Hi Torsten or other teachers,
As the first exercise today our group has discussed about English idioms. I have looked for idioms and found “never say die” and now we are looking for the infinitiv:
I don’t know whether I have to set to word “never” in front of the verb or after the verb “say” …
Could youn help us?
Thanks in advance
Wolfgang
A little brain-teaser for you all, are you up for the challenge? Please post your solutions here:
You are driving a bus. Four people get on, three people get off, then eight people get on and ten people get off, then 6 people get on and 2 more people get off. What color are the bus driver’s eyes?
It’s not so tricky!
Have fun
Scott
Hello Torsten
We from Nordhausen have a question at you.
who come tomorrow to us ?
We are very curious!
best regards
Jeniffer and the group
Hello to everbody in the English course in Magdeburg and Eilenburg!
Today in the morning we repeat the English Idioms. Everyone of us has to search an own idiom and has to find out the
meaning. After this we had to write this on the blackboard.
Here are some of this idioms:
I heard it througth the grapevine that we´ll have a cooked lunch to day.
To hear something througth the grapevine.
I let the cat out of my bag.
When I told my friend about his surprise party.
Sitting between two chairs.
One Person hast wo opions and has to select a decision.
Best wishes for a lovely sunny day.
Antje
Hi Woolfgang,
The answer to your problem is:
Never say “die”, the reason is that never is an adverb connected to the verb say, so it comes before the verb.
If you did it the other way you’re telling me to say “never die”.
I hope it helps
Scott
Hi Nordhausen
So your doing idioms, do you think they’re are a " piece of cake"? A lot of English and German idioms are similar but some are “like chalk and cheese”. If learning idioms “is your cup of tea” I will post some for you every day.
Hi trainers in the forum.
and here another question. Yesterday we talked about “his”, “her”, “its” and other pronouns. We discussed about the sentence:
“I like my cat. Its fur is very soft”. And there was a question: Have we use the pronoun ‘its’, when we use this pronoun in conjunction with animals regardless of whether this animal is male or female.
For example “I like my tomcat. HIS fur is very soft … or … ITS fur is very soft”?
Thanks in advance for your help
Greetings from the Nordhausen group
Thanks a lot Scott,
but I wanted to know the INFINITIVE of “Never say die”
“Never say to” is the IMPERATIVE form, bur I’m searching for the INFINITIVE
(to) never say die or
(to) say die never or
(to) say never die
I think the second and third possibilities sound a little bit strange.
In the sentence the order is “never” before the verb, that I know, but the infinitive …?
BR
Wolfgang
Hi dear participants in Nordhausen,
could anyone of you give me by any chance a lift from the railway station on Friday 18 to the Industrieweg 2A? I’ll be arriving there by train on Friday morning at 7:10 (platform 1) and would appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks in advance
Roberto
Wolfgang,
Yes we nomally say it for an animal, unless we know the gender and then we use the normal gender pronouns e.g. he,she,him,her,his, hers.
And in answer to your previous question, you’re right the first one is correct:
To never say die
Have a great day
Scott
Hi everybody,
we have another question. The short form of mobile phone is ‘mobile’, because the English don’t use the false friend ‘handy’. Okay! The Americans use ‘cell phone’. Is the short form of cell phone ‘cell’? We think that we can’t use the short form ‘cell’ in the USA, because ‘cell’ is used in connection with prison or jailhouse? Is ‘cell’ a false friend in the US, a false friend between BE and AmE?
Questions, questions - every day new questions and confusions … 
BR
Wolfgang
Hi Wolfgang, you’re right we don’t use the false friend handy, because in English handy means things that are useful e.g. My mobile is handy to make calls when I’m out and about! In the US they do use the short form cell, again your right by saying in prisons you have cells. But like many words in English with 2 meanings, it’s all in the context of it’s use!
Scott
Oops sorry, sometimes predictive text on the iPhone thinks it knows better!
I meant ‘it’s all in the context of its use’
Scott
Hello English team groups,
Well I’m sitting on a train heading for Zwickau
I want to give you something that’s a bit of fun but also essential!
In British culture it can be seen as slightly taboo in certain situations to talk about money, but of course, often we have to! We found
a solution for this…idioms!
So below is a simple text highlighting examples of these:
Sometimes people find it hard ‘to make ends meet’, and even though they might ‘tighten their belt’ to try and ‘keep the wolf from the door’ it still is difficult for them! The problem is these days you can’t often buy things ‘for a song’ in fact most of the time people ‘pay through the nose’ for many every day things.
It’s ok for those people who are ‘born with a silver spoon in their mouth’ but not for those who have to ‘live on the breadline’.
So for those of you who ‘rake in the money’ or 'have more money than sense, ‘put your money where your mouth is’! Help those that are ‘living on a shoe-string’, perhaps ‘pick up the tab’ or even better give them something ‘on the house’.
So guys has ‘the penny dropped’? Some people find it hard to ‘keep their head above water’ and others ‘make a mint every day’!
Have fun with this
CU L8r
Scott
The above text and all other posts of mine are free, I don’t want a quid, a lady Godiva, an Ayrton Senna, a score, a Pony,
a bullseye, a Ton, a Monkey or even a Grand!
Hello to all friends in Nordhausen/Magdeburg,
The last days were very fast over and we would tell you, what news we have learnt.
Today I’m writing in my own person. My name is Lia and I usually write for the ETeam.
We learnt many things about simple present, present progressive/ continuous and simple past.
I assembled the rules of the tense in a short form.
Simple present you use for repeating acts in the present.
Key words are e.g.: always, often, usually, every day, and sometimes
The order of words in the sentence:
Explanation of Abbreviations:
subject = S object = O
verb = V question word = QW
helping verb = HV (to be, to do, to have) AOZ = Adverb + Place + Time
Positive: S + V(+s) + O +AOZ
Negative: S + HV(+s) + not + V(inf.) + O +AOZ
Question: QW + HV(+s) + S + V(inf.) + O +AOZ
E.g.: When does she speak Spanish?
Present progressive is the tense you use for acts, which are at the moment. You need a helping verb every time for positive, negative and question sentences.
The key words here are: now, at the moment, right now, currently and today
Positive: S + HV +V+ing + O +AOZ
Negative: S + HV + not + V+ing + O +AOZ
Question: QW + HV + S + V+ing + O +AOZ
E.g.: We aren’t speaking Spanish today.
Simple past you use for acts, which (are) finished …
The signal words: yesterday, last week, last month
Positive: S + V(+ed) + O +AOZ
Negative: S + HV(PAST!) + not + V(inf.) + O +AOZ
Question: QW + HV(PAST!) + S + V(inf.) + O +AOZ
E.g.: I didn’t cook my dinner.
We practiced these forms very intensive and now we are can say : “It’s a piece of cake!”
You see we learnt idioms as you. Do you know “I can eat a horse!” or “It isn’t my cup of tea!”? Antje, can you explain “I heard it through the grapevine that we´ll have a cooked lunch to day. (To hear something through the grapevine.)
We didn’t know the meaning and when you say this idiom?
Thanks Scott we can read a menu. We learnt some vocabulary about meat, fish, vegetables and fruits. And now we know, that you don’t order a “fig dish” in a (Spanish) restaurant in Germany.
Except hangman we played other games: guess words from drawing pictures and spell this words and guess things from different categories like “chupardy”.
On Wednesday we were taught from David. David is American and comes from the near of Chicago. He is living in Halle/S. and study in Leipzig MBA (it’s Master of international Business). When David arrived in Eilenburg, he missed a tram. Do you have a tram in Nordhausen?
We didn’t answer one question from Jeniffer about the twin cities of Eilenburg and
we searched by Wikipedia.org.
The twin cities of Eilenburg are Butzbach, Jihlava, Rawicz, Anjalankoski and Tiraspol.
I’m looking forward to your apply and I wish a nice Thursday!
Lia and the ETeam
Hello Scott and Torsten,
who will come and teach us on Friday, when Roberto is in Nordhausen? Have you an answer for us?
The ETeam
Hi Roberto, old friend
thanks a lot for your message. I’m looking forward to see you again, and I’m going to meet you at the main railway station at 7:10 am.
And I mustn’t forget to send greetings from our group and especially from Uli, who is teaching us, unfortunately only today. I haven’t forgotten our trip through Leipzig in the last year and tomorrow we’ll have enough time to exchange experiences and events of the time are worth to talk about.
So, now I have to leave because my wife is staying in the hospital of the town of Nordhausen. Her backbone is broken and she needs care and so I daily give her a hand in the hope she is coming home ASAP.
BR and bye, bye for now
Wolfgang
Hi Roberto,
we wish you a very creative Friday with the cooperative Nordhausen group.
Today we have discussed general challenges of the communication problems in our globalised world (sender / receiver / message/ information overflow / misunderstandings/ …) while using the grammar practice oriented.
We have listened to the BBC world news about the protest developments in Bahrain and in Libya and we have mentioned the reasons for these new developments in the Arab world.
Martina, Jennifer, Wolfgang, Guenther and Uli gave some examples from their rich experiences to work, communicate , cooperate in other countries.
We wish you a fine day with our group.
You are most welcome.
Best regards
Martina, Jennifer, Wolfgang, Guenther and Uli.
Hello Torsten,
we hope you are enjoying your stay in Barcelona and the weather is better than in Germany.
Who is teaching us next week? Today we have Roberto here in Nordhausen and I´m very impressed, how perfect he speaks German.
When will we see you again? In the next week we will have an Italian Cuisine week and it´s worth coming to us.
We wish you a nice weekend.
Best regards
Antje, Günther, Martina, Wolfgang