk is good for you. (general) (ok let's not discuass about whether or not milk actually IS good for you, that is controversial)
versus: The milk in the fridge is old. (a particular carton of milk).

This error of mine is completely opposite to one I made earlier. The two very important grammar mistakes about articles that were corrected for benefit of learning English for me and others.

---------

We have collected some learning material for those who want to start on the article of English grammar.

Whoever give a thought to this stuff and study it for a while he/she will be able to use the articles for making simple to intermediate sentences.

[Woden]

Kathrin74 kaže:

I actually write and sing my own songs )).

You wouldn’t mind posting some of your own favourite songs.


Here is one of mine:


Her

My courtly love I'll give to you
Cos you made me stare with an open mouth
Your beauty has no rival
Others fall to their knees


Chorus:

You are the star with an eternal shine
I feel around you just fine
Time has no end in this world
And my mind is literally swirled

Oh Oh Oh Ooooh
Oh Oh Oh Ooooh
Oh Oh Oh Ooooh
Oh Oh Oh Ooooh


If you ever leave me my lady
I'll forever be in prison of
The whole world will be hell on earth for me
Without you, Ah without you



Chorus:

You are the star with an eternal shine
I feel around you just fine
Time has no end in this world
And my mind is literally swirled

Oh Oh Oh Ooooh
Oh Oh Oh Ooooh
Oh Oh Oh Ooooh
Oh Oh Oh Ooooh

[Woden]

Guys I'm at work.

It's Sunday. What are you up to?


I've heard there are about seventeen people infected with Ebola in Croatia.

Not sure if it is true!

[Kathrin74]

I came back from church just a while ago.
It is so sunny and mild I am considering going for swim in the afternoon.........
Sunday I take the day off from street music.

[Woden]

Kathrin74 kaže:

I came back from church just a while ago.
It is so sunny and mild I am considering going for swim in the afternoon.........
Sunday I take the day off from street music.

I have first gotten acquainted with Catholic religion back in my adolescent life when I was attending Sunday School classes at a local church.

Even in my first class of Sunday School I've noticed something beyond ordinary, something that can only be described as a transcendent dimension of divine.

It was a divine love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There at Sunday School we were shown the guidelines of ethical life that every man and woman should strive to achieve:

Those life guidelines are as follow (and I still remember them):

1. You shall have no other Gods but me.
2. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy.
5. Respect your father and mother.
6. You must not commit murder.
7. You must not commit adultery.
8. You must not steal.
9. You must not give false evidence against your neighbour.
10. You must not be envious of your neighbour's goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbour.

This wisdom is given to us by the God Almighty and it is immanent in each and every one of us.


The world would be so much a better place to live in had we found the God in ourselves and taken heed to Him.

[Kathrin74]

The ten commandments .
Of course if everybody followed them, the world would be wonderful! (Not saying the world is not wonderful now. It is. It is full of wonders, and beautiful. I mean a different kind of wodnerful .
Nobody would kill, steal, there would be no cheating on husbands and wives, everybody would leave others live in peace and not attack them out of envy, there would be respect within families and among people....

And Jesus also taught us, and teaches us, how to love
If one loves, automatically one WANTS TO fulfill the ten commandments. Love never wishes or wants to do anybody any harm.

I am not sure f we are allowed to discuass religion here though.
But in terms of language , look at what a good ecxample of conditional that sentence above is: "Nobody would kill, steal, there would be no...."

And somebody could try to explain whehn we would put "When one loves", and when we would put "If one loves". I was torn between the two right now. I think I do know the answer though. Just playing "teach" now. Ha.

(by the way, I came back to my faith as an adult. Was raised catholic as a child, but later kind of neglected it. Then started to want to come back, then came back full force sometime in my twenties.)

[robot jura]

Kathrin74 kaže:

And somebody could try to explain whehn we would put "When one loves", and when we would put "If one loves". I was torn between the two right now. I think I do know the answer though. Just playing "teach" now. Ha.

I'd say that using "when" means we're sure that people will experience something at some point in their life.
Using "if" to me stands for some ammount of uncertainty in this.

I haven't thought about the ten commandments as such for some time. Seeing them listed, number 1 to 3 remind me again why I don't like organized religion.

[Kathrin74]

robot jura kaže:

I'd say that using "when" means we're sure that people will experience something at some point in their life.
Using "if" to me stands for some ammount of uncertainty in this.

I thought it more like this:
IF is causal.
WHENis temporal.

Using "when", it means something like: Whenever... during the time when.....
So in th eexample above, it would stress that one would not love all the time, but WHEN one loves, one would want to live by the commandments.
IF has more of an always-or-never implication.
Hm.
So.
The tornness remains, because what did I want to express?
Of course NOT that, for the indivudual, it is an always-or-never thing.
We may fail and then love again.
So maybe I should habe taken when.
But maybe the boundaries between the two are softer anyway.

robot jura kaže:

I haven't thought about the ten commandments as such for some time. Seeing them listed, number 1 to 3 remind me again why I don't like organized religion.

Again, IF/WHEN one loves God who IS LOVE, then why would one want to have other Gods and why would one want to abuse His name???
Wouldn't make sense.
Neither indivudually notr in any organized way.

[robot jura]

Kathrin74 kaže:

Again, IF/WHEN one loves God who IS LOVE, then why would one want to have other Gods and why would one want to abuse His name???
Wouldn't make sense.
Neither indivudually notr in any organized way.

Yes, but not everyone defines God as Love.

I'm more of the "What's in a name? that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet" persuasion. Commandments 5-10 are what counts (to me). If one is a good person, I don't care what God he/she/it believes in, or not.

Have you ever read "Nathan the Wise" by Lessing? It's a wonderful play. Pope Francis reminds me often of it, in a good way of course.

[Kathrin74]

I think I read that in school, long ago. Don't really remember it. Isn't that the one that has the story with the three rings?

I believe that loving God and loving other people goes hand in hand. God has created those other people and has created everything we love.

(English question: why do I use the present perfect and not the simple past? Just asked myself this. Again a very fine difference.)

[robot jura]

Kathrin74 kaže:

I think I read that in school, long ago. Don't really remember it. Isn't that the one that has the story with the three rings?

Yes, that's the one. I once saw a production in Berlin that was very good. I don't know why there aren't more new productions, since it's very relevant these days. Being about the three great monotheist religions and tolerance...

Kathrin74 kaže:

God has created those other people and has created everything we love.

(English question: why do I use the present perfect and not the simple past? Just asked myself this. Again a very fine difference.)

I wasn't sure either, although using present perfect seemed accurate right away. So I checked.
We use present perfect "to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time expressions..."
So, talking about God's actions, one has to use present perfect.

[FeetF1]

Kathrin74 kaže:

I believe that loving God and loving other people goes hand in hand. God has created those other people and has created everything we love.

All the religions proclaim love, peace, understanding... So, why are there so much wars and tensions in the world and between the religions?
Love for others or love just for OUR others?

Theoretically, love sounds pretty neat.
Practically, it comes with a lot of sh*t.

(Teoretski - ljubav lijepo zvuči...
Malčice je drukčije u praksi...)

[Kathrin74]

robot jura kaže:

We use present perfect "to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time expressions..."
So, talking about God's actions, one has to use present perfect.

Well, you could say:
"God created us at some specific time in the past that we do not exactly know."
Using simple past.
Or: "God came into the world about 2000 years ago."



In my example, saying that God has created us, the emphasis is on the effect, or the fact, not the time.
If I remember right we do use present perfect to emphasize that an action has effect in the present.

FeetF1 kaže:

All the religions proclaim love, peace, understanding... So, why are there so much wars and tensions in the world and between the religions?

I would say that is because a lot of people misunderstand religion, or get carried away by impulses that have nothing to do with religion (striving for power, for example).
It doesn't make the religion itself wrong.


K.

[Woden]

FeetF1 kaže:

All the religions proclaim love, peace, understanding... So, why are there so much wars and tensions in the world and between the religions?
Love for others or love just for OUR others?

Theoretically, love sounds pretty neat.
Practically, it comes with a lot of sh*t.

(Teoretski - ljubav lijepo zvuči...
Malčice je drukčije u praksi...)

FeetF1,I see you are against religion because (in your wrong opinion) it causes wars and love come with sh..it (another wrong opinion) leaving an impression that you are a peace loving person

but

nonetheless you cite the words of Cetnik Duke Bora Djordjevic.







Riblja Čorba | Bora Đorđević Muzičar i četnik polaganje zakletve

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQhcM4ZBP8Y


P.S.

Do you support Četniks and their songs like "Avionu slomicu ti krila"?

[Kathrin74]

I think we should be careful not to get carried away too much into contraversial discussions here.

[FeetF1]

Woden kaže:

FeetF1,I see you are against religion because (in your wrong opinion) it causes wars and love come with sh..it (another wrong opinion) leaving an impression that you are a peace loving person

but

nonetheless you cite the words of Cetnik Duke Bora Djordjevic.

I know for Bora's statements and beliefs.

He also has songs against war and killings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTWA0Eo3yQM

Rat je završen...
Svet je savršen...
Živi, mrtvi, i ranjeni
Svi zajedno sahranjeni...
Ali rat je završen...

Ne zna se ko je dobio
Ne zna se ko je izgubio
Svako je ponekog ubio...
A rat je završen!
Srećom, rat je završen!

Ja nikog nisam ubio...
Ja nikom nisam presudio...
Ja nikog nisam povredio...
Ja nikog nisam pobedio...
http://testicanzoni.mtv.it/testi-Rib...5%A1en-7788036

I killed no one
I hurt no one
I defeated no one...

Woden kaže:

Do you support Četniks and their songs like "Avionu slomicu ti krila"?

I do not support them. I just enjoy Bora's songs & poetry.

Kathrin74 kaže:

I think we should be careful not to get carried away too much into contraversial discussions here.

Your statement about loving other people could also be labeled as controversial.