One of the difficulties I have in my English is vocabulary. Yup, I tend to use, prefer actually, general words to describe things instead of using more specific words. So I almost never use "molar" or "canine", but instead "tooth" is enough, or a better example would be "small finger" instead of pinky, or maybe "bad" instead of so many words that describe something, well, not good. I happened to know the above mentioned words, but there are so many other cases that don't come to mind now.
It's not that I don't know when to use There, Their or They're it's just that sometimes I'm typing very fast and thinking more about the context of my sentences than the grammatical correctness.
I'm interested in how difficult non native English speakers find things like They're Their and There.
I for one don't have problems with grammar, but I do with spelling.
When it comes to the given examples above, I have no problems at all maybe because I learned those words separately to us in the first place. In my early stages, I never used abbreviation then. Learning those abbreviations came in an advanced level and it did not start academically, but through live events like cartoons and games. I used to ask my parent about it. They were not professionals, but at least knew these.
Maybe my case is different because my interest and education in English were special (or especial?!?!).
I noticed that many native English users, specifically Americans, write (or type on the internet at least) "of" instead of "have" with "could" or "should" in a context like "could of done it" instead of "could have done it". I know the reason behind this, which is in speaking it is "could've" and "of" is pronounced "ov", so it creates this conflict in writing.
just a tip... you would use especially not specially
Thank you.
I remember looking this up before, and all I got was "especially" is rhetorically used before nouns. It was really confusing.
Here's the sad part of this whole thread...
I see better English and sentence structure here than I do in my Online College course discussion boards.
Our education system sucks and is only getting worse.
Then again, who needs education when you have freedom?!?!? MURICA!
Maybe because of interest? Studying is never as fun as, well, anything else.
With loss of interest, things usually become complicated.
As far as the topic is concerned, I really think English is a stupid language and there are way to many rules - and exceptions to those rules. Also, in general, I think grammar is stupid. If I get my point across then what does it matter if I say 'my friend and I' or 'me and my friend'. It's the same thing, who decided that it should be one way or the other. And all the parts of speech? What a waste of time. I'm able to talk, read, and write coherently and professionally. When was the last time I considered the verb or noun of my sentence, let alone a preposisiton or adverb.
Well, different situations call for different approaches I believe. If this makes any sense at all ha ha.
I personally screw my English up when I use it with easy going, cool people. An American friend of mine on face book go under this description. Whenever I send him a message, I start with something like "hey man" or "sup bro" or "how's is hanging" and between lines "wanna" or "gonna" or similar. Not to mention "K" instead of "okay". "Me" and "I" don't matter here, but at work I move to the professional side and become very formal, that I use each in their exact position. "Someone, that guy, someone else, and I are going to attend that meeting" is what I use at work, while "someone, he, him, me, and whoever" (notice the sequence of "me" as well) I use in fishing trips for example.
I get it that you don't get involved in many formal English events maybe?
I haven't studied a lot of languages and don't consider myself an "expert" on my native English language but I know that other languages have their idiosyncrasies as well. For instance, German has the concept of gender specific nouns that are masculine, feminine or neuter (der, die, or das) which gave me no end of problems when I took high school German.
Same thing in Arabic. We even have a more complicated system called inflection signs. Really complicated. This word for example كتب could be read in four different words at least.
Maybe you don't consider yourself an expert, but that would be on the formal level. On the communicative and comprehensive level tho, you are an expert. Trust me
I believe that most "romance" languages do that as well.
Oh, believe me Sir, Arabic is faaar from anything related to romance (with small "r")