I have some questions

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LifeDeath
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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-20, 18:10

So, does this sentence make any sence to you?
"only If you will come I will necessarily meet you" does "will" sound good here?
And this one: "If you will be here I will kill you"
And this: "If you will come now I'll go with you"
(having an argument with my friend right now)

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Re: I have some questions

Postby linguoboy » 2014-03-20, 18:48

Really, the simple rule you learned (don't use "will" in these sorts of sentences) is a good one. There may be exceptions, but we're talking maybe one in a million. All of your example sentences sound terrible to me and I can't imagine every saying any of them spontaneously unless I was deliberately trying to parody the speech of a non-native speaker.
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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-20, 18:52

so, I prepared an audio file to ask about, but I don't know how to show it to you, maybe I have to uploaded it on youtube

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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-20, 19:12

So, I have already asked about "feel myself", the thing is I every day listen to audio-book walkind to job and home, now I listen to the book called "Inferno" and I heard strange sentence I didn't understand. My listening is very bad, and maybe I heard something wrong, but I really was trying to write it good, so, it's here:
""Let me guess, he whispers, you've never been with a famous man, I feel myself flash, fighting to hide the surge of emotions, embarrassment, excitement, fear, actually to be honest I say to him, I've never been with any man.""
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Ws7t4 ... e=youtu.be (if it works, listen to this from 2:35)
Please, correct my mistakes, I hope there won't be too many. Amd could you explain me, why author wrote "feel myself"?

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Re: I have some questions

Postby linguoboy » 2014-03-20, 19:31

LifeDeath wrote:So, I have already asked about "feel myself". The thing is I every day I listen to an audio-book walking to job and homebetween home and work. Now I am listening to the book called "Inferno" and I heard a strange sentence I didn't understand. My listening is very bad, and maybe I heard something wrong, but I really was trying to write it goodas best I could, so, it's here it is:
Dan Brown wrote:“You've never been with a famous man.” I feel myself flush, fighting to hide a surge of emotions— embarrassment, excitement, fear. “Actually, to be honest,” I say to him, "I've never been with any man."
Please, correct my mistakes, I hope there won't be too many. And could you explain to me, why the author wrote "feel myself"?

To "flush" is to have one's face redden and tingle due to a sudden flow of blood into it. What you have here is a small clause with a co-referential subject. That is, structurally it's identical to:

"I saw him run away." (He ran away, and I saw it.)
"I felt it go limp." (it went limp, and I felt it.)
"I wished her dead." (I wished that she would die.)

However, when the subject of both the main clause and the embedded small clause is there same, one uses a reflexive pronoun in the small clause:

"I saw myself run away."
"He felt himself go limp."
"She wished herself dead."

That's what you have here. She flushed. How did she know she flushed? Not through visual cues or because someone mentioned it to her but because she felt her skin tingle. That is, she felt herself flush.
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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-21, 21:24

How to say in englis when someone did a great deal(feat)? For example man on the war did a feat? How to say it for sounding good for you? Maybe "he managed to do a feat"?

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Re: I have some questions

Postby linguoboy » 2014-03-21, 21:45

LifeDeath wrote:What do you say in English when someone didhas performed a great deal(feat)? For example, a man on the warbattlefield didaccomplished a feat? How to say it forin a way that soundings good forto you? Maybe "he managed to do a feat"?

Do you have a more specific context? Generally a feat is something you "perform" or "accomplish". (Do sounds too casual because feat belongs to a higher register.)
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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-21, 22:05

I have no context, I just wonder if it is possible to say "He managed to do a feat". Maybe I should say "make" or "create" or "commit" or maybe without the word "manage" (he commited a feat) something like: "I really respect this man, he *** a feat, he is a hero!" what should I use instead of *** ?

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Re: I have some questions

Postby linguoboy » 2014-03-21, 22:09

LifeDeath wrote:Maybe I should say "make" or "create" or "commit" or maybe without the word "manage"

No. None of these are idiomatic. You "commit" a crime. "Feats" can be neither "created" nor "destroyed" and if a word doesn't enter into a light verb construction with "do", it's even less likely to work with "make".

LifeDeath wrote:(he commited a feat) something like: "I really respect this man, he *** a feat, he is a hero!" what should I use instead of *** ?

I already told you: "performed" or "accomplished". But "feat" would normally be qualified in some way, e.g. "great feat", "feat of valour", etc.
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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-21, 22:16

Thank you!
What is the difference between "got" and "gotten" so I know there's no difference in the meaning, maybe it is a question of a territory? or old (years old of person) ?

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Re: I have some questions

Postby linguoboy » 2014-03-21, 23:55

LifeDeath wrote:What is the difference between "got" and "gotten"? so I know there's no difference in the meaning, maybe it is a question of a territory? Or oldage(years old of person)?

Actually, in those dialects which use gotten (which includes practically all of North America), there is a difference in meaning.
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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-24, 4:27

Is there any difference between "smart" and "clever"?

Is my sentence "I haven't done anything, don't blame myself!" correct? (second part).

What is the difference "meet my friend" and "meet with my friends"?

Why shop is open, but closed?

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Re: I have some questions

Postby Dormouse559 » 2014-03-24, 5:05

LifeDeath wrote:Is there any difference between "smart" and "clever"?
"Smart" refers mainly to intelligence. Clever people are usually smart, but they're also resourceful or inventive.

LifeDeath wrote:Is my sentence "I haven't done anything, don't blame myself!" correct? (second part).
"I haven't done anything, don't blame me".

LifeDeath wrote:What is the difference between "meet my friend" and "meet with my friends"?
"Meet my friend" is usually said when you introduce someone to your friend. The friend is normally present. "Meet with my friends" is like saying, "Arrange a meeting with my friends". The friends aren't necessarily present.

LifeDeath wrote:Why is a shop is open, but closed?
No reason. It's just one of those quirks of language. "Open" is an adjective, and "closed" is an adjective derived from the past participle of "to close". EDIT: Also, I guess you're wondering why the adjective "close" isn't used. But "close" has nothing to do with whether you can enter a shop. If I say, "The shop is close", I mean that the shop is not far away.
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Re: I have some questions

Postby linguoboy » 2014-03-24, 12:59

Dormouse559 wrote:
LifeDeath wrote:Is there any difference between "smart" and "clever"?
"Smart" refers mainly to intelligence. Clever people are usually smart, but they're also resourceful or inventive.

There's also a dialectal divergence. In British English, "smart" is most often used to mean "sharply-dressed". (In American English, if we say someone's a "smart dresser", we mean they select their clothes intelligently.) As a result, the word most commonly used for "intelligent" in UK English is "clever". Americans use "clever" much more sparingly (and, as Dormouse says, with an additional implication of resourcefulness).

Dormouse559 wrote:EDIT: Also, I guess you're wondering why the adjective "close" isn't used. But "close" has nothing to do with whether you can enter a shop. If I say, "The shop is close", I mean that the shop is not far away.

It's also worth pointing out (since this is a common mistake among L2-speakers) that the pronunciations are different. Close the adjective is pronounced with [s] whereas close the verb is pronounced with [z].
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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-24, 16:49

Thank you guys.

Why Queen song "Who wants to live forever" called this way? Why not "Who does want to live forever"?
It would make sence to me if the sentence was something like: "I wonder who wants to live forever". But here we have direct questions and this grammar very strange to me.

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Re: I have some questions

Postby JuxtapositionQMan » 2014-03-24, 17:19

LifeDeath wrote:Why is the Queen song "Who wants to live forever?" called this way? Why not "Who does want to live forever?"?
It would make sense to me if the sentence was something like: "I wonder who wants to live forever". But here we have direct questions and this grammar is very strange to me.
It's asking "which person(s) wants to continue living eternally?". Do/Does is usually used in questions for 1) true/false questions [Do you even lift?], or 2) with interrogative adverbs [How do you make that?]. "Who" is a pronoun in this instance, so neither applies.
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Re: I have some questions

Postby linguoboy » 2014-03-24, 17:49

LifeDeath wrote:Why Queen song "Who wants to live forever" called this way? Why not "Who does want to live forever"?

This possibility exists, but it is emphatic. E.g. "Living can be extremely painful for some people, so in that case, who DOES want to live forever?"
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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-26, 16:49

Thank you both.

1. Another song called "Is This the World We Created?" really confuses me. I have been told that we don't use any articles after the words "This, that, those, these" but why is it used here?

The second part of this question, I don't understand what this headline means... As I understood it means something like: "Did we create namely this world?" is it right?

2. I remember there's a game called "Need for speed" so, why we use "for" here? I know some lines where "for" isn't used, like "I need help" or "I need love" and more.

3. How to use construction "being + participle 2"? (not "be + being + pt 2") Could you show some examples?

4. We already spoke about Cleft Sentences, can I use it ia a future time? For example: "It was not untill you will tell me your name that I tell you mine".

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Re: I have some questions

Postby linguoboy » 2014-03-26, 17:10

LifeDeath wrote:1. Another song called "Is This the World We Created?" really confuses me. I have been told that we don't use any articles after the words "This, that, those, these" but why is it used here?

Whoever taught you that rule was probably trying to prevent you from saying things like *"I like this the world". But the reason those words come together in the song title is because of question inversion. That is:

This is the world we created > Is this the world we created?

From this, you can see it's not a case of doubling up on determiners before a noun but that you have demonstrative (this) used as a subject coming right before a definite noun phrase. It's exactly parallel to something like:

He is the man I love > Is he the man I love?


LifeDeath wrote:The second part of this question: I don't understand what this headlinetitle means... As I understood it means something like: "Did we create namely this world?". Is that right?

Yes.

LifeDeath wrote:2. I remember there's a game called "Need for speed" so, why we use "for" here? I know some lines where "for" isn't used, like "I need help" or "I need love" and more.

In those examples, need is a verb and takes an object. But in the expression need for speed, it is a noun. Presumably, it could be expanded to "I/We have a need for speed".

LifeDeath wrote:3. How todo you use the construction "being + participle 2"? (not "be + being + pt 2") Could you show some examples?

I don't recognise the term "participle 2". Is this identical to a past participle (e.g. shown) or a present participle (showing)?

LifeDeath wrote:4. We already spoke about Cleft Sentences, can I use it ia awith future timetense? For example: "It was not untill you will tell me your name that I tell you mine".

You can't combine past and future tense like this. If the telling is in the future, then the main clause has to be as well:

"It won't [=will not] be until you tell me your name that I tell you mine."
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Re: I have some questions

Postby LifeDeath » 2014-03-26, 17:17

Thank you. I spoke about past participle. But if it is used with present participle, I would also want to know it.


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