|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 16, 2020 9:48:32 GMT
Can I ask about a few things which students wrote in English texts? With some things, I'm not sure if that is actually wrong or just a slightly weird way of expressing things.
1. "I was moved there in this time" 2. I think it's very special in this time that the parents are married" 3. "we make a party"
|
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 16, 2020 9:59:43 GMT
4. "he is in a difficult age"
|
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Mar 16, 2020 12:03:21 GMT
They don't sound natural. In fact I'm not even sure what number 1 is getting at. 1. "I was moved there in this time" - moved to what kind of place? what time range / how specific a time are they talking about? 2. I think it's very special in this time that the parents are married" If they mean that not many parents are married, firstly I think "very special" is a bit of exaggeration - unmarried parents are certainly more accepted but I hardly think married parents are rare or exceptional! For "in this time", informally you might say "in this day and age" but that is almost a cliche. "these days" is probably the most natural. 3. "we make a party" "We had a party" if it just happened or "we held a party" if it was organised (you could use either word really) Or "we formed a party" if they are talking about a political party  4. "he is in a difficult age" "he is at a difficult age" |
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Mar 16, 2020 12:07:22 GMT
Can I ask about a few things which students wrote in English texts? With some things, I'm not sure if that is actually wrong or just a slightly weird way of expressing things. 1. "I was moved there in this time" 2. I think it's very special in this time that the parents are married" 3. "we make a party"
4. "he is in a difficult age"
I'm unhappy with all of these. - "I was moved there in this time" - time is an instant and not a period, so I would say this is incorrect. You could say, "I was moved there in this period of time or at this time. "I was moved to Head Office at the time of the financial crisis." The use of the passive depends on the context. If it was a voluntary move, it would be more usual to use the active, "I moved there (in the period of time) after the Vietnam War."
- "I think it's very special in this time that the parents are married" - the same applies to "in this time" but the whole sentence is clumsy. You could say, "in these times," but not "in this time."
- "we make a party" - arguably correct but unusual. You hold a party not make one.
- "he is in a difficult age" - we're all living in a difficult age because of climate change but the subject of your third point is at a difficult age. Idiomatically incorrect.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kye on Mar 16, 2020 12:19:57 GMT
I'd say (former ESL teacher here)
1: I moved there at that time
2. I think it's pretty special at this time that the parents are married.
3. We're having a party.
4. He is at a difficult age.
|
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Mar 16, 2020 14:11:10 GMT
There you go, 3 different answers! (Except for item 4 which we all agree on) |
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 16, 2020 17:13:13 GMT
Thanks. Still helps. :-D
|
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 17, 2020 12:29:47 GMT
More:
1. "in two thousand three in April"
2. "Both of us couldn’t pass the university which we wanted to go the most"
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2020 12:45:01 GMT
More:
1. "in two thousand three in April"
2. "Both of us couldn’t pass the university which we wanted to go the most"
1. I'd say "In April 2003" (two thousand and three) 2. I'd say "Both of us couldn't get into the university that we most wanted to go to." Alternative answers are available  |
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Mar 17, 2020 13:27:05 GMT
More:
1. "in two thousand three in April"
2. "Both of us couldn’t pass the university which we wanted to go the most"
1. In British English, it would be "in two thousand and three in April." It's correct but clumsy, "in April 2003" is much clearer. 2. This is incorrect because the speaker is talking about passing the university entrance exam, not the physical university itself. More acceptable would be, "neither of us could pass the university entrance exam that we wanted to go to the most" but even that is flawed because the speaker wants to get into the university and not into the exam. "Neither of us could (pass the exam to) get into the university we most wanted to go to." |
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Mar 17, 2020 14:03:49 GMT
1. "in April of 2003" is another good option.
Years are always written as digits not spelled out in words, however formal writing - except in extreme cases - perhaps laws.
2. The speaker might not be focusing on the entrance exam or entrance criteria.
"Neither of us could get into the university we wanted to go to the most." - common informal language.
"Neither of us could get into the university that we wanted to go to the most." -= strictly, 'that' is better than 'which' here because it's a clause defining the university, not an extra bit of information. But may not be a widely followed distinction in these times!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2020 14:08:44 GMT
More:
1. "in two thousand three in April"
2. "Both of us couldn’t pass the university which we wanted to go the most"
1. In British English, it would be "in two thousand and three in April." It's correct but clumsy, "in April 2003" is much clearer. Wouldn't you always put the year last? Month followed by year seems logical to me. |
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Mar 17, 2020 14:27:18 GMT
1. In British English, it would be "in two thousand and three in April." It's correct but clumsy, "in April 2003" is much clearer. Wouldn't you always put the year last? Month followed by year seems logical to me. Yes, I would but I'm trying to answer Claudia's question, "I'm not sure if that is actually wrong or just a slightly weird way of expressing things." |
|
|
|
Post by bobbridges on Mar 17, 2020 14:39:15 GMT
Springboarding off "we make a party": It's always fascinating to me to see how different languages treat some of the most common verbs ("do", "make", "put", "take" etc). For instance, in English we "take" a photograph; how does that make sense? We don't "make" a party—not that "make" is unclear in this case, but it just isn't the way we say it—yet "make" strikes me as the most direct way to say it.
Meanwhile we say something "works" if we mean it accomplishes its desired purpose. But in French when something works it "marches". In Spanish it "serves" (or so I'm told). You gotta learn these things when you're speaking another language or they'll think you talk funny. Well, they'll be right, of course :-).
Oh, and different nouns are countable and uncountable in different languages. (I'm not sure what we call this in English; I encountered the concept in the introduction to a Swedish-English dictionary, and "countable" is what they called it there.) In English, for example, we have furniture; in French they have furnitures, that is, each furniture is what we would call an item of furniture. Same with hair; they don't have hair, they have hairs.
Ok, I shouldn't stray too far from the topic. It's just interesting.
By the way, I don't have too much trouble with being "in" a difficult age. "At" sounds a little more natural, but "in" sounds ok to me too.
|
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Mar 18, 2020 23:44:21 GMT
By the way, I don't have too much trouble with being "in" a difficult age. "At" sounds a little more natural, but "in" sounds ok to me too.The difficult age being the 21st century? The way the OP stated it, it could be of the, "It was the best of times and it was the worst of times," type of reference. It needn't have been a reference to a person going through a difficult period in their lives, like adolescence, but a turbulent historical period. For me, 'at' signifies the former, while 'in' flags the latter. It depends upon what is being referred to in the 'difficult age'. |
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 19, 2020 9:25:39 GMT
Thanks, everyone.
There is another one: "he is helpful for all people"
|
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 19, 2020 9:38:41 GMT
And "we speak about all the things in our life about which we need to talk"
|
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Mar 19, 2020 10:37:53 GMT
5. "he is helpful for all people" - not incorrect, just clumsy - "he helps everyone," "everyone finds him helpful"
6. "we speak about all the things in our life about which we need to talk" - "we speak" or "we talk"? I would say it should be "we talk."
"in our life" in the singular is a quaint custom when talking about married couples who, especially 100 years ago, were not reckoned to have separate lives (they have one life together). I guess the author really means "in our lives."
The use of "about which" is clumsy and unnecessary. There used to be a rule 75 years ago, beloved of hegemonic school teachers, that a sentence must not end with a preposition. Winston Churchill knocked that one on the head when he objected to a civil servant's 'correction' of his text saying, "that is the sort of impertinence up with which I will not put."
"we talk about everything in our lives that we need to talk about"
|
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 19, 2020 10:58:34 GMT
Thank you very much!
|
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Mar 19, 2020 11:40:52 GMT
"he is helpful to everyone" is another way to say it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 20, 2020 9:54:02 GMT
"While we went to the same high school, we studied and played together everyday."
|
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 20, 2020 10:40:54 GMT
And "I can't be good at dancing"
|
|
|
|
Post by tangent on Mar 20, 2020 11:30:00 GMT
7. "While we went to the same high school, we studied and played together everyday" - 'everyday' is an adjective and cannot be used to qualify the verb 'played together'. It should be 'every day'. The use of 'went' sounds peculiar but I can't put my finger on why it is wrong.
"While we were at the same high school, we studied and played together every day."
8. "I can't be good at dancing" - why can't you? Because you have only one leg? It sounds odd and may imply the wrong meaning but it's not technically incorrect. "I can't dance well."
|
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Mar 20, 2020 12:57:30 GMT
Sometimes I forget what this thread is about ... "Mistake or not?" ... and I hope it's not Kye's new puppy thread  or, worse, Mari's future new baby thread ... but fortunately it's neither  |
|
|
|
Post by JoeP on Mar 20, 2020 12:58:27 GMT
"While we went to the same high school, we studied and played together everyday." If they mean "during the years that", probably better to say " When we went to the same high school, we studied and played together every day." And "I can't be good at dancing" Hmm. What are they even trying to say? "I'm not good at dancing [now]" ... "I can't dance well [however much I try]" ... "I [logically] can't be good at dancing [because I am quadriplegic]" |
|
|
|
Post by Kye on Mar 20, 2020 13:43:22 GMT
I can't dance; I'm not good at dancing.
|
|
|
|
Post by whollygoats on Mar 20, 2020 16:23:52 GMT
I concur with the ginger cat.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mari on Mar 23, 2020 10:11:51 GMT
While we went could be correct, but only if the context makes it clear that at some point one of them went to a different school.
I love this thread. So many classic mistakes <3
|
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 23, 2020 12:34:31 GMT
Thanks, everyone. It's for an analysis of a project and these are all from texts or transcripts of the oral part.
In some cases, I think sentences or parts of sentence sounds slightly odd, but not wrong in which case I don't count them as a mistake. "I can't be good at dancing" is one of them. No idea why they did not just say "I can't dance".
|
|
|
|
Post by Elis on Mar 23, 2020 12:39:25 GMT
"We met in School time and since then kept together"
|
|
or, worse, Mari's future new baby thread 
