Hmm...my grammar book says something different. :idea: :
"Bei Maß- und Mengenangaben wird die Fügung aus Zahl und Nomen in der Regel als Einheit betrachtet und wie ein Singular behandelt. Daher stehen auch das zugeordnete Bestimmungswort und das Verb im Singular."
Maybe there exists a difference betwenn BE and AE? :
If I make mistakes as far as grammar is concerned, please fix them. Thanks a lot !
unit and units
Myprofe
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 11:08 am
OK. When you say: "A quantity/group/collection/(an)assortment of items is/are needed" you have the option of referring to the objects collectively using the "singular" or individually using the "plural". But before using the singular you have to establish that you are referring to the objects as a single group or collection.
In British English the tendency is to use the plural, the government are, while in American English the singular is more common, the government is.
If I make mistakes as far as grammar is concerned, please fix them. Thanks a lot !
Myprofe
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 10:28 am
globalplayer wrote:
i-RAM is fine and dandy, but how would the performance look if twice the SATA bandwidth would be available?
How will the performance look if twice the SATA bandwidth is available?
How would the performance look if twice the SATA bandwidth was/were available?
How would the performance have looked if twice the SATA bandwidth had been available?
zero conditional: If you study you learn.
1st conditional: If you study you will learn.
2nd conditional: If you studied you would learn.
3rd conditional: If you had studied you would have learned.
If I make mistakes as far as grammar is concerned, please fix them. Thanks a lot !
Flo
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 6:49 pm
The answer is useful for people as me that does not speak very well English, so the question was not pitiful.
I can understand very easily the phrases but I never would have though to use those structures (nunca me hubiera ocurrido usarlas).
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:01 pm
Flo wrote:
The answer is useful for people as me that does not speak very well English, so the question was not pitiful. I can understand very easily the phrases but I never would have though to use those structures (nunca me hubiera ocurrido usarlas).
Corrections and suggestions: The answer is useful for people like me that do not speak English very well, so the question was not pitiful. I can understand the phrases very easily but I never would have thought of using those structures (nunca me hubiera ocurrido usarlas).
The answer is useful for people as me that does not speak very well English, so the question was not pitiful.
I can understand very easily the phrases but I never would have though to use those structures (nunca me hubiera ocurrido usarlas).
Nunca se me hubiera ocurrido usarlas.
I have a proposal for you, Flo: use them right now.
-1-
Imagine you are trying to organize a meeting:
If we met...
If we meet...
Go on, complete the sentences so any person who reads the sentence becomes suddenly eager to attend that meeting.
-2-
Imagine the meeting is over and some people who were invited didn't attend.
If we had met...
Now, complete the sentence so the person who didn't attend the meeting feels really sorry for missing such a great event.
P.S. - Whether you decide to do this exercise or not, please give me your opinion about it.
Flo
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:33 am
LaiLai wrote:
Nunca se me hubiera ocurrido usarlas.
Gracias por la corrección
Qué suerte, un ejercicio especial para mí. Muchas gracias.
LaiLai wrote:
P.S. - Whether you decide to do this exercise or not, please give me your opinion about it.
Haré tu ejercicio esta tarde porque ahora tengo que ir al supermercado antes de que cierre, sino me voy a quedar sin mis cosas imprescindibles durante todo el fin de semana.
Mis primeras impresiones son las siguientes.
Me atrae el ejercicio.
Entiendo bien lo que tengo que hacer. (consignas claras)
Pero no tengo idea de si met o meet es el presente y el otro será el pretérito. (para un alumno tan malo como yo empezar por un verbo regular con "ed" estilo worked)
Tengo que buscar esto y algunas que otras cosillas (sentido exacto de meeting porque resulta que utilizamos esta palabra en francés y veo que con otro sentido, también el sentido de "eager" que me se escapa y también de "attend" que en francés sería un false friend porque se parece a esperar (attendre) y sería lógico que quisieras decir "asistir" o algo así. (A ver si es un false friend también en castellano (atender)) También como me dices la impresión que tengo que dejar "feels really sorry for missing such a great event" tengo que buscar el vocabulario para decirlo.
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 12:02 pm
Flo wrote:
Pero no tengo idea de si met o meet es el presente y el otro será el pretérito. (para un alumno tan malo como yo empezar por un verbo regular con "ed" estilo worked)
Tengo que buscar esto y algunas que otras cosillas (sentido exacto de meeting porque resulta que utilizamos esta palabra en francés y veo que con otro sentido, también el sentido de "eager" que me se escapa y también de "attend" que en francés sería un false friend porque se parece a esperar (attendre) y sería lógico que quisieras decir "asistir" o algo así. (A ver si es un false friend también en castellano (atender)) También como me dices la impresión que tengo que dejar "feels really sorry for missing such a great event" tengo que buscar el vocabulario para decirlo.
-El verbo es: "To meet, met, met"
-Sí, es cierto, en español tambén pasa:
asistir=atender=dar asistencia
asistir=acudir
To assist= dar asistencia
To attend=acudir
- Lo diré de otro modo:
to become suddenly eager= to have a sudden, intense desire
Flo
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 12:48 pm
-1-Imagine you are trying to organize a meeting: Go on, complete the sentences so any person who reads the sentence becomes suddenly eager to attend that meeting.
If we met (eso es la idea de condicional? que se expresa gracias al preterito? ¡Qué lío!), we would know many new simpatic friends. If we met, it would be after the best record of your life.
If we meet, we are going to have a very pleasant time. If we meet, we will have a very pleasant time. If we meet we never will forget that day. If we meet we shall be very happy.
If you arrive first you win a million dollar !
Impresiones : Esta primera pregunta me parece muy difícil porque hay dos soluciones con el presente : zero conditional: If you study you learn. 1st conditional: If you study you will learn. Las entiendo cuando leo en inglés el ejemplo de MyProfe pero no determino con seguridad cuál tengo que escoger.
-2- Imagine the meeting is over and some people who were invited didn't attend. Now, complete the sentence so the person who didn't attend the meeting feels really sorry for missing such a great event.
If we had met, we would have spoken many languajes because there was people from countries of all Europe. If we had met we would have gone back to home with our books full of new adresses from all over Europe. If we had met we vould have become the best friend because we would have known us better. If we had met we would have eaten food from all over Europe. If we had met, we would have danced all night long.
If you had came you would have won a travel to the moon
Impresiones : Ese último me parece más fácil dominarlo porque hay sólo una solución. Me parece lógico y fácil... hasta que me digas que todo lo hice con errores...
Your exercice was funny and a little bit difficult for me for the second sentence If we meet.
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 1:39 pm
If we met (eso es la idea de condicional? que se expresa gracias al preterito? ¡Qué lío!)
¡Ajá!
La frase es condicional, pero NO los dos verbos lo son, sólo el segundo.
If we had that meeting, we would understand the situation
Pero NO es pretérito de indicativo, es pretérito de SUBJUNTIVO (truco: como ellos no tienen subjuntivo, usan el único modo que tienen en aquellas situaciones que requieren un tiempo subjuntivo:
Si yo tuviera un martillo/ I had a hammer
Cuando tenga hijos //when I have children
Piensa en esto que te cuento, vuelve a leer las explicaciones de MyProfe y a hacer mi ejercicio teniendo mi truco en mente y...voilà! c'est facile, n'est-ce pas?
p.s. Es una explicación para hispanohablantes: piensa en español mientras la asimilas
Flo
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:07 pm
p.s. Es una explicación para hispanohablantes: piensa en español mientras la asimilas
Sí... termino haciéndome un lío entre los tres idiomas :lol: :lol: :lol: (reflexión en francés, explicación en español y redacción en inglés. )
voilà! c'est facile, n'est-ce pas?
(eso sí creo que lo he pillado)
Easy?????
Además me acabo de enterar que estamos charlando (ya sé, empecé yo y es culpa mía) en castellano en el foro inglés only. I thought I was on bilingual one. I suppose María is going to laught because I have just said her not to speak in English in the Spanish forum for beginners.
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:29 pm
Flo wrote:
We would know many new simpatic friends. If we met, it would be after the best record of your life. If we meet we never will forget that day. If you arrive first you win a million dollar!If we had met[/color], we would have spoken many languajes because there was people from countries of all Europe. If we had met we would have gone back to home with our books full of new adresses from all over Europe. If we had met we vould have become the best friend because we would have known us better. If you had came you would have won a travel to the moon. Your exercise was funny and a little bit difficult for me for the second sentence If we meet.
Corrections and suggestions: We would meet/get to know many freindly/kind new friends. If we met, it would be after the best memory of your life. If we meet we will neverl forget that day. If you arrive first you win a million dollars! If we had met, we would have spoken many languages because there were people from countries of all over Europe. If we had met we would have gone back home with our address books full of new addresses from all over Europe. If we had met we would have become best friends/the best of friends because we would have known each other/one another better. If you had came you would have won a trip to the moon. Your exercise was funny and a little bit difficult for me because of the second sentence If we meet.
MyProfe, I suppose LaiLai want to say that I must fisrt understand the rule about tenses of your four examples and then after get another thing to learn because it is more difficult to learn several new rules in the same time. She is not wrong, isn't she? And you are not wrong either when you correct all the other mistakes because otherwise I would think it was good.
LaiLai wrote:
I though it would be easier for you.
Of course it is !
Those rules are so differents in the three languagggges. In French there is no need of subjontif either in those phrases, but it is different from English. My students use to take a long time to catch how to say these phrases in Spanish, it was a good thing for me to have the same experience in another language ; it is realy difficult and confusing, not so "facile", LaiLai.
But I am happy because either if (a pesar de que) there was a lot of mistakes there was not so much with verbal tenses. Thanks a lot MyProfe for helping me ; I felt really discouraged (desanimada) to have to do it entirely again because I thought it was all false. and did not realy see where were the mistakes.
Last edited by Flo on Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:54 am; edited 1 time in total
Flo
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 4:52 am
Pero NO es pretérito de indicativo, es pretérito de SUBJUNTIVO (truco: como ellos no tienen subjuntivo, usan el único modo que tienen en aquellas situaciones que requieren un tiempo subjuntivo:
Si yo tuviera un martillo/ I had a hammer
Cuando tenga hijos //when I have children
This is very complicated for me. First you say that "es pretérito de SUBJUNTIVO" and after that "ellos no tienen subjuntivo". Second, in your example it seems to be indicativo. The difficulty number three is that in your example only Spanish use subjonctivo and not French so it would not be so strange to me to use indicative.... But we never use preterit but imperfecto (si yo tuviera un martillo in French is "si yo "tenía" un martillo") and not present but futur ("cuando tenga hijo" is "cuando "tendré" hijos") so my difficulty is not to use subjonctif but to escape from doing things like " when I shall have chidren"
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:28 am
Flo wrote:
MyProfe, I suppose LaiLai want to say that I must fisrt understand the rule about tenses of your four examples and then after get another thing to learn because it is more difficult to learn several new rules in the same time. She is not wrong, isn't she? Those rules are so differents in the three languages. In French there is no need of subjontif either in those phrases, but it is different from English. My students use to take a long time to catch how to say these phrases in Spanish; it is realy difficult and confusing. But I am happy because either if there were a lot of mistakes there was not so much with verbal tenses. I thought it was all false and did not realy see where were the mistakes.
Corrections and suggestions: MyProfe, I suppose LaiLai wanted to say that I must first understand the rule about tenses in your four examples and then after that/afterwards get another thing to learn because it is more difficult to learn several new rules at the same time. She is not wrong, is she? Those rules are so different in the three languages. In French there is no need to use the subjunctive in any of those phrases, but it is different from English. My students used to (in the past) /usually (always) take a long time to catch on to how to say these phrases in Spanish; it is really difficult and confusing. But I am happy because even though/in spite of the fact that there were a lot of mistakes there were not so many with the verb tenses. I thought it was all wrong and did not really see where the mistakes were (indirect question).
Corrections and suggestions: MyProfe, I suppose LaiLai wanted to say that ...
You have (had???) already corrected me the same mistake (from present to past) in other post but in my mind the ALWAYS is thinking that. I suppose my mistake come (or came???? but I always would make the same mistake) from French because in my mother tongue (I think in Spanish also) if I use past it is like to suggest that surely she changed her mind because the was wrong... It would be to apoligize her mistake... (that in my mind she has not done)
I suppose English is able to express that but how? If I use past to say she is true, or to express a thing had not change from the past (like came) how could I suggest she is not, or suggest I dont understand also now (sigo sin entender) ? (I mean suggest in a polite manner and no saying it brutally)
MyProfe: Flo, you're losing me on this one. I don't speak French. I suggest you discuss this with LaiLai. She knows all three languages.
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:05 pm
Flo wrote:
Pero NO es pretérito de indicativo, es pretérito de SUBJUNTIVO (truco: como ellos no tienen subjuntivo, usan el único modo que tienen en aquellas situaciones que requieren un tiempo subjuntivo:
Si yo tuviera un martillo/ I had a hammer
Cuando tenga hijos //when I have children
This is very complicated for me. First you say that "es pretérito de SUBJUNTIVO" and after that "ellos no tienen subjuntivo". Second, in your example it seems to be indicativo. The difficulty number three is that in your example only Spanish use subjonctivo and not French so it would not be so strange to me to use indicative.... But we never use preterit but imperfecto (si yo tuviera un martillo in French is "si yo "tenía" un martillo") and not present but futur ("cuando tenga hijo" is "cuando "tendré" hijos") so my difficulty is not to use subjonctif but to escape from doing things like " when I shall have chidren"
I know you -French- don't use the same tenses as us -Spanish- in the Conditional (I speak a little French, remember?)
That's why I said "piensa en español", because it's an explanation that has sense by comparing English AND Spanish.
We (Spanish) use subjunctive in those situations.
They (English) use the same tenses than us, but of Indicative.
As you, Flo, can think in Spanish, I thought that explanation could be useful for you.
If you compare it with French, all my explanations will become useless and stupid.
Anyway, maybe Maria can give us her opinion about my explanation; maybe it's not as easy as I think.
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:23 pm
LaiLai wrote:
That's why I said "piensa en español", because it's an explanation that has sense by comparing English AND Spanish. They (English) use the same tenses than us, but of Indicative.
That's why I said "piensa en español", because it's an explanation that makes sense by comparing English AND Spanish. They (English) use the same tenses as us, but of Indicative.
If we met (eso es la idea de condicional? que se expresa gracias al preterito? ¡Qué lío!)
¡Ajá!
La frase es condicional, pero NO los dos verbos lo son, sólo el segundo.
I'm not an expert on this, but I'm pretty sure this is actually subjunctive (there you go, Maria). In older modern English, this would have been said, "If we were to meet," which is exactly the feeling of the subjunctive?: "Si nos encontráramos, haríamos algo..." As I say, I'm no expert.
elAmericano
PS: MyProfe, I'm really not slacking off on the corrections; it's just that whenever I have time to come here, corrections have already been made. Sorry about that.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:43 pm
As I really can't explain in English I put my answer in the forum french-spanish-english with the title "English tenses"
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 6:24 pm
LaiLai wrote:
Pero NO es pretérito de indicativo, es pretérito de SUBJUNTIVO (truco: como ellos no tienen subjuntivo, usan el único modo que tienen en aquellas situaciones que requieren un tiempo subjuntivo:
Si yo tuviera un martillo/ I had a hammer
Cuando tenga hijos //when I have children"
LaiLai wrote:
We (Spanish) use subjunctive in those situations.
They (English) use the same tenses than us, but of Indicative.
I think I am beginning to understand something. When you Spanish use the subjonctivepast they English use their preteritindicative.
When you Spanish use subjonctivepresent they English use indicative present
If I had seen they use the same tense but not the same mode I would have understood perhaps
If I had a hammer , I would have stroken my head to enter those difficult rules
When I have understood, I will be very happy
Last edited by Flo on Mon Sep 12, 2005 6:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
Flo
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 6:30 pm
If I had had a hammer I would be in hospital because my head is very hard.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:44 pm
Flo wrote:
If I had a hammer , I would have stroken my head to enter those difficult rules. When I have understood, I will be very happy.
Corrections and suggestions: If I had had a hammer , I would have tried to bang those difficult rules into my head. When I understand, I will be very happy.
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y es culpa mía) en castellano en el foro inglés only. I thought I was on bilingual one. I suppose María is going to laught because I have just said her not to speak in English in the Spanish forum for beginners.
In French there is no need of subjontif either in those phrases, but it is different from English. My students use to take a long time to catch how to say these phrases in Spanish, it was a good thing for me to have the same experience in another language ; it is realy difficult and confusing, not so "facile", LaiLai.
