Let's teach Lopdo (and others) English

[Lopdo]

not sure if it will do any good, but here is the idea. I write a lot in English, both here and on other places, but my English is far from perfect (as you can see). In this stage, courses seem rather ineffective, so I thought that maybe some correcting would help. I would like to ask native English speakers (only those proficient enough of course, anyone who writes their instead of there is disqualified ) to point out and fix mistakes I write all over this forum. All of it should take place in this topic so that we don't pollute rest of the forum. Simple correction of mistake should be enough, but little bit of explanation and/or examples would be nice

So if there is someone who thinks he can help and is sufficiently bored, here I am, waiting to be shamed and hoping to learn something

Also, please no off-topic posts of any kind, relevant discussion is welcome, but this topic will be heavily moderated

[Autumnwolf17]

You actually really do speak very well, at least much better than I will ever speak any secondary language. I only saw one mistake in that sentence, excluding the lack of punctuation for certain sentences that is, so that's quite good. But you did ask for it, so I will correct it.

Simple correction of mistake should be enough

This should be written as either 'Simple correction of mistakes should be enough' (to say that you want all mistakes you make corrected, it must be plural) or as 'Simple correction of a mistake should be enough' (to show that the process of correcting you applies equally to all mistakes).

Really, both of the corrections get the same point across, so both are equally acceptable (and we all can understand the first version anyway, you are usually very clear in what you mean without little corrections).

EDITED: I was arrogant, please don't judge me. (Wolf of the Future)

[Ozserf]

EFFACÉ

[techgump]

Maybe an incentive for the most corrections/explanations?

[necrocat219]

The only mistake you make over and over again is that you sometimes miss out ''a'', although that could just be casualness

It is bit different to be here as long as I have and have 2k posts and be here for few months and have 2k of useless posts

It is a bit different to be here as long as I have and have 2k posts and be here for few months and have 2k of useless posts

that's disturbing image, unless you are a girl

that's a disturbing image, unless you are a girl

Oh and also...

but wouldn't the "right there" text stand in a way? I mean look at it, it cover almost half of the board

but wouldn't the "right there" text stand in the way? I mean look at it, it covers almost half of the board

I picked these from your last 10 posts it's mainly problems with the grammar of 'a'. I'm not sure how I would teach when to put them in though.

[Autumnwolf17]

Well, I can pick up from there.

You may or may not know all this, but I will go through it anyway.

'A', 'an', and 'the' are a special subsection of adjectives that are called articles. They are used to indicate the type of reference being used on that noun.

Articles are used as the very first adjective that comes before a noun (Ex. 'a small, black cat').

'The' is the definate article. You use 'the' when the noun you have in mind is a particular one. So you could say 'Give me the book' if you had a specific book in mind, as opposed to 'Give me a book' which would imply that you would accept any book.

'A' and 'an' are the indefinate article. You use them when you don't hae a specific noun in mind, as said above. The way to determine which one is used is actually quite simple. If the word starts with a vowel sound, then you use 'an' (This means a,e,i,o, and u. Also the letter 'h' once in a while, whenever it pronouced silently like in 'hour') Otherwise, you use 'a'.

'No' is also sometime accepted as the negative article which goes before a noun and gives the statement an oppisite meaning (As in 'No man is an island.') But don't think into that one too deeply.

Also, there are several cases where an article doesn't need to be or actually shouldn't be used to modify a noun. These are in the cases of pluralization and 'mass nouns' (like when a noun describes many, many things. An example of this is 'people'. If you were to say something as a generalization such as 'People can be stupid', you wouldn't need an articles.)

EDITED: I think we all know I summarized this off a website. Bad Wolf. (Wolf of the Future)

[Ratburntro44]

You need to capitalize the first letter of your sentence at the start. I also believe there should be a comma after "please" in the final sentence, but I am not sure, someone else check that. Addirionally, make sure to place periods after all of your sentences.

Also, I think there needs to be a comma before "of course". Again, I am not sure about the commas.

How far do you want me to go with this? I actually speak very, very good English, so I can probably correct a decent amount (although I sometimes type messily on other forums and say things like 'lol' every once in a while). That is a sentence fragment, the word "however" should be used in place of the word "although".

You actually really do speak very well, at least much better than I will ever speak any secondary language. I only saw one mistake in that sentence, excluding the lack of punctuation for certain sentences that is, so that's quite good. But you did ask for it, so I will correct it.

Simple correction of mistake should be enough

This should be written as either 'Simple correction of [color=#FF0000]mistakes should be enough' You should use double quotation marks here, as well as in the following quotation. (to say that you want all mistakes you make corrected, it must be plural) or as 'Simple correction of a mistake should be enough' (to show that the process of correcting you applies equally to all mistakes).

Really, both of the corrections get the same point across, so both are equally acceptable (and we all can understand the first version anyway, you are usually very clear in what you mean without little corrections). That sentence section is ambiguous and should be changed.

Really, I don't have perfect English, but please don't claim you are "very, very good" at it.

[Autumnwolf17]

You're actually very good at English, especially for a second language.

EDITED: That's all that I wanted to keep of that, the rest was stupid. (Wolf of the Future)

[Ratburntro44]

You should note that article, being different from other adjectives, are not separated with commas, for example, you would say, "He has a small, brown dog," not, "He has a, small, brown dog".

Also, Lopdo, I noticed in your first sentence it should begin with "I am". People leave that off in lazy typing fairly often, but it is supposed to be there.

Also, there are several cases where an article doesn't need to be or actually shouldn't be used to modify a noun. These are in the cases of pluralization and 'mass nouns' (like when a noun describes many, many things. An example of this is 'people'. If you were to say something as a generalization such as 'People can be stupid', you wouldn't need an articles.)

The irony there is, well, ironic.

Autumnwolf, I'm not saying your English is bad, but don't act like you're some big shot at English. Specifically (and I know I'm not the best at this either), you need to work on phrasing placing commas more.

[hicksy17]

Which English? British English or American English?