Who is a foreigner here?

[Yarddog]

By the way, who has the best English here? Whom can I copy in that sense?

Probably Emily, she is one of the few Adult posters around here, but be ready to read a book.

 

[Yarddog]

OK, it seems that theres only two foreigners here - me and Esthermoon

Tommy from Britain, as well.

 

[esthermoon]

OK, it seems that theres only two foreigners here - me and Esthermoon

esthermoon -- her English is also perfect.

There are several other foreigners I know of. Canadians, Brits, a New Zealander or two... there's also Dalia whose English is a little off but comprehensible. Some years ago there was a Finnish reporter, haven't seen him for a long time.

My English would be perfect? Thanks Pogo!
But to be honest I think my English is not perfect at all

 

[Pogo]

OK, it seems that theres only two foreigners here - me and Esthermoon

esthermoon -- her English is also perfect.

There are several other foreigners I know of. Canadians, Brits, a New Zealander or two... there's also Dalia whose English is a little off but comprehensible. Some years ago there was a Finnish reporter, haven't seen him for a long time.

My English would be perfect? Thanks Pogo!
But to be honest I think my English is not perfect at all

Well if I didn't see "Vietnam" in your profile location I would have no clue that you were not from here. And I'm pretty good at picking up those clues.

 

[Comrade Johnson]

but if you're talking 4 letter curse words, you should hear Hungarians

I've heard that Hungarian is one of the easiest languages in the world.

 

[CeeCee]

Ha ha...

 

[esthermoon]

Ha ha...

 

[Moonglow]

Well, I mean not from the US and with problems with English like me

there are people born in the USA who do not do as well as you do

True. For example we capitalize the beginning of a sentence and put a period at the end.

Stupid conformity...

 

[Comrade Johnson]

Nothing difficult

 

[Comrade Johnson]

Is Vietnamese that easy too?

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

What is good about English is its punctuation. In Russian we have thousand idiotic rules which are learned for years...

And we have those who abuse punctuation here. Irosie for one example uses no punctuation at all. Then there's 2aguy who ends every phrase with an ellipsis (...). One can never tell if he's finished his thought, but judging from the content, he never has.

The one aspect of a Russian speaker that stands out for our eyes is the use of articles. I believe Russian doesn't have them but when they're not used in English we notice (above: "we have thousand idiotic rules" would be "we have a thousand idiotic rules"). It doesn't prevent understanding but it does get noticed. Hope that helps.

Oh yes, you are absolutely right - we haven't any articles in Russian. I put them in my English posts sometimes out of esteem to American participants
I can't see any use of them. 'A dog' or 'the dog' is a dog anyway. If you don't know which dog it is, what's the difference?

"The dog" is more specific. If you say to your wife, "The dog destroyed our flowers outside (flowerbed)," it would mean it was your dog, or possibly the only dog in the neighborhood.

If you said, "A dog destroyed the flowers outside," it would be an unknown dog.

Also, in your title, if you had asked, "Who is the foreigner here?" it would have meant only one person.

 

[Comrade Johnson]

"The dog" is more specific. If you say to your wife, "The dog destroyed our flowers outside (flowerbed)," it would mean it was your dog, or possibly the only dog in the neighborhood.
If you said, "A dog destroyed the flowers outside," it would be an unknown dog.

I always say just 'dog' and if my wife has any doubts she just askes me which dog I meant.

 

[Moonglow]

With online translators, they are all easy...

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

What is good about English is its punctuation. In Russian we have thousand idiotic rules which are learned for years...

And we have those who abuse punctuation here. Irosie for one example uses no punctuation at all. Then there's 2aguy who ends every phrase with an ellipsis (...). One can never tell if he's finished his thought, but judging from the content, he never has.

The one aspect of a Russian speaker that stands out for our eyes is the use of articles. I believe Russian doesn't have them but when they're not used in English we notice (above: "we have thousand idiotic rules" would be "we have a thousand idiotic rules"). It doesn't prevent understanding but it does get noticed. Hope that helps.

I'll tell you one foreigner here whose English is perfect is Lucy Hamilton

I was taught the English language from the age of 8 years-old. My entire family can write and talk English.

Sometimes when talking English I do have to pause in the middle of a sentence to think of the correct word, this happens more on the phone than in person, why that is I'm not sure but it does, also if I talk too fast I think people aren't understanding fully what I'm saying.

In writing like this often spellcheck helps with the more complicated words.

I'll also say that Stratford57 is very good at English.

Spellcheck Only Tells You If a Word Exists, Not If It Is the Right Word

Spellcheck won't help you with homophones, of which English has an incredible number. The only one I know of in Russian is mir meaning both "world" and "peace." There are three kinds:

Homophones: words that sound the same but spelled differently, such as one and won.

Homonyms: words that are spelled the same but don't sound the same, such as lead (the metal) and lead (opposite of follow).

Homographs: words that are written the same and sound the same, such as second, meaning "coming after first" and second, "one-sixtieth of a minute."

 

[Moonglow]

What is good about English is its punctuation. In Russian we have thousand idiotic rules which are learned for years...

And we have those who abuse punctuation here. Irosie for one example uses no punctuation at all. Then there's 2aguy who ends every phrase with an ellipsis (...). One can never tell if he's finished his thought, but judging from the content, he never has.

The one aspect of a Russian speaker that stands out for our eyes is the use of articles. I believe Russian doesn't have them but when they're not used in English we notice (above: "we have thousand idiotic rules" would be "we have a thousand idiotic rules"). It doesn't prevent understanding but it does get noticed. Hope that helps.

I'll tell you one foreigner here whose English is perfect is Lucy Hamilton

I was taught the English language from the age of 8 years-old. My entire family can write and talk English.

Sometimes when talking English I do have to pause in the middle of a sentence to think of the correct word, this happens more on the phone than in person, why that is I'm not sure but it does, also if I talk too fast I think people aren't understanding fully what I'm saying.

In writing like this often spellcheck helps with the more complicated words.

I'll also say that Stratford57 is very good at English.

Spellcheck Only Tells You If a Word Exists, Not If It Is the Right Word

Spellcheck won't help you with homophones, of which English has an incredible number. The only one I know of in Russian is mir meaning both "world" and "peace." There are three kinds:

Homophones: words that sound the same but spelled differently, such as one and won.

Homonyms: words that are spelled the same but don't sound the same, such as lead (the metal) and lead (opposite of follow).

Homographs: words that are written the same and sound the same, such as second, meaning "coming after first" and second, "one-sixtieth of a minute."

That is what they get for letting so many languages into the English language..

 

[CeeCee]

This one brings tears to my eyes...

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

I'll also say that Stratford57 is very good at English.

And its very strange for such an empty head

Stratford57 is my friend and they have anything but an empty head.

Everybody is somebody's friend. But only people with empty heads support fascists in other countries. It's my opinion of course.

Decadent Language Imposed From Above

A typical postmodern conformist, she used they incorrectly. It should only refer to a plural like "friends," never to a singular like "friend."

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

What is good about English is its punctuation. In Russian we have thousand idiotic rules which are learned for years...

And we have those who abuse punctuation here. Irosie for one example uses no punctuation at all. Then there's 2aguy who ends every phrase with an ellipsis (...). One can never tell if he's finished his thought, but judging from the content, he never has.

The one aspect of a Russian speaker that stands out for our eyes is the use of articles. I believe Russian doesn't have them but when they're not used in English we notice (above: "we have thousand idiotic rules" would be "we have a thousand idiotic rules"). It doesn't prevent understanding but it does get noticed. Hope that helps.

I'll tell you one foreigner here whose English is perfect is Lucy Hamilton

I was taught the English language from the age of 8 years-old. My entire family can write and talk English.

Sometimes when talking English I do have to pause in the middle of a sentence to think of the correct word, this happens more on the phone than in person, why that is I'm not sure but it does, also if I talk too fast I think people aren't understanding fully what I'm saying.

In writing like this often spellcheck helps with the more complicated words.

I'll also say that Stratford57 is very good at English.

Spellcheck Only Tells You If a Word Exists, Not If It Is the Right Word

Spellcheck won't help you ewe with homophones, of which witch English has an incredible number. The only one won I know no of in Russian is mir meaning both "world" and "peace." There their they're are three kinds:

Homophones: words that sound the same but spelled differently, such as one and won.

Homonyms: words that are R spelled the same but butt don't sound the same, such as lead (the metal) and lead (opposite of follow).

Homographs: words that are written the same and sound the same, such as second, meaning "coming after first" and second, "one-sixtieth of a minute."

Spellcheck wouldn't have corrected the words in red.

 

[Pogo]

What is good about English is its punctuation. In Russian we have thousand idiotic rules which are learned for years...

And we have those who abuse punctuation here. Irosie for one example uses no punctuation at all. Then there's 2aguy who ends every phrase with an ellipsis (...). One can never tell if he's finished his thought, but judging from the content, he never has.

The one aspect of a Russian speaker that stands out for our eyes is the use of articles. I believe Russian doesn't have them but when they're not used in English we notice (above: "we have thousand idiotic rules" would be "we have a thousand idiotic rules"). It doesn't prevent understanding but it does get noticed. Hope that helps.

I'll tell you one foreigner here whose English is perfect is Lucy Hamilton

I was taught the English language from the age of 8 years-old. My entire family can write and talk English.

Sometimes when talking English I do have to pause in the middle of a sentence to think of the correct word, this happens more on the phone than in person, why that is I'm not sure but it does, also if I talk too fast I think people aren't understanding fully what I'm saying.

In writing like this often spellcheck helps with the more complicated words.

I'll also say that Stratford57 is very good at English.

Spellcheck Only Tells You If a Word Exists, Not If It Is the Right Word

Spellcheck won't help you with homophones, of which English has an incredible number. The only one I know of in Russian is mir meaning both "world" and "peace." There are three kinds:

Homophones: words that sound the same but spelled differently, such as one and won.

Homonyms: words that are spelled the same but don't sound the same, such as lead (the metal) and lead (opposite of follow).

Homographs: words that are written the same and sound the same, such as second, meaning "coming after first" and second, "one-sixtieth of a minute."

That is what they get for letting so many languages into the English language..

Think we should put up a wall?

 

[Pogo]

I'll also say that Stratford57 is very good at English.

And its very strange for such an empty head

Stratford57 is my friend and they have anything but an empty head.

Everybody is somebody's friend. But only people with empty heads support fascists in other countries. It's my opinion of course.

Decadent Language Imposed From Above

A typical postmodern conformist, she used they incorrectly. It should only refer to a plural like "friends," never to a singular like "friend."

Actually they is sometimes used to connote an unknown or generalized entity...

e.g. "everyone is entitled to their own opinion"

-- which is also technically a conflict since everyone is a singular and they is a plural. To agree grammatically it would be rendered "everyone is entitled to his own opinion (singular + singular) --- but then you have a gender preference. So then you make it "his or her own opinion" and the sentence starts to take on weight. At this point you give up and start speaking French.

So in a certain colloquial sense Lucy's they there could mean a reference to a person of unknown gender.