|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Some questions about School life
Some questions about School life
|
Alyona C.
|
Some questions about School life
|
Dear friends!
Answer my silly questions, please.
1) At or On the lesson? At/on the English lesson we....? (Do we need "the"?)
2) At my school or in my school?
2) We jumped skipping-ropes. (Can we say like this?)
3) There are many reasons for my love for this lesson. What is wrong here?
4) Usually we go to the gym before the bell rings. The teacher is already waiting for us. (It seems to me that something wrong here. What is it?)
Thanks in advance!!!
|
11 Apr 2010
|
|
|
|
Blasetti
|
|
Hi! Here are my suggestions, correct me if I �m wrong.
1. I would say "during the English lesson", it sounds more natural to me...
2. At my school (at my house, at the hairdresser �s, etc.) "I �m at school." But I think in can also be used in some situations, for e.g. There are many classrooms in my school.
3. There are many reasons for me to love this lesson. (???)
4. It doesn �t sound wrong, but I would rather say "When the bell rings, we are already at the gym. The teacher is already there when we arrive." |
11 Apr 2010
|
|
|
SueThom
|
In the first place, I will disagree with you that these are "silly" questions. You �re clearly trying to do the best you can by checking on details, and that speaks well of you.
I don �t know that I have all the answers, but I �ll tell you what "sounds" right to me as a native speaker from the US.
1) I don �t think I �d use "at" or "on", but "during". "During the English lesson we..." I might say "During English we..." if I were speaking about a course I was taking titled English. When I was in high school, literature and writing were taught in the course we called simply "English".
2) I would use both "at" and "in", but probably for different things. "At my school we play hopscotch at recess." "In my school there is a large mural on the wall."
3) I �d either say "we jump rope" or "we skipped rope". Where I �m from (Pacific NW of the US) we understand the phrase "skipping rope", but I can �t recall actually hearing it spoken. We tend to use "jump" here; even the object is call a "jumprope".
4) It doesn �t sound wrong to me, but it does feel a little awkward. I �d be more likely to say, "There are many reasons why I love this lesson." If you want to stick with the original phrasing, you might change it to "my love of this lesson".
5) Again, it doesn �t sound wrong to me, but then informal spoken English doesn �t always follow all the formal grammar rules. There could be a technical problem between the present tense (repeated, routine activity) in the first sentence and the present continuous in the second. It �s this type of issue in which non-native speakers who have spent years studying prescriptive grammar rules frequently surpass native speakers who have simply grown up with the language.
I don �t know if this is helpful or not. I �m looking forward to seeing other responses.
Good luck, Alyona!
Regards,
Sue
|
11 Apr 2010
|
|
|
mavgil
|
As a native Canadian English speaker, I agree with Sue except for number 3. In Canada, and I would imagine in most Commonwealth countries, we "skip rope" and the rope itself is called a "skipping rope". Now, I �m older than many of the people on this site and I haven �t lived in Canada for several years so things may have changed by now, but that �s what it was called when I was young. As far as number 5 is concerned, the time expression "usually" should be placed before the verb and not at the beginning of the sentence. I would change the sentences to read: We usually go to the gym before the bell rings and the teacher is already there waiting for us. Hope my two cents have been helpful.
|
11 Apr 2010
|
|
|
GIOVANNI
|
|
I agree with Sue and Mavgil. For number 3, in Canada we � �skip rope and as Mavgil said, the rope itself is called a � �skipping rope � �. |
11 Apr 2010
|
|
|
|
|
