Freddies English Teaching Course

[Yuna]

Is 'Soonest possible' grammatically correct?

Some american ppl use this term but my english teacher (Korean) says that it's incorrect ...

[Mikasgirl:)]

Is 'Soonest possible' grammatically correct?

Some american ppl use this term but my english teacher (Korean) says that it's incorrect ...

 

I'm not sure... Do you mean like: "She said that the project would be done at the soonest possible time."

Something like that? If not could you use it in a sentence

[Yuna]

I'm not sure... Do you mean like: "She said that the project would be done at the soonest possible time."

Something like that? If not could you use it in a sentence

 

noo...she just said like 'Kindly please arrange wire transfer soonest possible'

can we use in that way?

[Christine]

noo...she just said like 'Kindly please arrange wire transfer soonest possible'

can we use in that way?

 

No there are some words missing there but trying to expand on it would just be awkward IMO. I would just say ASAP (as soon as possible).

[mikahepburn]

hi

so this is an Aussie term. If I say I have a candy, singular, will it still be lollies or is it lolly?

thanks

[silver]

hi

so this is an Aussie term. If I say I have a candy, singular, will it still be lollies or is it lolly?

thanks

 

I think you need an Aussie to answer that

[Ruth]

?

 

That's why we still put "u"s in words like "colour" but we say pants instead of trousers, etc.

 

You don't say trousers?

 

so this is an Aussie term. If I say I have a candy, singular, will it still be lollies or is it lolly?

thanks

 

Is Aussie candy different from American?

 

In the UK we say sweet/sweets or toffee/toffees for 'candy' and lolly/lollies for .... erm.... lollies - sweets on a stick or made from flavoured ice.

[Ruth]

 

I would recommend using language learning tapes if you want to improve your pronunciation, even if you already understand the vocabulary. Otherwise just watching a lot of television shows to get exposure. All the British dialect I know I think I learned from Coronation Street

 

Ha!

 

Did it help, Christine? That's my part of the UK; it's not quite BBC English.

[Ruth]

How does double posting happen?

Edited November 10, 2011 by Ruth
double post. . . .

[AnnaMariaPetra]

noo...she just said like 'Kindly please arrange wire transfer soonest possible'

can we use in that way?

 

Perhaps they mean to say: "...transfer as soon as possible.'

[mikahepburn]

You don't say trousers?

 

 

 

Is Aussie candy different from American?

 

In the UK we say sweet/sweets or toffee/toffees for 'candy' and lolly/lollies for .... erm.... lollies - sweets on a stick or made from flavoured ice.

 

No, lollies just means candy. But I don't know if the term itself is a singular or a plural

[silver]

noo...she just said like 'Kindly please arrange wire transfer soonest possible'

can we use in that way?

 

I think we would probably say "as soon as possible".

 

But in the days before mobiles and computers, when people had to send messages by telegraph, sentences often got compressed like that, because you had to pay by the word. In a telegram you wouldn't waste money with words like "kindly".

[Christine]

You don't say trousers?

 

No not generally. The Gap sells a pair of pants called "The Perfect Trouser" so everyone knows what trousers are and it's probably common terminology in the garment industry, but I can't imagine a Canadian ever saying "I'm going shopping for a pair of trousers".

 

Ha!

 

Did it help, Christine? That's my part of the UK; it's not quite BBC English.

 

Yes it did! I couldn't understand about 25% of what they were saying at first but after a few years it all started to make sense.

 

My father's grandparents were from the Peak District so I would love to get up there some time. I bought tickets for the Manchester and Sheffield Mika shows in 2010 but it just would have extended my trip so long I didn't think I could swing it. I think I'd rather go when there are no Mika shows so I can really spend some time sightseeing and go to the village where they lived, etc.

[mikahepburn]

yay I can see this thread now

now I forgot what I was about to say

[Yuna]

No there are some words missing there but trying to expand on it would just be awkward IMO. I would just say ASAP (as soon as possible).

 

ohh thank you so much

[basicamenteyo]

Since I started to learn English by my own I realised that here we learn a very odd English at school. I mean... I´ve been taught to make negative sentences like this:

 

"Mary is my friend" like "Mary isn´t my friend"

 

But then, after learning English by my own, I once did an exam, and I wrote "Mary´s not my friend anymore" and I was told that I should do it the other way, like "Mary isn´t my friend anymore"... but my experience says that people says it the other way....

 

so... how do you English people say that???

[babspanky]

If you want to know how I'd speak, I'd use both of those Rosa.

[astor]

Since I started to learn English by my own I realised that here we learn a very odd English at school. I mean... I´ve been taught to make negative sentences like this:

 

"Mary is my friend" like "Mary isn´t my friend"

 

But then, after learning English by my own, I once did an exam, and I wrote "Mary´s not my friend anymore" and I was told that I should do it the other way, like "Mary isn´t my friend anymore"... but my experience says that people says it the other way....

 

so... how do you English people say that???

Doesn't make any difference as far as I'm aware.. in informal speech, anyway.

It depends on which word you want to put the emphasis on..

But there might be some rule that I wasn't taught

[basicamenteyo]

If you want to know how I'd speak, I'd use both of those Rosa.

 

Doesn't make any difference as far as I'm aware.. in informal speech, anyway.

It depends on which word you want to put the emphasis on..

But there might be some rule that I wasn't taught

 

As you know I´m not English speaker, but to me seems more "natural" to say "he´s not" that "he isn´t"... don´t ask me why...

 

 

Thank you both!!

[willywonka]

Since I started to learn English by my own I realised that here we learn a very odd English at school. I mean... I´ve been taught to make negative sentences like this:

 

"Mary is my friend" like "Mary isn´t my friend"

 

But then, after learning English by my own, I once did an exam, and I wrote "Mary´s not my friend anymore" and I was told that I should do it the other way, like "Mary isn´t my friend anymore"... but my experience says that people says it the other way....

 

so... how do you English people say that???

 

Those are two different sentences/meanings...

 

If you say Mary isn't your friend it implies just the present, meaning she never was or is but she might become one...

 

If you say Mary isn't my friend anymore it implies the past, she was your friend but she isn't anymore...

 

Now lets' forget this grammar jibberish yadda yadda and lets discuss cannons....

[basicamenteyo]

Those are two different sentences/meanings...

 

If you say Mary isn't your friend it implies just the present, meaning she never was or is but she might become one...

 

If you say Mary isn't my friend anymore it implies the past, she was your friend but she isn't anymore...

 

Now lets' forget this grammar jibberish yadda yadda and lets discuss cannons....

 

oh, yes, I know about "anymore" I just forgot to type it in first sentence too... it´s just that I never "contract" the negative... and maybe it´s just me, but I feel more comfy doing it like that, than the other way...

 

And stop talking about cannons, you naughty woman

[silver]

It's a different contraction to say the same thing, really "Mary's " = Mary is, "isn't" = is not.

 

As Bab says, English speakers would use both forms

[basicamenteyo]

It's a different contraction to say the same thing, really "Mary's " = Mary is, "isn't" = is not.

 

As Bab says, English speakers would use both forms

 

oh yes, I´m aware of the contractions.. thank you very much...

 

And now I don´t know why I´m asking here my concerns, cause even if you all have told me you would probably use both, the "isn´t" form still sounds odd to me and I won´t use it

 

 

Yeah, stubborn, I know....

[willywonka]

oh yes, I´m aware of the contractions.. thank you very much...

 

And now I don´t know why I´m asking here my concerns, cause even if you all have told me you would probably use both, the "isn´t" form still sounds odd to me and I won´t use it

 

 

Yeah, stubborn, I know....

 

Not stubborn, spanish...

[Christine]

I was about to post this poem anyway but funnily enough it has the word "mica" in it so you'll all get at least one right.

 

From:

 

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2011/12/23/english-pronunciation/

 

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.

 

After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.

 

Dearest creature in creation,

Study English pronunciation.

I will teach you in my verse

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear.

So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,

Dies and diet, lord and word,

Sword and sward, retain and Britain.

(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)

Now I surely will not plague you

With such words as plaque and ague.

But be careful how you speak:

Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;

Cloven, oven, how and low,

Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,

Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,

Exiles, similes, and reviles;

Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

Solar, mica, war and far;

One, anemone, Balmoral,

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;

Gertrude, German, wind and mind,

Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,

Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

Blood and flood are not like food,

Nor is mould like should and would.

Viscous, viscount, load and broad,

Toward, to forward, to reward.

And your pronunciation’s OK

When you correctly say croquet,

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,

Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour

And enamour rhyme with hammer.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,

Doll and roll and some and home.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,

Neither does devour with clangour.

Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,

Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,

And then singer, ginger, linger,

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,

Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,

Nor does fury sound like bury.

Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.

Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.

Though the differences seem little,

We say actual but victual.

Refer does not rhyme with deafer.

Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.

Mint, pint, senate and sedate;

Dull, bull, and George ate late.

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,

Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,

Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.

We say hallowed, but allowed,

People, leopard, towed, but vowed.

Mark the differences, moreover,

Between mover, cover, clover;

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,

Chalice, but police and lice;

Camel, constable, unstable,

Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,

Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.

Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,

Senator, spectator, mayor.

Tour, but our and succour, four.

Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Sea, idea, Korea, area,

Psalm, Maria, but malaria.

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.

Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,

Dandelion and battalion.

Sally with ally, yea, ye,

Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.

Say aver, but ever, fever,

Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.

Heron, granary, canary.

Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging,

Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.

Ear, but earn and wear and tear

Do not rhyme with here but ere.

Seven is right, but so is even,

Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,

Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,

Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)

Is a paling stout and spikey?

Won’t it make you lose your wits,

Writing groats and saying grits?

It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:

Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,

Islington and Isle of Wight,

Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough,

Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?

Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!!!

 

English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité