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  • Commented
    My sister and I discussed this topic and we think the "of" variant is both regional and probably an older variant. My sister uses the "quarter to" construction, but thinks she used the "of" construction as a child and associates it with our mother, who would be 80 if she were still alive. Incidentally, our family has been in the New Jersey/New York/Pennsylvania area for two to three hundred years. Until now, I had no idea the "of" variant was so uncommon!

    Here's an intriguing article that addresses the topic: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/73864/why-does-quarter-mean-same-thing-quarter
    0 voted
    August 14, 2020
    0
  • Commented
    More field research with the same analog clock showing 4:45: my husband strongly prefers “quarter to five” over “quarter of five.” The shortened form “quarter of” is more acceptable to him. He grew up about twenty miles from where I grew up, both of us in central New Jersey and both in relatively rural areas, so definitely not posh. Both of us had grandparents who grew up on farms or were farmers themselves. My family goes back several generations in New Jersey, while his grandparents were born in Eastern Europe.

    As for “(a) quarter past,” I don’t tend to use it, but I’ve certainly heard it. I occasionally use “half past.” It’s more common to say “(a) quarter after.”

    0 voted
    August 12, 2020
    0
  • Commented
    I was taught Roman numerals, but I'm middle-aged. I'm also the music librarian for a community band and I've recently been creating a spreadsheet of our music collection that includes the copyright date of each piece, so I've become quite good at converting the Roman numerals on the older pieces. My teenage daughter says they learned Roman numerals in school, but she's only confident of I, V and X combinations. She had to ask me what the values for C and M were and she'd entirely forgotten the existence of L.
    0 voted
    August 12, 2020
    0
  • Commented
    I showed my teenage son an analog clock that showed 4:45 and asked what time it showed. His immediate answer was 4:45. When I asked him to answer using "quarter", his response was "quarter to five." He agrees that "quarter of five" is fine also. My daughter's immediate answer was also 4:45. She doesn't tend to use the "quarter" construction, but said "quarter to five", "quarter of" and "quarter till five" were all acceptable. I agree with Dan that the prevalence of digital clocks has made using the numeric time more common, especially in the younger generations.
    0 voted
    August 11, 2020
    0
  • Commented
    I've heard and/or used 1 through 4. 9 and 10 are also acceptable but less common. I'm in the northeastern US. I disagree with Richard that "quarter of" sounds posh or foreign. I quite often hear and say the shortened form "it's quarter of."

    0 voted
    August 11, 2020
    0
  • Answered
    The Moth Radio Hour has a great collection of stories. https://themoth.org/radio-hour Voice of America has lots of recordings and videos for different levels and also has transcripts if you want to follow along with the text. https://learningenglish.voanews.com/p/5611.html
    0 voted
    August 11, 2020
    2
  • Corrected
    Old cat’s friend

    This morning I got up and<s> to</s> looked at the cats. They <s>moved</s> climbed/crawled out the <s>nest(</s>bed/basket) and <s>lied</s> lay on their stomachs next to their <s>nest</s> bed/basket. It's really cozy atmosphere, the mommy cat lies in front of the kittens, the kittens <s>tamed follow </s> cuddle up to their mommy’s back. I'm not quire sure what you mean here.
    The question is why did they move<s>d</s> out?
    <s>It’s</s> There are a lot of questions if you get along with a cat because you don’t know what’s s/he wants to express.
    Why do they look so cute? <s>to the extent that</s> I want to eat them <s>all alive.</s> up.

    The phrase "I just want to eat X up" is colloquial and you use it for something or someone cute. It's often used with the verb "could." "I just want to eat them alive" makes you sound like a cannibal ;-)
    0 voted
    May 4, 2020
    0
  • Corrected
    Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - My opinion

    As I wrote in the previous post, I've recently read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
    I'm really fond of Harry Potter and the reason why I had never read this book before is because I was concerned it <s>couldn't be </s>wouldn't measure up to the <s>saga</s> series. I had also heard the opinion of some friends that read it before <s>than</s> me (does "previously" work here instead of "before than me"?) and they advised me against it, so I gave up. Yes, "previously" could replace "before me. You could also replace "me" with "I did."
    Anyway, I finally decided to give the book a chance and it's not so as bad as I thought ("expected" might be a better choice here.), indeed I liked it.
    I think the secret to <s>make</s> enjoying this book <s>enjoyable</s> is to consider it as something apart from the <s>saga</s> series. That's easy enough because the main character is not Harry Potter, but one of his sons.
    I have to admit that if I had considered this book as something strictly related to the others <s>on</s> in Harry Potter's world, I'<s>d </s> never would have liked it, because the characters of the <s>saga</s> series have been deeply altered in their personalities, so they are far from the ones that I<s>'m</s> used to love. Be that as it may, I had a good time reading this book and I took note of new English words to memorize that I'd like to learn to use.

    Note: with this post I wanted to get out of my comfort zone using tenses and expressions that I find particularly difficult to better understand them through the corrections (maybe this is my worst post ever 🙈).
    Any help you can give me is well accepted, thank you in advance!
    0 voted
    May 4, 2020
    2
  • Answered
    IN: https://www.handspeak.com/word/search/index.php?id=1112 This sign for IN is used for describing physical location. It would not be used in phrases like "in July" or "in my opinion." ON: http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/o/on.htm Again, this describes a physical location. You wouldn't use it in phrases like "on Thursday" or "on a trip." AT: http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/a/at.htm ASL does not correspond exactly to English. It has its own grammar rules. Asking for individual signs without any context won't help you much. This man makes excellent videos about ASL: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uPKOwziViaw Be careful, because there are a lot of inaccurate ASL videos on YouTube. I recommend learning either from Deaf people, or hearing people who have Deaf parents.
    0 voted
    June 7, 2018
    0
  • Answered
    During a church service it is typical to "take a collection." A plate is passed around and the people attending the service put money in the plate. Some of it is used for church expenses such as the pastor's salary, the electric bill, maintenance on the church building, and some is used for charitable work. Sometimes a special collection is taken for a specific purpose: to help a poor family, to raise money for someone who has a lot of medical expenses, or to help someone whose house burned down. https://www.google.com/search?q=collection+plate&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS622US622&hl=en-US&prmd=isnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijlsPWyrvbAhXSwFkKHcKqDxUQ_AUIESgB&biw=1024&bih=653#imgrc=sk0kgn5Phi5vrM:
    0 voted
    June 5, 2018
    0