Is there a book that can teach me sound English?

[Katya O.]

Hello, people, once again!
Could you suggest me a book or an author of a book which can teach a non-native English speaker feel English, feel "hint", "colour" of words. I know some English words but I can't be sure that this or that word is suitable. Is there any book that can teach me sound natural for the English speakers?
Thank you in advance.
P.S.: Phil was right about the late spring.

[linguoboy]

Could you suggest (to)[*] me a book or an author of a book which can teach a non-native English speaker how to get a feel for English, to feel "hint",the "colour" of words? I know some English words but I can't be sure that this or that word is suitable. Is there any book that can teach me how to sound natural for thewhen speaking English speakers?

[*] Apparently the to is optional for some speakers, but it sounds bad to me to leave it out.

If I understand you correctly, you're looking for a book which goes through various synonyms or near-synonyms and discusses the usage of each? Like the differences in meaning between "understand", "comprehend", "grok", "grasp", etc. and when it's best to use one and not the other?

[Katya O.]

If I understand you correctly, you're looking for a book which goes through various synonyms or near-synonyms and discusses the usage of each? Like the differences in meaning between "understand", "comprehend", "grok", "grasp", etc. and when it's best to use one and not the other?[/quote]

Yes, I'm looking a sort of explanatory dictionary.
Thank you for the correction of my errors.

[linguoboy]

Yes, I'm looking for a sort of explanatory dictionary.
Thank you for the correction of my errors.

(In general, nominal constructions like that sound more formal than using a gerund. The more common way to say this is "Thank you for correcting my errors".)

Unfortunately I don't know of a book like that, but I'll do a little research and see what I can find. There exist several dictionaries of usage (Fowler's is the best known), but they're more concerned with grammatical details like proper pluralisation and verb agreement than with choosing between synonyms. Dictionaries of synonyms and thesauri, on the other hand, tend to be aimed at fluent speakers who just want some more words to choose from to keep their prose from sounding too repetitive and dull.

[Katya O.]

Unfortunately I don't know of a book like that, but I'll do a little research and see what I can find. There exist several dictionaries of usage (Fowler's is the best known), but they're more concerned with grammatical details like proper pluralisation and verb agreement than with choosing between synonyms. Dictionaries of synonyms and thesauri, on the other hand, tend to be aimed at fluent speakers who just want some more words to choose from to keep their prose from sounding too repetitive and dull.[/quote]

Thank you for your help, I'll search for this book on the Internet.
I'm afraid your research won't be little I understand that you are tired of my mistakes but I don't want you to spend your time searching for the books I need. I'm embarrassed.

[linguoboy]

I'm afraid your research won't be so little I understand that you are tired of my mistakes but I don't want you to spend your time searching for the books I need. I'm embarrassed.

Please don't be embarrassed. As you can see, you don't make that many mistakes.

I'm a librarian. Searching for books is what I do. I'm personally curious whether such a book exists and, if I found a good one, I'd be able to recommend it to others as well. A lot of the time I spend correcting English here is devoted to explaining why a certain word fits better in a given sentence than another word, so that would save me some time.

I own a book like this for German (Farrell's Dictionary of German synonyms) and it helped me a lot, so I would love to find something like this for other languages, not just English. Unfortunately, common usage is something that learners are often expected to "pick up" on their own with minimal guidance.

[Katya O.]

I'm a librarian. Searching for books is what I do. I'm personally curious whether such a book exists and, if I found a good one, I'd be able to recommend it to others as well. A lot of the time I spend correcting English here is devoted to explaining why a certain word fits better in a given sentence than another word, so that would save me some time.

I wish this book were. There are holidays, I will be searching for the book.

Now I'm going to bed, it's 9 p.m. in Russia. By the way the weather is colder and colder in my city! May be I'm sleepy because of the weather.

Have a good day

[linguoboy]

I wish this book existed. When there are holidays, I will be searching for the book. Now I'm going to bed; it's 9 p.m. in Russia. By the way, the weather is colder and colder in my city! Maybe I'm sleepy because of the weather.

Sleep well! I hope it gets warmer soon.