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Hallo, ich bin Engländer, wohne in Berlin, spreche Italienisch, und lerne Deutsch. Vorrei evitare di dimenticare il mio Italiano, per cui, parlo e scrivo molto volontieri in Italiano..
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- L'inverno viene!In questa parte del paese è necessario avere stili diversi dei vestiti. La ragione non è la moda. La ragione è il clima. Va bene portare solamente una maglietta e gli shorts durante l'estate sia qui sia nella Florida. Nell'inverno, invece, diventa chiaro che il Massachussetts non è la Florida! Possiamo anche adesso sentire il cambiamento nella temperatura. È diventato ora per le giacche invernali. In novembre e certamente in dicembre avremo anche bisogno d'altro abbigliamento. Nevica molto qui e così i guanti vengono spesso usati. È anche difficile andare a piedi senza le scarponi. E, ovviamente, se si vuole giocare nella neve si ha bisogno di pantaloni particolari per questo. Per chi vive qui solamente durante una parte dell'anno la situazione è diversa. Ci sono molti studenti che sono cresciuti qui ma studiano ad una università in posti più caldi. In questo caso non si ha bisogno di qualcosa di specifico!0 votedOctober 14, 20190
- The use of tenses in British and American English is also different, but I'm not sure German usage explains cleanly differences between AE and BE.
Take the choice between the simple past (I saw) and the present perfect (I have seen).
In BE, there is relatively clear rule about which to use, and it's related to whether the time period is complete or not.
last year, last month, last week, yesterday, this morning (when speaking in the afternoon) take the simple past (I flew to Paris.)
In contrast, this year, this month, today, in my life, all take present perfect (I've flown over Paris three times).
In AE I find that the simple past in often used when present perfect is used in BE, typically for the case of an unfinished time period.
e.g. I never did that, I did that already, did you ever go to France, in cases where in BE the following would be used: I've never done that, I've done that already, have you ever been to France.
The completed/incomplete time period distinction seems to used far less often in AE.
Whether this AE/BE difference comes from the influence of German is less clear.
I observe differences between the way German uses simple past and present perfect when compared with English in General.
I've still not learnt what the rule is in German, and tend to apply the BE 'has the time period finished' rule, but I suspect this marks me out as a non-native speaker.
One thing I've noticed is that there seems to be a difference between spoken and written German; in essence, simple past is used far more frequently when writing.
It seems that the complete/incomplete time period distinction is not relevant, or ignored, and sometimes the reverse of the BE usage, e.g.
warst du je in Frankreich (simple past instead of present perfect)
im Kindergaren habe ich angefangen, Englisch zu lernen (present perfect for complete and remote time period)0 votedMarch 20, 20190 I've noticed that many American friends don't distinguish between bring and take, and effectively use bring in both cases.
(As far as I've understood, the difference is the point of reference, bring implies movement towards the place of speaking, take implies movement to somewhere else, e.g. "bring that here" versus "take that there".)
I'd also wondered if this is another German influence, as 'bringen' is used for both in German..
0 votedMarch 20, 20190
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