Hi Torsten, great respect for your supervising eye, I have a very good time here on this site, I received your second letter and today I will do the exercisses. The verb “to be” express existance, phisical existance in time and space. Tenses show us the time of that existance: past, present, future. My oppinion is that the verb “to be” is the essential word in every language and that the negation “not” shows the contrast of this existance so that we can differentiate, and percept the form of being and not being.
About the apostrophe (’), I searched a little and found this explanation (beside the explanation and usage in the exercise). The apostrophe (’) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages written in the Latin alphabet. In English it has two main functions; it marks omissions; and it assists in marking the possessives of all nouns and many pronouns. (In strictly limited cases, it is sometimes also allowed to assist in marking plurals. According to OED, the word comes ultimately from Greek ἡ ἀπόστροφος [προσῳδία] ( the [accent of] “turning away”, or elision), through Latin and French.
About the typing, I did three years of self-learning at home. I used several typing programs like “Typing Master”, “Stamina”, “Typing Instructor” and now I can type with the blind technique (without looking at the keyboard, with ten fingers technique), my maximum speed is 80 to 85 words per minute, but my optimal speed is around 60 - 70 words per minute or. I recomend using the blind technique because during the process of learning, the words are repeated hundreds of times and they go into the subcouncious without notice, the vocabulary is fulfilled automatically.
About the audio course lessons, fantastic, the quality of the sound is excellent, the speaker has a very pleasant voice and the tempo is optimal, I noticed several mistakes in the transcript of the first lesson “Introduction” and I posted my friendly corrections in the forum. With all respect to the team, I noticed this mistakes because I have a very sharp ears (I trained my self to do transcription).
I want to share something from my experience in this field with everyone. My oppinion is that during the process of reading or talking, proper breathing method is essential for a proper pronounciation of the words. I use this technique: Long inhale after the dot mark, and short enhaling after the comma sign. This ensures that the lungs are filled with air and oxigen and insures that you wont get tired if you read long passages. The full capacity of the lungs insures good float of the air through the larings and proper pronounciation of the vocals. When you read and talk loud, you disballance the natural rhytam of the inhalling and exhalling. That’s why this techique insures good condition and fulfills the lungs with oxigen even after long period of speaking aloud.
About the noun “suburb” I found this definition for the word: “Suburb is residential area lying on the outskirts of a city or town”.
I registered myself on the forum by the name nikolaenglish and I enjoyed reading the posts. I already posted several posts and received few replyes. Really interesting, variety of themes, variety of different oppinions, communication, really interesting.
I’m reading the post of Laura from Austin Texas and I will send a reply to her after this.
I completed the first test with 10 of 10 score and I will do more tests per day in the future. I must intensify my tempo of learning because I must graduate TOEFL in period of 6 months.
Torsten I really enjoy in this learning process, receive my great respect for your work and efforts, you implemented all the methods of learning in one place.
I will do the test Drive carefully now.
Great respect and appriciation for you and your work.
Nikola from Skopje Macedonia
[size=75]Dear Torsten
Thanks for your help again 
[/size]
I am here. We are not here.
She;s stay in AUSTRELIA. we’re stay in india
Dear Torsten
My name is Munkhjargal.I’m from Mongolia.Thank you very much or sending me lesson and sorry to join the forum late because my English is bad.
Dear Torsten,
Iam from indonesia.
thanks
Hilmy
That is very good from your part… Verb- to be… is a good way to learned the important that all personal. Be-verb is a way to express your self with property and self- confidence.
Thanks.
Hi Torsten
I have a question that if I want to write the short form of " have not" and “I have”, what is the best way to write it?
I think it is “hv’t” and “I’v”
Is’t it fine?
Hi Sparrow,
Welcome to english-test.net and many thanks for your question. Yes, you are right. Here are some examples of how to use the short forms of ‘have not’ and ‘have’:
I’ve finally finished the report.
Unfortunately, I’ve haven’t been able to finish the report yet.
I look forward to your next questions.
Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC short conversations: A landlord talks about his business[YSaerTTEW443543]
Thanks Torsten .
I’ve always doubt about to use the short form of " have ".
Now I’ll haven’t confused about it.
Thank you a lot… the new lesson help me in reviewing be-verbs…
God bless!
Dear Torsten
Thank’s you for your email lesson 2, My name is Wahyu Kurniawan,you can call me wawan, i graduate from National Development University Yogyakarta Indonesia 2007.
I work in fertilizer and minerals industries as a staff Product Development. please help me about engglish lesson from beginner until advanced.
Ok, thank for your help ang attention
Regards
Wawan
Dear Torsten,
Thank you very much for your e-mail and new lessons. I’m glad attending your course. I’d like first and second lessons. I tried to take some tests and I completed these tests between 7-8 right answers. But I couldn’t complete well the test of GMAT vocabulary test. It was too hard to me.
Let me introduce myself using first and second lessons:
My name is Nandia. I’m from Mongolia. I live in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia. I’m auditor. I’m working for one of the best auditing companies of Mongolia. My hobby is traveling. I want to obtain Master of Accounting, so I have to study well English. Now I’m preparing GMAT. My writing skill and grammar aren’t so good. Therefore, I have to work hard. Please, help me improving my English.
Thanks for your help
Regards,
Nandia
Dear Torsten,
The lessons are very good. I been improving my skills and I felt more confident in regards of few weeks ago… I 'm glad attending your course. I tried taken few grammar lessons and I do pretty well with some difficulties of course.
Let me introduce my self.
My name is Gilbert , I am from Costa Rica. I live in Heredia a province close to the capital of the Country. I am working for Royal Caribbean International one of the Best Cruise Line companies in heart. My Hobby is the Music. I want to improve my skills to be a candidate for the position . Financial Controller in one of the Ship. My writing skills and grammar aren’t so good enough for take that position.
Please help me improving my English.
Thanks for you help so far.
Regards,
Gilbert
thankyou very much
and forward
Dear Torsten,
I am very grateful to you in permitting me to join in your programme, I believe that this programme will enhance me to improve my English. My name is Stenus Jacub Kartutu, I come from Jakarta, Indonesia, I want to learn about Listening, writing, reading and speaking in English. I do hope that you will give me a good lesson to get my purposes. Thanks a lot for your kindness to give a chance to study in your programme.
Regards,
Stenus Jacub kartutu
Thanks Mr. Torsten
I’m going to study Unit 3 now, then I will try to write My profile.
Ramadan
Hi Torsten,
Thank you for emailing me back and providing me the information on which form is the correct form to post my questions I have for my test and lessons. I got 9 of 10 from my lesson 2 test. I chose “take” instead of “fetch” for my answer for question #5 When you arrive, I’ll ___you from the station. The reason I chose “take” because I have never heard or seen people use the word “fetch” as if it means “pick up” in USA. In addition, “take” was the best choice amount the rest of the choices for me during the time I was taking the test, but after reading the explanation. I understood the word “fetch” meaning, I agreed it is a more appropriate word to use for question #5. Then, I was wondering is “fetch” a more of American British English way of expression or this is a normal written form for both American English and American British English? I also can related to one of the members from the form( I don’t remember her name). She explained how we use “fetch” in USA. We normally use “fetch” when we play with dogs. When we spend time with our dogs, we will say “fetch”, then we will throw out either a ball or a stick in the field for the dog to bring it back to us. Please explain. Thanks.
Tiffany
Dear, Mr. torsten
Thank you very much for helping us to improving our English, It’s nice to start with you from basic, step by step, isn’t it?
I’m Ramadan.
I am from Egypt, working as special Education Teacher in Saudia Arabia.
Dear, Mr. Torsten
My life has been turn a 160 degrees founding this site to improved my English so much. Even that at this point I don’t dedicate much time doing the exercises . But even said that is been so pleasant think and write in English. Not like before that I should translate into my Mother tongue into English.
I am Gilbert
I am from Costa Rica, Working as Payroll Manager in a U.S.A company.