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AuthorTopic: To our German-speaking friends (help mastering English)  (Read 3991 times)

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Offline webwalkerTopic starter

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To our German-speaking friends (help mastering English)
« on: November 12, 2005, 05:12:11 pm »
Bridging the English  German gulf is easier with help. 
English is an illogical, almost irrational language, and it defies comprehension. 
Just reading what my teen-agers write is enough to convince me of this.

So, anybody who is baffled with things of English grammar and related, post here what you think is "correct" English, we'll gladly help polish your mastery of the language.
(note, we're not professional grammarians, but we'll do our best).

Offline Olfmo

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Re: To our German-speaking friends (help mastering English)
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2005, 05:55:36 pm »
nice idea :)

i don't have any grammer questions right now but if you see grammatical or typographical (i hope that's a word^^) mistakes in my posts feel free to write a pm to me so i can figure out what i did wrong because i'm glad to improve my english skills :)

Offline waflob

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Re: To our German-speaking friends (help mastering English)
« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2005, 01:00:24 pm »
Yep - I usually give people examples of just how illogical and irrational English really is ...
for instance

threw
through
though
thought
trough
tough

not to mention words that are pronounced the same, but spelt differently
eg

to too two
so sow sew

you get the point :-)

Offline webwalkerTopic starter

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Re: To our German-speaking friends (help mastering English)
« Reply #3 on: November 14, 2005, 01:27:10 pm »
I've seen rather large humor pieces showing the irrationalities of English.  Some are rather hard to read.

Mine reads: Norman Knight dates Saxon Barmaid; 9 months later, English is born.  Both parents deny responsibility.  Makes its living by dumpster-diving in the trash-bins of other languages.

e.g. Q.E.D (q.e.d)

I shoot my bow from the bow of the ship.
I read today what I read yesterday.
The wind will wind the flag around the pole.
Who will lead us to the lead mine?

(and then there's chat-1337 speak, which my soul doth hate.)

Offline Jiiek

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Re: To our German-speaking friends (help mastering English)
« Reply #4 on: November 14, 2005, 03:00:12 pm »
If someone doesn't know the english word

They can use Leo

http://dict.leo.org/?lang=de&lp=ende

A great Dictionary
« Last Edit: November 14, 2005, 05:27:04 pm by webwalker »

Offline waflob

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Re: To our German-speaking friends (help mastering English)
« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2005, 12:53:23 pm »
there's also a wonderful page, where the rules of grammar are listed. Each sentence breaks the rule described in the sentence.

eg

Prepositions are not to be used for ending sentences with.
Puns are only for groan ups.

etc etc etc

 

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