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Binabik
Responsible
Legendary Hero
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posted August 12, 2006 05:23 AM |
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I'll start with the easy one.
"Me thinks" is actually one word, "methinks". As two words it would be incorrect grammar and should be "I think". The meaning is the same as the two words, but more like "in my opinion" or "I believe". Methinks is considered archaic. You DO hear it sometimes in the US, but not very often.
As one word it is correct and not slang. It's from Middle English and has that "old time" feeling to it. Oh, it's also kind of "cool"....which might be why you hear it.
But I wonder if the people you hear say that even know methinks is a real word. They might just be saying "I think" wrong (probably on purpose).
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A different dictionary gave more info on "non and "un". In English, it IS similar to the what you said about German. But it's soft rules, not hard rules. Bottom line is, you have to look them up. You'll make mistakes if you try to do it like German. For example:
unklar und nicht klar
Unclear is a word, nonclear is not.
Most words use either un or non, but not both.
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To reverse an action -- or an action has not been taken
"I need to tie my shoe"
"I need to untie my shoe" -- to reverse the action
"I untied my shoes" -- past tense
"my shoes are untied" -- condition of no action taken
The condition of no action will always be past tense. It will be preceded by a state of being.
is/are untied
is/are unlatched
is/are unsaid --- probably singular
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hyphens
I found one rule. With a proper noun, use a hyphen. I was wrong when I said eariler that un will never be hyphenated.
non-German
non-American
un-American
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Example of words with both non and un
un-American
non-American
A German is non-American (not American)
A German is NOT un-American
An American who is a traitor is un-American. Or simply breaking tradition might be called un-American.
non means "not"
un IMPLIES "the opposite of", or in the above example, "against"
this leads to:
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how much or how often
week of the centaur --- common
week of the ogre --- not common
week of the Phoenix --- uncommon also not common
Noncommon is not a word. But "non" is like the "not" above, it's not as strong as "un".
The word "very" can be used with "un".
"It is very unlikely."
"It is very uncommon."
It is very unlikely to get week of the [level 7] 5 times in a row.
"Very" will (almost) never be used with non/not. (and when it's used, I'm not sure if it's correct)
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Guess i saw it in a chat lobby sometime.
I thought they spoke chatish in chat rooms, not English??? I would love to see the head of the English department at Cambridge in a chat room! Someone could make a great comedy skit with that.
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yubq
Hired Hero
rosesmasher
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posted August 13, 2006 10:23 AM |
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do you know any compositive BBS? and chat rooms?
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Binabik
Responsible
Legendary Hero
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posted August 13, 2006 01:01 PM |
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I'm not sure what you mean by "compositive".
Do you mean a BBS or chat where you can learn English composition?
You can ask questions in this thread if you want. That's what this thread is for. If you want, I can look at your posts in other threads and tell you how to correct them.
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First, "compositive" is not a word.
The verb is "compose".
I will compose a sentence.
I will compose a song.
The noun is "composition".
I will write a composition.
The adjective is "compositional".
I can't think of a good example for the word "compositional". You won't hear that word often.
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yubq
Hired Hero
rosesmasher
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posted August 13, 2006 03:39 PM |
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I meant 'comprehensive' forums, not specialized in one single field.
thank you very much.
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Ecoris
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted August 15, 2006 01:56 PM |
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This is a very good thread (and I must admit that right now I'm using all my knowledge of the English language to avoid errors  ). You may enlist me aswell in your "HC English lessons". However, please don't drown threads like "on the internals ..." in grammatical discussion (unless the errors make the meaning unclear). The thread is technical enough as it is . But you are welcome to use this thread to correct my (many) errors in the other one.
The meaning of thou (the diphtong ou is pronounced as in "hour" not as in "though") has already been described correctly. I've only seen (or met?) this word while reading Shakespeare at school. As mentioned it's an old word for the singular "you" (like du in German not Sie). Other words you may need to know if you read Shakespeare are thy/thine (singular/plural: any form of Ihr or dein) and thee (dich).
Today you use you instead of thee and thou, while thy/thine is your.
Sonet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all to short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breath, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Notice that verbs in present tense in second-person singular has the ending -st just like in German. It really not that difficult .
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yubq
Hired Hero
rosesmasher
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posted August 15, 2006 02:12 PM |
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glad to u 2 online. timezone there is 0,right?your clock may show time as 12.00 noon now
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Ecoris
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted August 15, 2006 02:33 PM |
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In Denmark the time zone is +1 GMT. But because of daylight-saving time we use +2 GMT during the summer half year. Your post was made 2:12 pm or 14:12 if you (like we do) use the 24 hour notation.
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yubq
Hired Hero
rosesmasher
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posted August 15, 2006 02:51 PM |
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Edited by yubq at 15:09, 15 Aug 2006.
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we used to have summer-time for time-saving too.but these years we practise normal time system and have abandoned it.it is 20:46 now,viz. 12.46 utc. i often contact french and german customers in the afternoon.
when did you start playing Homm series? what do u think about wog?
they are not popular anymore here, forums on heroes are cold and cheerlees. H3 game is disappearing from internet-cafes' computers.
how about there?
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted August 15, 2006 02:55 PM |
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Could you please talk about time zones in a different thread?
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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yubq
Hired Hero
rosesmasher
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posted August 15, 2006 03:26 PM |
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ok, i'll talk it other place.i heard college education is free in Deutschland,really?
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Iris
Responsible
Supreme Hero
of Typos
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posted August 19, 2006 08:44 PM |
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I've always wanted to know why "flammable" and "inflammable" mean the same thing. And why "regardless" and "irregardless" mean the same things.
Okay, real question. What is the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon? I've been told that one forms above the equator and one forms below. And I've also been told that one originates from the Pacific and the other from the Atlantic.
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Ecoris
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted August 19, 2006 09:37 PM |
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A hurricane a a typhhon is the same thing. What it's called depends on location.
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Binabik
Responsible
Legendary Hero
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posted August 20, 2006 12:03 AM |
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Flammable is preferred to inflammable.
Irregardless is a real word, but don't use it at a job interview or on a term paper.
A word that people use all the time that's not a real word is "noone". It's two words, "no one".
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted August 20, 2006 12:14 AM |
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That's interesting. For the matter of fact I've never known how to spell this word, I always wrote "no1", coz "noone" looked pretty strange...
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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Binabik
Responsible
Legendary Hero
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posted August 20, 2006 12:20 AM |
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Edited by Binabik at 00:21, 20 Aug 2006.
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Yea, it looks strange. That's the only thing that keeps me from using it myself. Spoken, the two words are run together. It sounds like one word, but it's not.
"Nobody" is one word though.
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Ecoris
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted August 20, 2006 12:30 AM |
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Edited by Ecoris at 00:30, 20 Aug 2006.
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No one/noone. Yes I've noticed that as well. Noone looks very strange like it's pronounced [nu:n] like noon.
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Binabik
Responsible
Legendary Hero
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posted August 20, 2006 12:44 AM |
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Angelito:
I've been watching, and phrases like "me thinks", "me hungry", "me happy", are all used intentionally. And me thinks it sounds kind of cool.
It's kind of like "my bad".
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted August 28, 2006 02:11 PM |
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Edited by angelito at 14:11, 28 Aug 2006.
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Where does the word "ain't" come from? Does it have the same meaning as "haven't"? Is there an opposit form (positiv) aswell?
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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TitaniumAlloy
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Professional
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posted August 28, 2006 02:18 PM |
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Ain't...
I guess it's the same as isn't but is flexible in tenses, like they can say "That aint never worked" or "That aint never gonna work" or "That aint workin"
It's also immune to double negatives. Aint is negative, and aint never is still negative. Aint not, etc, all negative.
I dno where it came from
Quote:
1. What's the difference between "How old are you?" and "What's your age?" Perhaps u use one of them refering to friends / people your age, and the other for "foreigners"?
"What's your age?" isn't used very often I wouldn't say. Maybe if you're writing down someones details like "what is your name, what is your occupation". It's more formal, but normally we use "How old are you?"
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2. What's the difference between "monkey" and "ape"?
An ape is a type of mammal. A monkey is a type of ape. It's just more specific. A gorilla is an ape, but not a monkey. A human is an ape-descendant, but not a monkey-descendent, because monkeys followed a different evolutionary track from humans, but still following the pattern of an ape.
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3. In german, we don't have a word describing the opposit of "thirsty"
So if i don't know a german word for it, i can't look up the translation in the dictionary of course..
Does there exist an english word for this?
Not that I know of.
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4. I often have problems when to write a word starting with capital letter, coz in english u mainly write without capital letters (not refering to the start fo a sentence of course).
Does there exist a rule for that?
Proper nouns must have a capital letter, all other words do not. Proper nouns are names of people, places, nationalities (anything stemming from a country basically) and titles (like book titles) pretty much.
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5. In american english, u say "gas" instead of "petrol" (british english). But how do u call "real" gas (like CO for example)?
I'm not American, but it comes from 'gasoline', doesn't it? Petrol is just another word for gasoline, which is shortened to gas. They use the same word for gas as in the third state of matter, just different context usually.
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6. Is this a correct english sentence: "You are too young too!" or do u rather say: "You are too young also!" ?
The first one is used, not usually the second. I don't know why, also isn't usually used at the end of a sentence I guess. You could say "You're also too young!" but in that situation the first one would be the most common and most appropriate. 'Too', like the first sentence, would be used to complain, or to remind someone of a fact, possibly in an argument of the hypocricy of the other person, who would probably have said "You're too young!" 'Also', as in the third sentence, would normally be used to simply point out a forgotten or unrealized fact, like if the other person did not know that they were underage. There's no problem with using 'too' twice.
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John says to live above hell.
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Ecoris
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted August 28, 2006 02:30 PM |
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It's a contraction of am not, are not or is not. Don't use if you're writing a report or something like that because people may think you lack education.
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This thread is pages long: 
