English Department

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Greetings,
Alpha Jr said:
Thanks brother. So for example I say the letter is for whom. I understand now,thanks one again.
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Exactly! :)

Your example is grammatically perfect, but, on the other hand, it's very 19th century, isn't it? :D

[It needs a question mark, too...]

Peace
 
LOL yeah it just poped out of my head and I types it....

About the ? I noticed it and will change it,thanks!
 
Greetings,

By the way, people, if you're regularly beset by questions of the "sang / sung", "who/whom" variety, this is an excellent book to look into:

words1_s-1.jpg


Bill Bryson: Troublesome Words

Peace
 
czgibson said:
Greetings,

By the way, people, if you're regularly beset by questions of the "sang / sung", "who/whom" variety, this is an excellent book to look into:

words1_s-1.jpg


Bill Bryson: Troublesome Words

Peace
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I have read several of Bryson's travel stories and enjoyed them.
Is this book written in a similar humorous style? (Can one write a book on language usage in a humorous style?? :?)
 
Greetings,
Alpha Jr said:
Are you an English teacher?
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I'm afraid so! I also teach music.

glo said:
I have read several of Bryson's travel stories and enjoyed them.
Is this book written in a similar humorous style? (Can one write a book on language usage in a humorous style?? )
Click to expand...

Yes - there are flashes of his humour throughout. It's much more entertaining than reference books usually are. :)

Peace
 
I have never really gotten past the first few pages of Bryson's books. It's not that they are boring necessarily, but they are just not sufficiently 'gripping' as it were. Perhaps they are not supposed to be but a gripping style is what I look for in a book. I love books that really hold your attention, such that you hate having to put the book down.
 
Re: Visual Thesaurus

I don't know if you are familiar with iGoogle but is can be very useful as a home page and because it lets you add gadgets; of which there are hundreds. But one I find very useful is called "Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus". It is in fact a cut down version of a full product and you can access the full product as well though there are some restriction (mainly to do with printing).

Often when you are writing you might feel you have not quite got the word you want and this is where a VISUAL Thesaurus can come in very handy because you get a kind of spider diagram and as you move the mouse pointer over it definitions appear. It of course is also useful if you come across words you don't fully understand.
 
Reported speech..
She said she loved me.
She said she loves me.
What's the difference between these two sentences? They're all supposed to describe her love to me that is still lasting.
 
Greetings,
Whatsthepoint said:
Reported speech..
She said she loved me.
She said she loves me.
What's the difference between these two sentences? They're all supposed to describe her love to me that is still lasting.
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If the intended meaning is that the love is still lasting, then both sentences are fine. It's your choice whether you use the verb in the past or the present tense.

If the love only existed in the past, then only the first one would be correct.

Peace
 
czgibson said:
Greetings,


If the intended meaning is that the love is still lasting, then both sentences are fine. It's your choice whether you use the verb in the past or the present tense.

If the love only existed in the past, then only the first one would be correct.

Peace
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What about 'she said she'd loved me'?
 
Muezzin said:
What about 'she said she'd loved me'?
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Contraction of:

'She said she had loved me'

Which means she had loved you in the past but doesn't love you anymore.
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I think it means she had loved you in the past but didn't love you anymore (at the point of making her statement)
 
:salamext:

Wonderful thread for me studying English 9 which the exam is coming up within days. Thanks for all your help brother.

:salamext:
 
Muezzin said:
Contraction of:

'She said she had loved me'

Which means she had loved you in the past but doesn't love you anymore.
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I know what it means but I'm not sure what the difference betwen using past perfect and regular past tence in this particular case, if there is any. According to czgibson "she said she loved me" can refer both to love that stopped at some point in the past as well as one still lasting and 'she said she's loved me' can only refers to the past, though glo says it refers to love that stopped in the past.

I thought it was similar to
I wish you were here (present)
I wish you had been here for me (past)

So I thought "she said she loves me" was wrong, but it isn't.
 
Greetings,
Whatsthepoint said:
I know what it means but I'm not sure what the difference betwen using past perfect and regular past tence in this particular case, if there is any. According to czgibson "she said she loved me" can refer both to love that stopped at some point in the past as well as one still lasting and 'she said she's loved me' can only refers to the past, though glo says it refers to love that stopped in the past.
Click to expand...

There may be little difference between the use of the past perfect and the past simple in this case, although if you use the past perfect it allows for some precision in the time scale of events, as in:

"She said she'd loved me from the moment she saw me."

Note that using the past perfect does not necessarily mean that the love no longer exists.

So I thought "she said she loves me" was wrong, but it isn't.
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It's not wrong, but it's rarely seen. A similar example turns up in a Beatles song:

"She said she loves you
And you know that can't be bad."

I hope that helps. :)

Peace
 
czgibson said:
Greetings,


There may be little difference between the use of the past perfect and the past simple in this case, although if you use the past perfect it allows for some precision in the time scale of events, as in:

"She said she'd loved me from the moment she saw me."

Note that using the past perfect does not necessarily mean that the love no longer exists.


Peace
Click to expand...
I can see that now.
When I read the sentence for the first time I had assumed that the love no longer existed ...

... as in "She said she'd loved me until she found out about my unfaithfulness."

So the only thing we know is that the love had existed prior to the time the statement was made, but we only know whether or not it still exists depending on other information given?
 
Greetings,
glo said:
So the only thing we know is that the love had existed prior to the time the statement was made, but we only know whether or not it still exists depending on other information given?
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That's right, but the not quite the whole story:

We know that the love had existed prior to the time of the statement, and prior to some other event in the past. That is the general usage of the past perfect tense.

Peace
 

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