English grammar is a minefield, not least because it is often dependent on intention and that was always brought home when observing Russian teachers of English. The Russians are pedantic in all things official, as distinct from the way they run their daily lives and continually demanded, ‘Which is the correct answer?’I tried to explain that, in English, it’s more accurate to ask, ‘Which is the best variant?’
No, that didn’t compute. They’d listen to my explanation and then ask, ‘Which is the correct answer? What’s the rule?’
Try these:
1. Try _____ less butter in the recipe. [use]
2. Do you agree _____ me with my homework? [help]
3. Do you remember _____ to the beach last summer? [go]
4. They were expected _____ arrived by now. [have]
5. I’m telling you, it’s better _____ kind to all people –. [be]
6. I regret _____ you that now. [tell]
7. She stopped _____ hello. [say]
8. I like _____ in the bathtub – it helps me _____ . [sing, relax]
9. If you should decide _____ the offer, we’d be delighted to have you. [accept]
10. She started _____ as soon as he said he was _____ her. [cry, leave]
11. I regret _____ you that your application has not been successful. [inform]
Possible answers
8 comments:
I am going to have a stroke,which is how you must feel when you read my comments.
I found Russian declension and tenses hard going at school. It must be as nothing compared to learning English in all of its perverse glory!
The international language of science is broken English.
8 and 10 I would have done differently.
I studied Latin through high school, and have dabbled in several other languages. English isn't bad compared to some. If you want to see something intricate, try studying some of the Native American languages. Most of my familiarity there is with Diné (Navajo)and Nahuatl (Aztec), and they can be extremely difficult compared to the Indo-European and Semitic languages.
Rules? There's rules?
Its odd but I only learnt English grammatical rules when I studied Latin- I would have quite liked to learn them earlier and been able to understand what I was saying and why. I think though that English is a language built up from so many others that its rules are the production of a messy synthesis- its worth remembering that.
Interesting little exercise, wasn't it?
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