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conversation
A: What's eating you?
B: Because of the incident.... <em><---This doesn't make much sense in English, we would say, "Thinking about what happened..." Or "Last night..." We would reference the time in which the incident ocurred, we wouldn't say, "Because of the incident."</em><em></em>
A: What? What are you talking?B: Actually, I was drunk off my head at the bar when I drank with my co-workers. As you know, I really love drinking, so I just drank without any thought. Therefore I blacked out. I think it was really shameful behavior.
<em>This is gramatically PERFECT. But, it's unnatural. Try, "Well, I went to the bar with my coworkers and I got drunk out of my mind. But you know, I love to drink, so I just kept drinking without really thinking about it. I ended up blacking out. Shameful behavior, I know." </em>
<em>That sounds way more natural and conversational. But of course, I am Southern, from the deep south of the US, so you may get other variations but the general idea is to relax. We use buffers a lot in English to make our speech less formal when in conversation, and this topic isn't formal.</em>
A: Why? Enjoying the moment is important. Don't be ashamed of this <em>your</em> behavior.B: But.... Drinking too much, I threw up at my superior.
<em>"But...I was so drunk I threw up on my supervisor."</em>
In American English, we don't call someone our superior unless we're talking about the military. We say Manager or Supervisor, and we don't really use Elder unless we're talking about Senior Citizens.
A: What!! But you said you blacked out. How've you known it?<em>"How would have known?" OR "How do you even know?"</em>
Both are correct but the second one is less formal and sounds a bit more relaxed.
B: Because One of my colleagues texted me in the morning. Oh How do I deal with? I think I can't hold my head high at work.<em>"Oh, what should I do..? I don't think I can walk in with my head held high at work anymore..."</em>
We wouldn't really say that but I get what you're going for. Hmmm, try something like "I'll have to tuck my tail between my legs at work tomorrow." That has the feeling you're going for.
0 votedApril 7, 20140my wish
I have many hopes.
I want my parents to be in good health.
I wish I could be happy everyday.
I wish I could be together with my lover forever/
I want my job to be fun and I hope that I like it.
On weekends, I'd like to go shopping with my friends, or go somewhere we like and somewhere we want to go.
But, life is hard, and many dreams can't come ture.I have no friends here.
I don't like my job.
I hate who I live with.
So, I should make some changes, right?-----------
I loved this entry! Very nice! But there is one problem, only one grammar concern. In English when you want to say "I hope..." "I wish..." "It would be nice if..." You are speaking in the <em>subjunctive mood.</em>
So you wrote:
I wish I can happy everyday. What you should say is "I wish I could be happy," or "I wish that I could be happy."
"I wish" is in the <em>indicative</em>, and "could" is the <em>conditional</em> form of to be able to (the can verb).
I hope I helped! Fighting!
0 votedJuly 29, 20130Learning a language
Hello, I'm learning some languages and I must to say <em>that</em>(not needed) it's very nice! Knowing about other cultures, talking to people who have different opinions thoughts of mine... well, sometimes it's very funny!
But it enriches me greatly! :) <--That last sentence sounds a little weird, we don't usually say "enrich" in conversational English.0 votedJuly 29, 20131This is a really good way to practice, I did this when I first learned Spanish in middle school.
Okay for the corrections, I put them in parentheses and my comments are in italics.
(A) few days ago, Spain had (an) unfortunate accident. <--<em>Something I have noticed is that many Koreans don't use indefinite articles. Korean does not have them, I know, but in English, we never send nouns to a party naked. That means, there is always something before the noun.</em>
According to the report, the train was travelling well in excess of (over) the 80 kilometers an hour speed limit when it crashed. <--<em>We don't typically use the word excess to mean "more than" in this particular context. Also, if you mean that the speed limit was already 80MPH and he was driving faster than that, you might want to simply say, "the train was going well over the speed limit." The actual limit itself isn't important.</em>
When I heard about (the) accident in Spain, I feel (felt) sorry. That's because, my favorite country is Spain. <-<em>-We also don't use "sorry" in this way either. It would sound more natural to say, "When I heard about the accident in Spain, I was saddened," or something like that because "sorry" gives it a guilty or pitiful feeling that I'm sure you don't want. </em>
Anyway, I read an article (in which) about what (the) Prime Minister of Spain said,
"Today I will sign a decree declaring three days of official mourning in all of Spain." He said. <--We can join those phrases together by using "in which," so that way you don't have to repeat "he said" at the end.
This declaration is impressed impressive. <--<em>A declaration cannot be impressed, that is a past participle that functions as a adjective for people, impressive is the adjective for nouns, including gerunds which also act as nouns sometimes. </em>(The) government and all (of the) people in Spain mourn for (the) victims.
What a impressive behavior ever! <---<em>The indefinite article is not needed because you are generalizing. When we generalize, we don't use articles. Like, "Cats are evil," I did not say the cat or A cat because I am generalizing all cats. Also, see how you used impressive instead of impressed! </em>
In (the) case of my country, I make sure our behavior.<---<em>I would just say, "In my country..." I'm not sure what you mean by that last bit though.</em>When the accident had happened, we might be want to know the cause first. We just want to know 'Why accident happened'. Not a mourn for victims. <----<em>"If an accident were to happen in my county, we might want to know the cause first. Instead of mourn the victims, we would want to know "Why did this happen?"</em>
<em>I changed when to if because "When" is in the indicative mood, that means that you are certain this accindent will happen. I put "if" because this statement sounds hypothetical, or subjunctive. Meaning, it has not really happened in real life. Also, I put those phrases together and added "instead" because separating them and saying "No" sounds a little irreverant. </em>
So, I think we should follow (the) behavior of (the) Spainish. How to express our condolences to victims.This was really good. I envy you. I can't read Korean papers at all. I hope my corrections made sense!
0 votedJuly 29, 20130Hello :)
Hello, my name is Barbara, I am a 23 years old italian girl. I am here to better my english in order to become more fluent and learn more phrasal verbs and idioms. I hope you can help me. Thanks in advance :)
In return I can give you a hand with italian or / and spanish.
Barbara-------------------
This was gramatically perfect but it was very formal! Hahaha like you were speaking in front of a class!
Hi, I'm Barbara. I'm 23 and I'm from Italy. I want to get better at English and learn more idioms and phrasal verbs. I hope you can help me!
So when we aren't in formal situations, we use contractions A LOT. "I am" sounds really stiff so saying "I'm" is more natural. And when we talk about foreign nationalities, it sounds prideful to say "I am Italian." I don't know why that is but to Americans, it almost always sounds better when people say, "I'm from Italy."
I wrote "get better at" because that's sort of an idiom. Saying, "to better my English," sounds too textbook, almost like your honor rests on your English skills! Haha. So we say, "I want to get better at X."
0 votedJuly 28, 20133
