English Thread

In this thread, we attempt to learn to read, write, and speak English, a language which would be very useful to know. It is widely spoken throughout the world.

Do you speak English? Are you fluent? What resources did you use to learn? Can you give some examples in this thread? Posts some useful links.

Let's help each other out and learn a new language.

>>118
"I make no claim to be a paragon" = "I do not claim to be a paragon" = "I am not a paragon and I do not say that I am a paragon"

Do I understand correctly that "claim to be" is equal to "claim that (somebody who has claimed it) is/are"?

e.g. "Tom claims to be an expert" = "Tom claims that he's an expert".

I'm asking because it's strange for me that you English speakers think that when somebody claims to be something, he/she implies exactly himself/herself, not somebody else.

>>119
get off dope = stop taking dope (which usually means heroin but could mean marijuana)

>>122   they are the same because 'he's' = 'he is' and is is a form of ' to be'
tom claims (now) to be (all the time) an expert. vs tom claims (now) that he is (now) an expert. in this instance, he is an expert now in both sentences. but, if 'tom is known to be an expert' everyone knows he is an expert. 'tom knows he is an expert' means tom is confident. 'to be' is more substantial in some cases. it is hot (now) VS it is to be hot (later). as for what you find strange, yes, tom is the implied claimer, who else could be an expert in this sentence?

>>122
Omission of information occurs in English. I'm not sure what you find strange about it.

Or, another way to write what I just wrote:

Omission of information occurs in English. Not really sure what you find strange about it.

Both of these are perfectly valid and normal (though you could make the argument that the second isn't 'proper', it's certainly used with great frequency), even though the second lacks an explicit subject.

>>125
I'm not sure what you find strange about it
e.g. "disabling the ability to turn off javascript is not about safety as they claim to be" from https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/967188

It doesn't mean they say that they are about safety, right?

They're implying disabling (the ability to turn off javascript), not themselves.

They're implying
By the way, should I use present simple in this case?

>>126
That sentence sounds really awkward to me. I'm guessing the person who wrote it didn't read it after writing it. It should be "disabling the ability to turn off javascript is not about safety as they claim it is".

Can I say "I claim me to be ..."?
by analogy with "I want you to be patient".

>>129
It should be 'I claim myself to be ...'
But you could also just say 'I claim to be ...'

>>130
It should be 'I claim myself to be ...'
I was hesitating what to use: "me" or "myself". But I found this http://www.talkenglish.com/LessonDetails.aspx?ALID=2062 "Do you want me to pick up the kids?". So I decided to use "me".

Is it wrong to say "Do you want myself to pick up the kids?"?
What's the difference?

>>131
Because "myself" is reflexive or emphatic:

(1) You can use the word myself when "you" are doing something to "you" (e.g., I hate myself. I asked myself a question.)


(2) You can use the word myself for emphasis (e.g., I did it myself.)

You can say "I want myself to pick up the kids" (grammatically correct but awkward outside of certain contexts)

It isn't right to use past continuous for period of time after something else happened, right?

E.g. "I arrived at 8 o'clock and was eating at 11 o'clock" should be "I arrived at 8 o'clock and ate at 11 o'clock".

test

>>133
E.g. "I arrived and was eating" should be "I arrived and ate".
fix

He had no sleeping pills of any sort. He never did sleeping pills. He did uppers.

Are these 'did's mean 'had'? I mean, like using 'one' in order to not to repeat something.

>>136
Does these 'did's mean 'had'?
fix

>>137
do

>>136
"do" is a common verb used for drugs. You "take" medicine, but you "do" drugs.

For example, if you were taking sleeping pills legitimately (in order to sleep), you generally do not say "I'm gonna go do some sleeping pills", you'd say "I'm going to go take some sleeping pills". But if you were a junkie and you like the feeling, you might indeed say "I'm going to go do some sleeping pills".

>>133
The first one does indeed sound a bit off to me, but I'm not sure why. It's definitely possible to say "I arrived at 8 o'clock and was eating BY 11 o'clock", though. Take that how you will.

>>139
>"do" is a common verb used for drugs. You "take" medicine, but you "do" drugs.
It's interesting.

>go do
>go take
Are you sure there shouldn't be 'to' after 'go'?

>>141
Saying "go to take" or "go to do" sounds awkward, but I'm not capable of explaining why. Like, if I were talking to my friend, and I wanted to ask him out for lunch, I'd say "do you wanna go eat", not "do you wanna go to eat". I tried looking for an explanation of this online, but I couldn't find any.

If I had to explain it, "go to" + v sounds more like you are going to go somewhere and then do something, while "go" + v sounds more fluid, like it isn't necessarily a sequence. But this is just my general impression of things, and it might not be correct.

>>142
http://www.englishteachermelanie.com/vocabulary-how-to-use-the-verb-go/

I found this site that talks about it a bit. There's also this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5g93vJ64U8

Some people in the comments claim this is only an American thing, but I believe this is used in all forms of English. Maybe someone else knows more about it.

>>143
Wrong link, though that one is good too. Meant to post http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOTWazM7xPI

>>143
>>144
I think I get it. It's just omission of 'and': "go and do", "go and take".

hey guys,i wanna know about English.

Why foreign people can master Japanese easily?
We Japanese hard to master English. of cource Japanese is big different grammer and pronuciation with English what global language.

I'm happy if Native English speakers tell me.

hey guys,i wanna know about English.

Why foreign people can master Japanese easily?
We Japanese hard to master English. of cource Japanese is big different grammer and pronuciation with English what global language.

I'm happy if Native English speakers tell me.

hey guys,i wanna know about English.

Why foreign people can master Japanese easily?
We Japanese hard to master English. of cource Japanese is big different grammer and pronuciation with English what global language.

I'm happy if Native English speakers tell me.

English is harder to learn. Moon's pretty easy once you get enough kanji under your belt and have the tools to look up ones you don't.

Hello from Lang-8, by the way.

>>148
君達の勉強法はちょっと・・・
楽しんで勉強してるならどんどん成長するよ。
just reeeeeeeelax and have fun with it, brah.

>>148
English has many more random exceptions than Japanese. From my perspective, Japanese is more of a logic-based language, and learning it is a matter of adjusting to that logic. English is filled with all kinds of inconsistencies. Not to mention that many native English speakers use improper spelling and grammar. There are many rules that the vast majority of the English-speaking population are not aware of. Should you master English, you will most likely have a better knowledge of it than native speakers.

An interesting example of how English can be confusing is the GHOTI = FISH scenario (ゴートィ ＝ フィシュ).
Consider the English words
Tough (タッフ, looks like トウグフ/トウグホ) Tougufu/Touguho
Women (ウィメン, looks like ヲメン) Women
Nation (ネーシュン, looks like ナトィオン) Nation

touGH = taFfu
wOmen = uImen
naTIon = neeSHun
So therefore, GH + O + TI = F + I + SH.
Therefore, GHOTI is pronounced the same as FISH by that "logic".
However, any English speaker would pronounce GHOTI as ゴートィ, not as フィシュ. Just an example where English makes little sense.

>>151
It's a nice idea, but that's fundamentally just a spelling issue. How do you read 小鳥遊? How about 煙草? Or 新潟? Japanese has its fair share of illogical orthography. English's myriad spelling inconsistencies still don't compare to the thousands characters with multiple possible readings in Japanese. The existence of ateji alone attests to this fact. Spelling and pronunciation are simply a matter of memorization. In fact,. this is actually just about the only thing the Japanese English education system focuses on - rote memorization. So most Japanese people are, relatively speaking, actually pretty good at recognizing individual words and reading/spelling them.

The problem is that they're never encouraged to use English, or to see English as a language that is actually used. They learn it similar to the way we learn Latin: primarily vocabulary memorization and interpretation of extant text. So when they try to make a sentence or understand something said by an English speaker, they lock up and worry about whether they're right or wrong, or how the word is being used, or any number of other things that prevent them from holding a conversation. This is one of the main reasons Japanese people struggle with English so much.

It's not that it's impossible for a Japanese native speaker to learn English. I have several Japanese friends whose English is quite good, but none of these friends became proficient through classes or studying for hours on end. They used English, and eventually got good at English. It's as simple as that.

How do you pronounce 00s and 10s like in 2000/1900 or 2010/1910?

>>153
Are these years?

2000 - two thousand
1900 - nineteen hundred
2010 - two thousand ten or twenty-ten is acceptable, the latter is more common.
1910 - nineteen ten

Question

1. What is vogue sentence and words these days,nowadays?

2. Do American people know how to say British English,like this "I haven't got money"?

3. Why you pronunciation "KARATE" FOR "Kuwarladhy" and "KARAOKE" FOR "Kyaraokey"?

>>155
1 -> You mean slang? There's tons of slang out there, there's no point in trying to go through every single one.

2 -> Of course we know how to say British English. Mimicking a British accent might be tough, but the words themselves are easily understood.

3 -> Same reason Japanese people pronounce Vaccine as ワクチン.

Oops, I noticed the simple truth, so I'm glad if you read this my un-interesting theme.

Even if we mistake by the grammar of a foreign language which we are studying , native speakers analyzes and corrects our mistake.

So, the Japanese in whom the feeling of repulsion was implanted by the boring English lesson of the "grammar serious consideration principle of education system of Japan" to English should get to know that it is ridiculous to join in Lang-8 actively and to aim at perfection by English learning.

Do you have personal opinion about my poor writing?  :P

>>157
It sounds like you're trying extremely hard to make long, complex sentences, but it just comes out jumbled and confusing. Like the passive phrase "in whom the feeling of repulsion was implanted", that's nearly incomprehensible. Or the noun phrase "grammar serious consideration principle of education system of Japan".

Unless I'm misunderstanding your intent, it would be much better if you broke it up and avoided large noun phrases. For example,

"So I think it would be good if Japanese people learning English used Lang-8 to try and improve their English. Many of them have been bored to death by the strict grammar-oriented classes of the Japanese educational system, but language learning doesn't have to be this way."

This is a very loose translation (I am honestly not sure what you mean by "it is ridiculous to join Lang-8") but this kind of writing has a much better rhythm in English. Your original sentences still sound very Japanese.

>>158

Perfect! I can't write as simple English... hehe

anyway you wrote completely sentences here what I wanna write. :)

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

>>154
I mean: 20s = twenties, 30s = thirties etc.
How is 00s and 10s pronounced in that case