Dear Alan,
You always make yourself clear with your articles.
Thank you very much.
hi Alan,
I played tennis and went to the cinema…
how can i put it into negative with “didn’t”?
is it “I didn’t play or go” … or “didn’t play or went” and why?
thanks
I didn’t play tennis or go to the cinema.
Once you use ‘did’ or ‘did not’ to modify the sentences, you cannot use ‘went’.
Hi Ali Nageeb,
When you want to make a verb negative in the present and past tenses, you have to use the auxiliary verb ‘do’ or did’ + ‘not’.
Present (positive) I go
Present (negative) I do not (don’t) go
Past (positive) I went
Past (negative) I did not (didn’t) go.
In your sentence:
you have to use both verbs in the infinitive (play and go) because they are both dependent on ‘didn’t’.
Alan
Hi
The problem is that people tend to focus a lot on grammar. If you don’t know the
rules, it is no big deal. As long as you communucate properly it is all fine. Interacting
with English speakers is the best way to learn and pick up language.
Everyday a new phrase is born in English. For instance the phrase “Cell Phone Samba”
refers to a person who runs around a room trying to catch the signal.
Once an interest is cultivated, the learners themselves will pick up the English language very soon.
Thank you
S.Shanthi
Hello Alan,
I am happy that you are here again in good health.
Regards:
Kati Svaby
Hi Everyone,
The question: Do you understand what I’m saying?
The answer : Oh yes , As Clear as crystal . Thank you Alan Townend .
** The explanation was as clear as crystal. Her lecture was not clear as crystal, but at least it was not dull.
Best regards,
Khairiah
Thank you Alan.
That was a very nice article. I will use them next time.
Hi, Alan. This story is very useful!
The penny is dropped now! - I like this expression a lot)
Hello Alan,
Yes Alan,your letter is as clear as daylight.
I am happy that I could learn from you and other teachers on the Forum.
Today we made a very sad decision, we bought 5 years ago a rubber dinghy with a motor. We enjoyed very much our trips on the Danube. But as my husband’s health more and more deteriorates last year we had no force to take the boat and the motor on the Danube. It was also a difficulty that sometimes the motor stopped in the middle of the Danube and he needed a very big force to start the motor up again .
So the boat and the motor was in the house last year. This year we didn’t speak about it. Today in the car my husband told me: “you know I am very sad I could cry when I give another thought that we won’t never go boating.”
I told him : “I tell you what, we have to present our boat and motor to our grandchildren. It is better to give it them now than to inherite it from us.”
And I was so contented with my decision. He also, but he repeated several times that what a damage that we couldn’t buy this boat ten years ago.
Now that I listened this lesson, and I understand very well but I am not sure if I didn’t see the text I wouldn’t understand so well. And I felt the same feeling than my husband “why I didn’t begin to learn English earlier and not in my age of fifties.” And I became me also very sad. Because I know that I have not time to speak it very well.
This was my today association with your newsletter.
Regards:
Kati Svaby
P.s: I wanted to send a video of one minute from the time when we enjoyed still ourselves on the boat but later I found out now the hyperlinks (with http) don’t be allowed-
Thank you for your great effort to make me aware.
“Evevrything is as clear as daylight”.
Dissanayake
Dear Alan,
I avidly read your last message: I reckon that is exactly the kind of lesson I need. Your explanation of the language is vivid and witty, it helps me keep in touch with real language. I have some opportunities to use English abroad in the year but it’s not enough to use all the language I know or I would love to know. So I thank you to help me not forget it. Ta!
Licia
Hello Mr. Townend 
Happy New Year!
I got a question about one word in the text “The language of understanding”… the word “Lift” What does it mean??
you used that word when you said an example:
–The whole point of the joke lies in the pun on the word ‘lift’ which can mean ‘raise’ and in a slang sense ‘steal’, do you see it now?–
what kind of phrases I can use “lift”?. I understood the words “raise” like “raise your glass” and “steal” as “The neighbors like to steal my lawn …” but when I see the word “Lift” I don’t know when I have to use it…Is it an special word or Can I use it like the others for say “lift your glass” or how??
(i’m pretty confused)
Best Greetings
Gabbi!
Dear Alan !
Thanks for your essay It is too lovely to read I hope if it possible to read and hear at the same time it would give us some more practice in reading and hearing
have a good time
Hello Alan,
I would like to ask a question. Somebody noticed me that I have mistaken isn’t good only I am mistaken. I tried to find the correct answer on the Google, but this is a very a controversial question.
Will you please to explain us what is the difference among these sentences.
- I am mistaken. (passive/simple present)
- I have mistaken.(indicative/present perfect)
- I have been mistaken.(Passive/present perfect)
Waste my breath because I don’t know how to use them in context . Please help me to understand them.
Many thanks.
Regards: Kati Svaby
Ps: It took me more than 1 hour to send this letter. Now I 've just tried om another thread, but I was unsuccessful. So I tried again on this thread. Now two letters are been tried to send them…As I think only you can answer these question I send to you on your email address as I have to leave very urgently somewhere . I hope you excuse me. If I remember well I never disturbed you with grammar questions.
Alan:
Just a note: many of the expressions cited in your helpful “language of understanding” essay could be too informal in the high-level business and professional areas I work in. Might I suggest: “I see your point”, and “I see what you mean” for signifying acceptance, but not necessarily agreement. “Absolutely”, “quite true”, “exactly” indicate strong agreement. More friendly but still formal understanding and/or agreement: “This (or that) has been my experience as well” “I’ve had a similar experience”, “my feeling(s), exactly”, “all too true”, and “just so”. And I think the very best expression of not understanding, is paraphrasing the question. This is great practice for non-native speakers, and indicates you are listening astutely and trying hard to understand, but not necessarily on track: “So what you’re saying is that the blue and black are shipped together, but the green are sent separately…right?”
Hi Kati,
= I have made a mistake or I have got something wrong
on its own doesn’t really work and should be expressed as: I have made a mistake.
would need to be completed as: I have been mistaken for somebody else and that means that someone thought I was another person - possibly because I look like that other person.
Hope that helps.
Alan
Hello Alan,
Many thanks for your help. It is interesting that I had said sure of myself : “Sorry, I have mistaken.” until one people of the Forum wrote to me that I should say: “Sorry, I am mistaken.”
I asked an Englishman - who lives here in Hungary and he could speak a beautiful English, but he couldn’t speak one word in Hungarian. He is a 80 year-old bohemian who worked in the film and theater trade as a designer. In Hollywood also. I asked him he told me that every one is good, but he can’t give to me any explanation because he doesn’t know - he said - what is present perfect or past participle etc.
He told an example for ’ have managed’ "I have mistaken your generosity for your friendship. ("but you can say this sentence: I mistook your generosity for your friendship-he said)
I think that I know what is the difference between the two sentences. As I know the difference between present perfect and simple past but I am mistaken sometimes.
He doesn’t know these rules however he can use them well as the children.
Many thanks again for your help.
Regards:
Kati Svaby
Hi Kati yes it can seem strange to someone learning a language that Children and Native speakers can tell exactly when you make even a tiny mistake yet they cannot explain why.
I suppose music is a kind of Language and when you hear a musical instrument or a person out of tune most people just know its wrong but can’t explain why other than “its out of tune”. Some other people who may have had formal musical training and can read music etc may be able to analyse it better might say “your in the wrong key your supposed to sing that in G minor or E flat”
I myself think you can go into too much detail and sometimes its better to get the correct version of what your trying to say and understand it rather than trying to take it apart too much. In my opinion a lot of the rhetoric explaining tenses are more to help the teacher and pupil communicate with each other rather than help the pupil to understand the text directly. I am not an English teacher but for what its worth there are lots of things you don’t need to know if you are not going to “Teach” English but this of course is just “my” opinion.
Hi ,
You misunderstood me. There are people who can speak very well, eventually they can be very good writers, they can use the words very well without knowing the grammar technical terms as the children.
I have four grand-children and everyone in their childhood could express themselves in a sophisticated style whereas they have no idea what means a subject/object, past participle, continuous time etc. and they use them perfectly.
There are language-courses where the teachers want to learn the students to speak foreign languages with this method .
Its secret: that never say any grammar technical terms in the same way when we teach a child to speak. We never say to them that this is singular or plural etc. only we correct them if they make a mistake. With this correction they learn from their mistakes . Of course they learn the language in the community where they live, from the tales what we read to them , from TV, in the kindergarten etc.
I have noticed that there are adults who like the grammar ( several times who liked the maths ) and there are people, even writers who knows everything about the correct style but when they finished their school, they began to forget the grammar terms and the maths also.
This is a matter of fact.