Who's English is the best here?

[Comrade Johnson]

That's not what I meant.

Sure, since it was what I meant

 

[Comrade Johnson]

Nonsense.

It seems that posts in English are not that difficult to copy as I thought

 

[Unkotare]

Nonsense.

It seems that posts in English are not that difficult to copy as I thought

Exactly.

 

[danielpalos]

OK, I think we have had enough time for the registration. On the weekend I will read it carefully and we'll have the poll. The winner will get 1000 rubles a month for lessons with me. And of, course Pogo promised to do it for free

nit ENTIRELY free, I suspect. There will be a price to pay...

I suspect koshergirl loves to "pay the price".

 

[longknife]

With all the self-proclaimed English "experts" on here, why hasn't anyone pointed out what is wrong with the thread title?

 

[Pogo]

With all the self-proclaimed English "experts" on here, why hasn't anyone pointed out what is wrong with the thread title?

That was done eons ago. Repeatedly. Which, incredibly, shows up if you actually read the thread.

 

[danielpalos]

For you, it's the language barrier

there is no barriers for Russians, we'll have our way anywhere.

OK, dear candidates, name yourselves and then we'll have a poll. I've heard you have democracy there? Or I mixed it up with Britain...

You are confusing Greek with English again.

Democracy is a Greek word. Same as idiot.

What's Malakkia?

Obviously also Greek.

Malakia (with 1 k, not two) is a stupid thing, from the word "malaka", the Greek version of the British word "wanker", someone who masturbates non-stop.

If Only, we could find nice girls who like to practice the, "reach around" technique, so we can shave and masturbate at the same time.

 

[danielpalos]

.
Add some y'alls to your speech if you want real American and not that snooty yankee english stuff.

I actually put this onto a test for college students as a bonus question.

Only one girl from Dallas got the right answer:

"What is the plural of y'all?"

y'all lolll

He's correct though. Other than y'all we do not have a word to express the second person plural that makes it clear it's a plural and not a singular. Youse (pronounced "yuz") just sounds stoopit. That's why I use it here --- it's more specifically plural than the ambiguous you.

But the plural of y'all, i.e. "multiple instances of the word y'all" would have to be y'alls. A more challenging question might have been the plural possessive, i.e. "that which belongs to you-plural". If you go with y'all's then you have two apostrophes, one a contraction, the other a possessive. And that's messy.

I learned a contraction here in Appalachia for the first person possessive demonstrative pronoun -- your'n (your + one). Standard English of course has yours to express this but as it turns out your'n is older.

Your'n is Irish.

Y'all's is possessive NOT plural.

Your'n is simply older English than yours whether the Irish use(d) it or not. You could look it up.

And again --- y'all is ALREADY plural. By definition. It cannot NOT be plural and carry the word all. Think about it.

Therefore y'all's is both possessive AND plural.

Look, I'm bilatitudinal. I've been using both y'all and you (plural) all my life.



As I always say --- anybody who thinks political discussions get spirited should sit in on a publication editorial board meeting --- you wanna see some battles.....

I use y'all to be, explicitly inclusive. You may be more ambiguous.

 

[Comrade Johnson]

With all the self-proclaimed English "experts" on here, why hasn't anyone pointed out what is wrong with the thread title?

Because everything is OK with it. We need the best English, not 'ideal' one. Some little mistakes don't count.

 

[Comrade Johnson]

Because English grammar is what is is, there is no call for inventing distinct second-person plural personal pronouns

Four is in one sentence is ungrammatical

Ambitious Imbeciles

That reminds of the unstructured mess Low-IQ college graduates make, which is repeated all over television and radio: "What the problem is, is (globalism)." It should be simply "The problem is globalism." Stupid English is contagious, especially when spoken by frauds we are told to look up to as role models for correct English.

Actually it was a typo, I was just kidding
And maybe it would be advisable for me to copy American television?

 

[Pogo]

Because English grammar is what is is, there is no call for inventing distinct second-person plural personal pronouns

Four is in one sentence is ungrammatical

Ambitious Imbeciles

That reminds of the unstructured mess Low-IQ college graduates make, which is repeated all over television and radio: "What the problem is, is (globalism)." It should be simply "The problem is globalism." Stupid English is contagious, especially when spoken by frauds we are told to look up to as role models for correct English.

Actually it was a typo, I was just kidding
And maybe it would be advisable for me to copy American television?

You would certainly get a good view of vernacular and pronunciation. I recall one fellow traveller whose English was so accurate I was amazed he was not USian (he was Belgian). I asked him how he perfected it so, and he said "from watching American television".

I found Donald Duck comic books in French or German very useful that way too. You get common vernacular and you can see the action, so you get a good look at real-world speech rather than textbook speech.

 

[Unkotare]

Often a novice who doesn't really understand fluency himself will hear a non-native speaker and declare "your English is perfect!" if it exceeds that person's subjective expectations at all.

 

[Unkotare]

Adults using children's material to learn a language will learn how to communicate like a child and end up sounding like an imbecile. Without significant context and support, it is a bad idea.

 

[jon_berzerk]

Me. You've already asked this and I've already told you.

Sure, sure, but I'd like several guys (and maybe some ladies) to copy so that I wouldn't sound like you completely

.
Add some y'alls to your speech if you want real American and not that snooty yankee english stuff.

I actually put this onto a test for college students as a bonus question.

Only one girl from Dallas got the right answer:

"What is the plural of y'all?"

one would think

"all y'all"

would suffice

 

[Comrade Johnson]

You would certainly get a good view of vernacular and pronunciation.

What's the use of good pronunciation on the forum?

Adults using children's material to learn a language will learn how to communicate like a child and end up sounding like an imbecile. Without significant context and support, it is a bad idea.

No problem, I can sound like an imbecile as it is, without any children's material

 

[Comrade Johnson]

I found Donald Duck

Donald Duck, Donald Trump - it looks like every other person in the US is Donald...

 

[Pogo]

You would certainly get a good view of vernacular and pronunciation.

What's the use of good pronunciation on the forum?

No problem, I can sound like an imbecile as it is, without any children's material

Because presumably you'd want proficiency in spoken as well as written language.

The actual content is irrelevant; the point is you get directly exposed to everyday colloquial use of a verb, a past participle, etc. It's written the way everyday people actually speak.

 

[Pogo]

I found Donald Duck

Donald Duck, Donald Trump - it looks like every other person in the US is Donald...

I suspect "two" is an insufficient sample size to reach such a conclusion. It's not a rare name but it's not all that common. Both Rump and Duck are Scottish, where Donald is a common first name.

They may have something else in common as well ---- Rump speaks at a fourth-grade reading level (i.e. the school level of a ten-year-old), the lowest such level of anyone who ran for President, as I noted way back in this old thread. So the Disney cartoon, in these terms, may have already eclipsed him.

 

[Unkotare]

You would certainly get a good view of vernacular and pronunciation.

What's the use of good pronunciation on the forum?

No problem, I can sound like an imbecile as it is, without any children's material

....

The actual content is irrelevant; ....

Content is highly relevant, as anyone with real knowledge of language acquisition would tell you.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

With all the self-proclaimed English "experts" on here, why hasn't anyone pointed out what is wrong with the thread title?

Yeah, but you still haven't decided whose English is most bestest.