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Ask for help > Sadly something really rude happened to me....
Sadly something really rude happened to me....
Aisha77
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Sadly something really rude happened to me....
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Well, first of all thanks to all those people that were nice and even thanked me all my ws. Sadly I uploaded a ws talking about nationalities. I wrote about many of them. The thing started when I received one sms telling me (in a good way first) I was wrong, that I couldn �t write �Germans are �.... or �Russians are �.... but �The germans are �.... or �German people are.... �, I mean I had to write the nationalities with the article at the beginning or writing �people � after the noun. Well, I was quite sure both ways were possible, but I doubted, so I looked it on the Internet and I found that nationalities with nouns instead of adjectives were without the article. So I wrote her back,first telling her I was wrong only when writing �French �, as I had to say French people and I told he also there was no need to write the article ... Then I Iooked up in Cambridge dictionary the word �French � and it says it is rather an adjective or a noun, so sadly I answered her again telling her that it could be �Frenchs � as well (although I wasn �t really sure yet) and sent her a link with the instruction I read. Well maybe I am wrong, but I got tonigh a private mail that was really rude, in a really bad manner. I don �t think I said anything bad to her, and I don �t like feeling this way when all I wanted was to know actually the real way. If she is right we could know by many ways instead of telling me I don �t know anything and writing me so rudely. My English isn �t perfect, I know, but I believe I have quite a good level, indeed. However, I don �t feel like going on this way, but before I go, I wish someone (an English native if possible) could tell me if it is or not possible to say: English are... whatever; Russians are..... whatever... And what about French? Is it possible without the �the �? Or the reason it isn �t possible (if so) is because the adjective is the exact same word as the noun? Thanks in advance! Good luck to you all Bye! |
12 Oct 2018
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kohai
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Dear Aisha, Maybe I shouldn�t answer your question as I am a non-native teacher and I am still learning English. But, by coincidence, I recently had the same question in my head. Thanks to Les Douglas (who is a native speaker) I have learnt the following: In English, when we are talking about people from a particular country, we add �s� to nationalities ending in �-i � or �-(i)an �, but we need the definite article (the) for most others. Brazilians/ Russians are... Thais/ Israelis are... The British/ The French are... The Swiss/ The Japanese are... With both groups we can also use the word �people �, e.g., Brazilian people, British people, etc. /The source: English Vocabulary in Use by Stuart Redman, Cambridge, printed in 2016/
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12 Oct 2018
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Aisha77
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I still have doubts as I go on finding forums like this one https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/the-german-people-the-germans.2939368/ where they say "Germans are famous for being friendly" is correct. This is said by someone from Oregon (USA)...and he addes this is for people concerned in good writting. I am getting mad! ... LOL. The British member on this post also underlines the answer saying that depending on what you want to say....
Thanx for the answer, I hope some other people answer too so I get a deeper view of all this...
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13 Oct 2018
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cunliffe
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Hey Aisha! Don �t take a rude pm to heart! The vast majority of us on here support and help each other. I once had a pm from a member, telling me that from my posts, I was obviously a nasty person!!!! I am quite nice, most of the time, but - how could she possibly know? In any applecart, there will be at least one bad apple. My advice is to ignore this. As a native speaker, I know how to talk about nationalities, but I didn �t know the rule, so thank you Ruta and Les. Never leave this site! It �s the best! Lynne |
13 Oct 2018
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Aisha77
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OW! You made me cry!... Thanks so much! I love the site actually but it �s true since yesterday I am feeling really bad, however there are so great people here!!... That �s really true! Have a nice day �lynne�.
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13 Oct 2018
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jannabanna
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Hi Aisha, I totally agree with Lynne, don �t take anything to heart and don �t reply to nasty PMs, it �s not worth it. Thanks to Kohai for passing on the rule! Janet |
13 Oct 2018
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spinney
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Same here Aisha. Don �t let silly people put you off, especially if they don �t even know the rules themselves. Besides, even we natives can get it wrong sometimes and for people to get all nasty about it doesn �t make sense. Perhaps they were having a bad day. It �s always best to count to 10, and then ignore it completely. in cases such as these. Have a great weekend! (or puente, as is the case) |
13 Oct 2018
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elderberrywine
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Grow up and cope with aggression, rudeness and the fact that there are not only saints out there - without whining publicly. Sorry for being so blunt. I don �t seem to be able to express it any other way. |
13 Oct 2018
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yanogator
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Kohai gave the rule so succinctly! That makes it really easy both to remember and to teach. Thanks for that. Bruce |
13 Oct 2018
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Aisha77
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Thanks so much Kohai, I get it well... I understand everything now,LOL. I read it again, and as I believed it was right as german ends in �an �. Thanks too to everybody and to elderberrywine, as he or she says it was stupid to post the problem. It�s right,I should have just ask instead of posting the problem itself, I did it cause I am really sensitive and I felt literally a knot in my throat, but however I should have kept it for myself. thanks again.
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13 Oct 2018
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heikeo53
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Dear Aisha, unfortunately there are quite a few "bad apples " on this web site (I had several unpleasant experiences myself), so I know exactly how you feel . It �s very hard to ignore rude comments. I personally don �t agree with elderberrywine. "Respect other people �s feelings. It might mean nothing to you, but it could mean everything to them." |
13 Oct 2018
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