joyce's notebook entry: May 03, 2011

My husband and I often go to the supermarket at the weekend on weekends. There are  It is a 30 minutes’ walk from our home. We drive to there in ten minutes. We can see a great number of people who are choosing goods every time. Last week, we bought a few things we need: meat, vegetables,milk,bread. People who work in supermarkets work hard., tThey work thirteen hours a day.

We can say on the weekend or , more commonly, on weekends.  When a noun like minute is used as an adjective (a 30 minute walk) it takes the singular form.  (a three year journey,  a six month project,  a seven year old child.etc)  We can drive there in ten minutes.  (With certain place words, like here and there, we usually do not need a preposition.  I go there a lot.  He comes here once a week.)  


 Except for the changes I made, the passage is grammatically correct.   However, here is how I would say it;

My husband and I often go to the supermarket on weekends.  It's a 30 minute walk from our home.  We can drive there in 10 minutes.  Every time we go we see a lot of people buying goods (or, more commonly,  shopping).  (In English can is used much, much  less than in Chinese.) Last week we bought a few things we needed, meat, vegetables, milk and bread.  (I used the past tense of need because last week refers to an action in the past).  Supermarket employees work hard, thirteen hours a day.  (I did not use work twice in the first sentence because we try to avoid that kind of repetition.)

Very good.