English Lessons

[emrys711]

If you have questions about English, feel free to post them here and maybe some of the native speakers can help out.

One thing I've noticed lately is a confusion between "then" and "than".  This is very common, even among native speakers.

"Than" is used strictly when comparing two things, where one thing is more and one is less. 

Example:
"Nightmare plays a much better Templar THAN Sparrisen."


"Then" is used to mean "thus", "and so", or to show that something happened next in a sequence. 

Examples:
"If you like shadowblades, THEN you would really like baseball." 
"I lifted the relic and THEN we won the game."

So if you are comparing two things, you want to use "than".  Otherwise use "then".

[Sparrisen]

's no proof of that claim!

And even if there were, if might just be Night having a luckstreak.

[PimpFather]

Difference between to and too? / Pimp

[Hullu]

To give english lessons.

I'm learning english too.

[Ghost]

Difference between to and too? / Pimp

To - Is used when you are going somewhere, Or something is going somewhere. Or even to describe something which will become something etc.

For example, "I will send this letter to pimp". Or "I am going to go to the mall". Or "I am going to be a crazy person today"

Too - Is  used when you are describing something you/something else has in common, or when there is more than enough of something.

For example, "This soup is too hot". Or "I have that shirt too!".

Good luck with it pimp.

~Ghost

[Hullu]

Also, that was a good question Pimp. I hate when people use those two words wrong. It just hurts the eye.

[emrys711]

Today's lesson is about indefinite articles.  In English, when discussing a singular generic noun or a noun that is part of a group, one uses the articles 'a' or 'an' to describe it.  Eg:

-I read an interesting article yesterday.  (There are many interesting articles, and I read one.)
-I was feeling sick so I saw a doctor.  (Not one doctor in particular, but an unspecified doctor.)

I recently saw in the shout box someone say, "Maybe I will become [noun]."  The correct way to say this in English would be "Maybe I will become a [noun]."  Eg:

-Maybe I will become a doctor.
-One of my friends wants to be a shadowblade.

Okay then, what is the difference between "a" and "an"?  This depends entirely on the pronunciation of the noun being modified (not the gender, as in some languages).  In general, if the noun starts with a consonant (b,c,d,f,g...), we use the word "a".  If the noun starts with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), we use "an".  Eg:

-Why have I been turned into a pumpkin?
-That mountain is an inconvenience.

This is done to enhance the flow of speech.  (And thus there are a few variations, mostly in Great Britain, where for instance they do not pronounce h at the beginning of words, so sometimes you will hear something like "an historical perspective...", but don't worry about that for now.)

There is also a similar practice in English concerning the definite article "the", though the spelling never changes.  If the word following "the" begins with a consonant, the word "the" is pronounced something like 'thuh'.  If the following word begins with a vowel, "the" is pronounced more like 'thee'.  Eg:

[Phonetic]
-'thuh relic'
-'thee albina bot'

Because articles account for much of the variation from language to language, it is worthwhile to consider how to properly use articles when trying to improve one's command of a non-native language.

Any questions can be directed in Faro's direction.  Have a nice day.

[Nightmare]

Can you come and teach english at my school? Our russian teacher with her fake british accent sucks.

[emrys711]

Yes.

[emrys711]

@ Sparr's latest rant, since that's where I'm getting most of these lessons anyway:

A)  Difference between 'exciting' and 'exiting'.
  To excite (ek-SITE)       = to put into a state of alert or to cause strong feelings in something
  To exit (EGGS-it, EKS-it)= to leave a place

  Just remember, the c is here for excitement, but it has left for the exit.  Or something.

B)  Difference between 'knocking on' and 'knocking up'.
  To knock on something = to strike a surface, usually with one's hand
  To knock up something = to make pregnant (slang)

  It is true in Great Britain they sometimes use 'to knock someone up' to mean to go knocking at their door, but be careful with this phrase, as it is a slang and potentially vulgar way to talk about a potentially delicate situation.
  A good example of 'To knock on' is in the phrase 'knock on wood', which is an old good luck superstition; it means more or less 'yes, let us hope that will happen', after which people will sometimes but not always look for the closest piece of wood and tap their knuckles on it. E.g.

  x: 'We have a chance to win this game, but only if Boudin comes back'
  y: 'Knock on wood'
      (At which point any combination of x and y could tap knuckles on the nearest piece of wood.  As a joke, one of them may tap lightly on his penis, as if to imply he has an erection, which in English is sometimes called 'wood' and so would qualify as a source of good luck of knocked upon.  This may be considered clever and funny, or a little strange.)

C)  Edible.
  For some reason, while something can indeed be 'drinkable' in English, it cannot be 'eatable'- English goes back to the latin root from 'edere', 'to eat', for this word and thus it would instead be 'edible'.

[fin]

For those of you who pay attention to the shout box, Sparrisen's English is very good.  He would be considered to speak English fluently, if not masterfully, and given his experience with other languages and speaking in general, speaks much better than many native speakers.  So you should feel free to take lessons from his rants.  Every now and again we may clarify something he has said to make a minor correction and enhance the community's understanding of its usage.

If anyone is concerned that these lessons are somewhat imperial in nature, let the record show that I have been asking to be taught Swedish or Finnish since Dawnspire was in its testing phase, and that you do not have to learn English if you don't want to.  Badboll.

[Faro]

Sure, go ahead ask me your english questions, but I warn you; We speak an entirely different type of english in Texas.

For example: Standard english- "I am about to eat some potatos"
Texan- "Ize fixin to eat some Taters"

[lingojac]

Here in California it isn't proper grammar unless you add hella before any adjective.  It's hella weird.

[lingojac]

Not sure why this hasn't been covered.  I'll make it short.

THERE, THEY'RE AND THEIR.  Phonetically identical but grammatically different (obviously).

There: reference to a specified location

''Holy crap, there's a tornado over there.''

They're: abbreviation for "they are"

"They're not even aware that the tornado's coming right at them."

Their: possessive term for multiple individuals

"Their car got blown away by the tornado."

(although sometimes it seems that native english speakers get this wrong more often than non-native english speakers, which gets really irritating)

[Sparrisen]

I think that because theirs more non-native english speakers than they're are NATIVE english speakers, and thee native english countries practise DEMOCRACY, your all wrong.

[lingojac]

I think that because theirs more non-native english speakers than they're are NATIVE english speakers, and thee native english countries practise DEMOCRACY, your all wrong.

Somewhere in the world, an English professor just popped a blood vessel.