question on infinitives Hi, I would really appreciate if someone could clarify this little detail for me. So I've learned the "infinitives of purpose": "I went to a shop (why?) to buy groceries" "He's calling to talk about tomorrow" Now is that possible to use it in contexts like this? 1) My friend turned off the light not to see the mess (he didn't want to see the mess, so he turned off the light) - it seems strange for some reason. 2) We need to care about our health not to get sick ( ?= in order to be healthy we need to care about our health) - again, looks strange but at the same time kind of logical :\ 3) I turn down the music not to awake Ivan (or "so I don't wake Ivan"?) 4) We offered a pizza not to cook anything (or "so we don't need to cook anything"?) ughhhh Please, help. Thanks everyone in advance. Sometimes I feel super confident using English but then I get stuck in situations like this... it's a bit devastating.

Don't know how to express this thought in English Hey! Let's imagine I need to pass an exam and it consists of 3 parts. Now if I get the highest score for 1 part and then below average results for the other two so my final score is "average", how can I say that the part with the best score played the main role in gettin this final score? In Russian it's like "this part pulled (me) out" but I'm not sure if it can be used in English this way. I hope the explanation is clear. Peace! =)

Past Simple vs Past Continuous It feels like I'll never master these tences in contexts like this: "There was a lot of clowns at that event, but no one was laughing (or laughed?)" If we assume that they were continuously telling jokes throughout the event, that means that the visitors were continually "not laughing". But something tells me just "laughed" is OK too. Please, help me understand the difference if there is any. Have a great day every1 and thanks in advance for any corrections and comments! Love u all.

Cider rumble After drinking a bottle of cider this fine evening I felt the urge to write something here. I've got no idea what to write about. Let it be long-term life plans and a little bit of grammar experimentation. So I happen to have lived (never said anything like that) in France for 3 years, I studied in the Russian ambassy in Paris so it was a Russian school. I graduated from there about 6 years ago and then successfully forgot French 'cus in school it was torture to learn two languages, even with English... I started loving it only after getting into university. The reason was that I noticed how better films and video games are if you percieve them with the original (mostly English) language. Anyway, continuing the ramble, after getting my bachelor degree I happened to go to the army for a year and now I'm working as an English teacher for Russian students. No worries, I'm don't make as many mistakes as I'm probably gonna make here. And I teach mostly basic grammar and speaking skills without preparing my students for English exams. So after watching a few vids from Matt d'Avella (I guess that's his name) I started thinking about saving some money and moving to France or any English speaking country just to learn and perfect English or French. Alright, I think I'm done. Have you got any experience moving to another country for similar reasons? Have you thought about doing it? Have a great night or day or whatever the time's now in your timezone! Cheers! P.S. oh yah, not rumble. Mumble.

Not so many vs not so much Hey, I'd really appreciate if someone could help me with this example. Let's assume my friend has 5 cats, if I consider this amount not to be big, may I say "He's got 5 cats, it's not so many"?. I'm not sure if I've ever heard it to be said this way. Could it be "it's not so much?"? But then "cat" is a countable noun and must be used with... Ugh... help! P.S. is "it's not a lot" OK? Have a great day everyone and thanks to everybody in advance :)

Ahoy, just a little problem with "used to" Is it OK to say "she used to have green eyes" when talking about a childhood friend? Doesn't it imply that she no longer has them? O_o ...or that the colour changed at some point? Also, while I have a chance I'd like to say once again that I'm in love with English :) English culture is so reach that I wouldn't be able to watch all the most iconic / influential movies (not mentioning literature and other kinds of art) even if I decided to dedicate all my free time to it. But I guess it can be said about any culture and it just happend that I got very interested with English and not with any other language. Thanks for any corrections and answers in advance and God bless you all <3

Another little problem with the sentence construction I realise that when we use "there" in sentences like "I lived there for five years, met many of my friends (there), had a job (there)" we don't have to repeat "there" over and over. But does it work this way in sentences like "I was born there and lived for eight years..."? It doesn't sound natural for me because there's passive voice in the first part and active voice in the second. Thanks in advance for your help!

The use of the Past Continous

I've got a friend who was learning to drive a car at some point but she never finished.

Could she say: "I was learning to drive but never finished?" - does it sound natural; is it grammatically correct?
And would the next sentence have the same meaning? "I studied driving but never finished".

Thanks in advance, after learning English for a long time I still can't figure out some nuances.

My return to italki I used italki when I was in school and my English was just rubbish. Now I've got a bachelor degree and went through a mandatory service in the Russian army. And now as I'm back I plan to continue my education. And to do so I need to prepare myself for the entry exam in the Saint-Petersburg university I've chosen. The speciality I'd like to get is literary translation and the exam requires skills in translation from English to Russian and vice versa. In addition to learning more grammar rules and expanding my vocabulary I decided to improve my speaking skills. Formulating my thoughts in English has always been a kind of entertainment for me, I've started having an internal monologue in English in university. But with this type of English practice the obvious disadvantage is that any mistakes you make stay mostly unnoticed, the thought just flows and flows until you get to not being able to compose a sentence because of lack of your vocabulary or you just get bored and stop. Anyway that's where italki comes in handy. These notes have almost the same format as an internal monologue but they also have kind readers who may correct my mistakes which I appreciate very much. Another great advantage here is the possibility to find someone who needs practice as well. Anyway it's good to be back and it's very nice to be a part of this community.