質問
最終更新日:
2021年3月3日
- ロシア語
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英語 (イギリス)
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スペイン語 (スペイン)
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フランス語 (フランス)
英語 (イギリス) に関する質問
The harder he works, the worse he sleeps.
Why we need to put THE in front of adverb here and it's not even superlative form of it.
Can we say it without definite article? は 英語 (イギリス) で何と言いますか?
The harder he works, the worse he sleeps.
Why we need to put THE in front of adverb here and it's not even superlative form of it.
Can we say it without definite article? は 英語 (イギリス) で何と言いますか?
Why we need to put THE in front of adverb here and it's not even superlative form of it.
Can we say it without definite article? は 英語 (イギリス) で何と言いますか?
回答
2021年5月20日
最も役に立った回答
- 英語 (イギリス)
@tc77tatyana
Hi Tatyana. You could call me Mike if you like: my name is Michael, and it's my preferred short form :)
I hope it's good that work keeps you busy: I suppose that depends on how you feel about the work, and on busy being pleasantly busy and not too overloaded.
I'm glad that my explanation helped: it's hard to know if an explanation makes things clearer or less clear!
You are right about the uses of the -ing form, tenses with a continuous (or progressive) aspect: these are for when you want to stress or bring out the continuing nature of an action over a period of time.
In the present tense, of course, the continuous aspect also signals that the action is not yet complete. "Finish your report." "I am finishing it!" This means that I am working on it now and am nearing completion, but have not yet finished it. As soon as the report is finished, we can say "I have finished it!" (Or "I've finished!") The present perfect here signals that the action is recently completed. We know that it has an influence in the present, too, as we are still responding to the person who wanted to know if we had finished.
Your example questions:
"We stayed there for two weeks (past not connected with now)." This is perfect - in the sense that this is correct!
"We have stayed there for 2 weeks ( meaning just recently, can I use there in this case?)" You can use this exacly like this, but it's better to adjust it a little: as it is it looks like a mistake in choice of tense. Normally, this would be better in the simple past: "We stayed there for two weeks."
But you could find these words, in specific cases:
"I expect that you've never spent a night in Russia." "We have stayed there, for 2 weeks last year (or some specific time in the past.)" Then the "have" is an emphatic rejection of the assumption in the previous statement. In this context this is OK.
"We have been staying here for 2 weeks (means I am still at the place)." This is exactly right (correct, perfect!)
Often, we would simplify this and leave out the "staying". "We've been here for two weeks." The "staying" is implied by the "being", so to speak! If you meet someone, who asks "How long have you been here?" or ""Have you been here long?" then you can reply "We've been here for two weeks. "
But if you are talking about a hotel or some place that you are living in - a rented apartment, a friend's house - then you could well say exactly "We have been staying here for two weeks." In this use, the "staying" implies sleeping at that place for those two weeks. The action is continuous in the grammatical sense that you have slept there every night for the two weeks (and are still due to sleep there at least tonight) but obviously not continuous in the logical sense of sleeping all the time: clearly you'd normally spend a lot of the day awake, and probably out of the hotel and doing things!
"I had stayed there for two weeks before he came (means that I would like to mention about my stay before)." This is all correct. This would be part of a narration moslty told in the simple past tense. Again, unless you are talking about a hotel or other residence you would probably leave out the "staying." "I had been there for two weeks before he arrived / came."
You're welcome! But lack of patience, as my wife ocasionally reminds me, is one of my bigger weaknesses, usually - along with answering too fully! i hope this has made sense, and has not left you more confused than before!
Mike
評価の高い回答者
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- 英語 (イギリス)
Not really. This structure is a standard element in English grammar, and without the "the"s your sentence would be understandable, but would not feel like English ...
https://www.englishgrammar.org/thethe-comparati...
https://open.books4languages.com/english-b1-gra...
評価の高い回答者
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- ロシア語
- 英語 (イギリス)
@tc77tatyana You're welcome. There's not very much logic in English grammar ... :)
評価の高い回答者
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- ロシア語
@L84work
Can I ask you to clarify one more point for me, if you may..)
She is not as patient with people , as I would like . (Can I finish this sentence like that? or I need to add
She is not as patient with people , as I would like HER TO. ( in order to be more precise with the grammar rules here)
Can I ask you to clarify one more point for me, if you may..)
She is not as patient with people , as I would like . (Can I finish this sentence like that? or I need to add
She is not as patient with people , as I would like HER TO. ( in order to be more precise with the grammar rules here)
- 英語 (イギリス)
"She is not as patient with people as I would like." - This is fine just like this. It is probably better without the comma, although there are different approaches to the use of the comma in English.
You can extend it if you want to, but if you do then you really want to add a "be". So:
"She is not as patient with people as I would like her to be."
I wonder if I can find a source for a rule here ... OK. You obviously understand these "as ... as ..." comparatives. But if you like you can refresh this at https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/britis...
For the part after the second "as", you can write out your meaning in full - "as I would like her to be". Or you can reduce this to "as I would like." The meaning is obvious from the first part of the sentence. The two instances of "as" tell us that the quality stated in the first part (here, "patient") is being compared in the second part.
I hope this makes sense .,. if not, tell me and I'll try to find a better source or explanation.
We have a similar pattern with some comparatives in English.
She is not as greedy as me. This is OK
She is not as greedy as I am. This is also OK. You can use either of these. In older English, you could also use "She is not as greedy as I," and you may still see this sometimes. But most people would find this too old-fashioned for normal use, or even for very formal use. It's not wrong; it's just not really used any more.
評価の高い回答者
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- ロシア語
@L84work I am so grateful to you for being so explicit upon this matter. I wonder if you give lessons online) I would love to have such mentor as guide in the océan of English grammar.
I think I've got the answer. Thank you.
I think I've got the answer. Thank you.
- 英語 (イギリス)
@tc77tatyana You're welcome ;) I'm not a teacher! But you are very kind. I'm sure you are a great student ;) In the whirlpool of English grammar, you are swimming not drowning!
評価の高い回答者
この回答は役に立ちましたか?
- ロシア語
@L84work you are giving me a hope,
that one day I might even learn not only how to swim but how to sail as well ;)
that one day I might even learn not only how to swim but how to sail as well ;)
- ロシア語
@L84work
hey! would you mind to help me again..)
question is really a bit silly 😜
why do we ignore grammar rules in telephone conversation
hello. Ben here (why not Ben is here)
hi. it's Kate (why it's?)
hey! would you mind to help me again..)
question is really a bit silly 😜
why do we ignore grammar rules in telephone conversation
hello. Ben here (why not Ben is here)
hi. it's Kate (why it's?)
- 英語 (イギリス)
I don't mind! It gives me the illusion of being useful - a great thing in a pandemic ;)
From what I understand, the approach of native English speakers to grammar rules may be quite different from that of native Russian speakers. But correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know any Russian.
For English, children learn to speak informal English in their (our) families, and there are many different variants of informal English. As we grow up, we use these varinats of informal English amongst friends and people we know.
But we have to learn a whole extra set of rules or conventions when we go to school, particularly in secondary school. We learn formal English - the English, probably, that you are learning, if you are learning from a teacher or a textbook.
For most native English-speaking children, school is their first exposure to formal English, and we learn to use it with teachers, bosses, officials and people in positions of authority. But we don't always use it when we "should", and we rarely use it in any social setting.
I hope this helps to explain why you can find such very different advice and guidance on English on the web; unfortunately there are lots of variants! A big advantage of learning formal English first, if you are, is that nearly every native speaker understands it, even if they prefer to speak in their own ways.
On your specific questions:
"Ben here." This means "This is Ben," or "Ben speaking". If you say "Ben is here", it means that you are not Ben, but he is with you. It's just a convention, enforced in many jobs, to say who you are when you first pick up a phone call. This may change now, as people use mobile phones more and have the ability to see the number and often the identity of whoever is calling.
"It's Kate" This is a similar convention. She is just telling the person who answered the phone who it is who is calling. It's an alternative to "Kate here." ( In this use, you could sat that it is short for "the person calling is Kate." But nobody would ever say that, except as a joke. )
This structure with "it is" or "there are" at the start of sentences is very widely used in English. It's called using a "dummy subject."
You will hear it in lots of expressions, like:
It's raining.
It's late.
There are lots of spaces.
There are lots of problems for us to solve.
In English grammar (in formal English) we expect most sentences to have a subject. "It" or "they" can act as that subject, when we want them to, but often have no specific meaning. They don't relate to any specific thing,
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/britis...
I hope this helps .... if not, I apologise. Tell me, and I'll try to be shorter and clearer.
評価の高い回答者
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過去のコメントを読み込む
- 英語 (イギリス)
Hi there!
Your sentence is good. "If you don't have time now, you can finish it next time" is completely correct and normal. You could use "you will be able to finish it next time", but your version would more often chosen I think.
It's hard to explain why. In English we often use the present tense to talk about the future - when in other languages the future would be chosen
You could think of your example as a type-zero conditional, if you like. But it might be better just to learn the pattern
I'll post an introductory link, and an advanced one. English auxiliary verbs can be a minefield!
Yes. I'm well, thank you. I hope you are too!
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar...
https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/elor/lo/modal-aux...
評価の高い回答者
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- ロシア語
thanks for the prompt reply, I will study those links!
I am well too..getting into Christmas mood slowly ..to be honest no time, haven't decorated even Christmas tree yet, what a shame!)))
I am well too..getting into Christmas mood slowly ..to be honest no time, haven't decorated even Christmas tree yet, what a shame!)))
- 英語 (イギリス)
@tc77tatyana I hope you can take some time to enjoy the buildup to the holidays - and can have some time off as well over Christmas and the New Year!
I'm afraid the link I put in for the |British Council got truncated somehow - so it wasn't very useful. Sorry. The link I intended is this one: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar...
This one might also be of some use ...
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar...
Счастливых праздников!
評価の高い回答者
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- ロシア語
Dear, Mike!
Marry Christmas 🎄 and Happy New year 🎉 ✨ 2022!
May next year bring you joy and peace! Stay healthy! Stay blessed 🙌
P.S. your help is of great value for me. Thanks for your time)
Am I right in the following?
the difference in meaning between these two phrases
1.How long did you sleep today?
referring to period which is ended perhaps this morning
2. How long have you slept today?
referring to recent period, perhaps you just got up and I am inquiring about, it is still morning.
Marry Christmas 🎄 and Happy New year 🎉 ✨ 2022!
May next year bring you joy and peace! Stay healthy! Stay blessed 🙌
P.S. your help is of great value for me. Thanks for your time)
Am I right in the following?
the difference in meaning between these two phrases
1.How long did you sleep today?
referring to period which is ended perhaps this morning
2. How long have you slept today?
referring to recent period, perhaps you just got up and I am inquiring about, it is still morning.
- 英語 (イギリス)
Dear Tatyana, Hi!
I almost feel I know you - and then I remember we've never met! Maybe one day I'll see you on screen.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you and your loved ones too! Let's hope the world starts to take a turn for a better this next time around the sun!
Your specific question today: these are fine, subtle distinctions, not always observed by native speakers. But let's try to make sense of them.
"Did you xxx?" or "Have you xxx?"
What are the key elements here?
These are both good, correct grammatical structures (and you know that.)
How much did you eat today? This is a question in the simple past tense. It asks about an action that is already complete and in the past at the time of asking. The implication is that you will not eat any more today.
How much have you eaten today? This is a question in the present perfect tense. The simple past is the most-used English past tense, but sometimes we want the present perfect. This has a number of uses. The British Council (link below) offers the categories:
Unfinished time and states - the present hour, or day, or even lifetime, might qualify as the current unfinished time period!
Past actions with a result in the present, when the time of the event is not specified.
We can add to that:
Accumulated lifetime experiences.
"Have you been to Paris?" This is a question about your lifetime experience, and we often add an "ever" (but don't need to.) "Have you ever been to Paris?"
The EF webpage (linked below) is a little fuller on these potential uses for the present perfect.
So for your question, the meaning matters: if the person being asked will not sleep any more in this time perdiod (today, from your question) then the simple past is OK: "How much did you sleep today?"
But if the person might sleep some more later on, then stick with the present perfect: "How long have you slept today?" This asks about the accumulated sleep up until the present, and leaves open the possibility of more sleep later today. This might seem clearer if we switch from sleep, which we often expect to be in one continuous block (unless we have children!) and instead ask about eating.
How much did you eat today? We don't expect you to eat any more today.?
How much have you eaten today? We may want to know how hungry you are so that we can plan an appropriate next meal for you today.
Just to add to your confusion, this is formal grammar in English, British and American. But in American informal English the present perfect is much less used, and very often a simple past tense will be chosen when grammar (including US English grammar) rules indicate the present perfect. This is so widespread as to be normal, and we wouldn't really call this an error: it's just what American informal English is like. And because the US has such strong cultural dominance, this usage is now becoming a little more often seen even in British English ...
I hope this all helps!
https://www.ef.co.uk/english-resources/english-...
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar...
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar...
https://ginsengenglish.com/blog/english-verb-te...
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=h...
評価の高い回答者
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- ロシア語
Hello, Mike!!! How are you? Do hope all is well. Sorry for my extended silence and please do not regard me as ungrateful ))) I've just realised I didn't answer your last comment, did I?
It was Christmas time I got carried away with my kids, work ect.
Giving you short update on the latest
I have enrolled for Essey's writing course, looking forward to my CAE exam.
What about you? Anything exciting?
Today I have rather simple question look..
He often visited the ice rink on Sunday last winter.
Maybe I am getting over suspicious about English..I think it is ok to use often in simple past constructions.
or "often" can be referred only to present in general?
PS Will be glad to see you online too as the time comes
PPS I have discovered one song, like to share something about tune attracted me, others singers do that differently. This version is my favorite. Hope you like it!
https://youtu.be/STTLwI-u4Fg
It was Christmas time I got carried away with my kids, work ect.
Giving you short update on the latest
I have enrolled for Essey's writing course, looking forward to my CAE exam.
What about you? Anything exciting?
Today I have rather simple question look..
He often visited the ice rink on Sunday last winter.
Maybe I am getting over suspicious about English..I think it is ok to use often in simple past constructions.
or "often" can be referred only to present in general?
PS Will be glad to see you online too as the time comes
PPS I have discovered one song, like to share something about tune attracted me, others singers do that differently. This version is my favorite. Hope you like it!
https://youtu.be/STTLwI-u4Fg
- ロシア語
Hello, Mike! How are you?
I think they have changed settings here , wrote you before, can't get in touch it worries me) wish you well 😊
I think they have changed settings here , wrote you before, can't get in touch it worries me) wish you well 😊
- ロシア語
- ロシア語
Hello, Mike! How are you doing? I hope all is well)
I would like to know about Present Perfect tense. Is it used? give me some examples please
I would like to know about Present Perfect tense. Is it used? give me some examples please
- ロシア語
Hey, again! Thanks for the prompt reply, much appreciated.
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