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This explains why a writer (including me!) will add and erase commas when revising their manuscript for the thousandth time, telling me "It's not done yet" until I finally have to snatch it out of their trembling hands saying "ENOUGH." I swear, commas were created to drive writers CRAZY.
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I'm a Head of EAL Department at a school in Vietnam, and have worked in China trying to find what Prabha has asked for, standarized testing for ESL kids at young ages.
The problem with TESOL is that it's adult-biased. And yes the Young Learners from Cambridge is pretty good, but you'll have to supplement it with other stuff too.
The problem is that with young learners you have all sorts of developmental issues to be mindful of. Teaching contractions to a 8 year-old probably isn't the best idea, that sort of thing.
Basically, the answer is no. You'll have to be creative.
The problem with TESOL is that it's adult-biased. And yes the Young Learners from Cambridge is pretty good, but you'll have to supplement it with other stuff too.
The problem is that with young learners you have all sorts of developmental issues to be mindful of. Teaching contractions to a 8 year-old probably isn't the best idea, that sort of thing.
Basically, the answer is no. You'll have to be creative.
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Well, Debbie, you all are just plain un-American down there, and I don't know how to account for NE's lack of support for the ruling parties, whose stewardship has gotten us where we are today.Given our road preferences, you're a left-winger and I'm a right-winger.
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(Apologies to the Francophiles. Can't do the accent aigu on this laptop.)
Here's a sentence I came across:"I don't know whatever happened to self-respect."
Shouldn't that be "what ever" in this case? Or is the single word becoming standard?
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I always put the space in. The word without the space seems like an interjection al la Debbie's kids. However, even dictionary.com disagrees with me. The usage has changed.(Totally no comma before Tyler. Totally no pause there. Totally.)
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Here's a way to drive yourself crazy.1. "I don't know whatever happened to Baby Jane."
2. "I don't know what ever happened to Baby Jane."
Okay, grammatically they're different. The first instance introduces a noun clause modifying the main clause.
The second shows "ever" modifying "happened" What happened ... in the end; finally?
But semantically, have we really said anything different? Is there a clear distinction in what the two sentences mean?
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That's my 2 cents worth...for whatever it is worth!!!
Or you could delete the "ever" and make the sentence clearer. ;)ps to NE: Here is how to make the neat accent marks in MSWord (scroll down a bit for the window's version). For any program, the alt + # works.
Or you could always spell it wrong and save the accented version in your browser's dictionary.
I'm happy I looked it up because I didn't know what the shortcuts were for the mac. And those shortcuts work in any program. I <3 mac.
So, all together now: Touché.
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-- Alt + 3-less
Well, you do have to type it in quickly for the alt plus #s to work. You could also take the first link and copy paste the letters as you go. Sorry it didn't work for all of you.
This may not technically be a grammar question, more of a semantics one, but what is the difference between "take" and "bring" in usage? Is it a question of proximity? For instance, when do I use "I'll take him there" versus "I'll bring him there?" I always use the wrong one, it seems.
Sorry if this question is in the wrong discussion.
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The mass of men are better at being "takers" than "bringers"; I know that much!
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If I'm standing next to you and talking about something, say the Golden Gate Bridge, that's away from us, I would say about a third party, "I'll take him there."
If we were on the phone and you were already at the Bridge, and I was coming to see you, I'd say about a third party, "I'll bring him there."
To you, "Can I bring anything to your party?"
To my husband, "I'm taking cookies to the party."
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And Ginnie wins the "archival response" award for using Post #206 to answer Post #14 written by a guy (Grumpus) who, odds are, doesn't even read this thread anymore and hasn't since Arbor Day (or some such bizarre-o day or other).
I'm not sure, I think I'm still confused and that maybe because we have two similar words in French but one means taking someone there and leaving whereas the other is taking someone with you there and staying.It's not quite the same, right?
So I'll say "I'll take him (from here to go) there" but "I'll bring him there (to you)."
Is that correct?
Are there any good Internet sites dealing with grammatical rules?
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Or not. Good luck!
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http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ide...
i love semi-colonsthey are the most useful of all punctuation;yah i know
and what is all this blather about choosing
the rule is, if you are changing the very thought and direction of the sentence the semi-colon is the swinging door to get you there
and it's semi-colon isn't it?
17.7? oh woe is we
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Odd thing is, I've actually tried to use the occasional semicolon when writing fiction -- you know, to add variety. Never thought of it as pretentious. Certainly never thought of it as wimpy (like eating quiche, which I also am happy to do if someone else can make a better one than I can).
Funny thing is, two sentences separated by a semicolon are actually considered ONE sentence -- a compound sentence, in fact. IC;IC. (IC = Independent Clause).
Can someone help me with Further vs. Farther? There is a sign on an office building near here that is having trouble getting tenants. The sign says "Why drive farther? Lease here for a shorter commute." If I was writing that sentence, I would have written "Why drive further?". But I'm not at all secure in that wording. Thanks!
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Waiting to be enlightened...
i don't want to discuss this any further because the info isn't in a book across the roomso i would have to go farther to retrieve it
further is conceptual
farther is geographical?
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"Farther describes distances: Chicago is farther from Miami than I thought.
Further suggests quantity or degree: You extended the curfew further than you should have."
This is what I've always thought...but don't know the rule!
Thanks! The sign was right and I was wrong...ah well. At least I learned something!
Here's one for the language gurus:What is the difference in usage between onset and outset. Do I say "At the outset of the crisis" or "At the onset of the crisis?"
Is onset used mainly when talking about diseases?
Thanks, Bunny -- the distinction between the words is finely drawn. I learn definitions easily enough, but connotations are much harder to fix.
Thanks, Bunny, your explanation makes perfect sense. In my case, then, onset is definitely the word I want to use, since I'm talking about a skirmish that escalates into a war.
i set out one day to join a group of language gurus
hoping to improve my rather lax leanings and mindless meanderings
if i had only known at the outset that they would lead me down such a winding path
i may have hesitated or mayhaps i would have hastened my pace
in eager anticipation of the journey
realizing it was just the onset of daffy definitions and subtle assimilation
of grammaretics
;)
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The only unresolved matter is that Debbie drives on the wrong side of the road and claims I do. She probably has said the best word on the comma situation, but the "wrong" side of the road is supposed to be defined in terms of American exceptionalism. Next she'll be telling us they don't vote either Democratic or Republican.