Collective Nouns
Mar 4th 2009, 2:42 pm
#32
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,043
Re: Collective Nouns
This is nonsense up with which I shall not put.
Were you at school before Winnie said those words?
There are no rules in English. Your teachers at school teach rules because that is the easiest way to teach, but even in those days this was a nonsense rule. As is starting a sentence with a conjunction.
The difference between written and spoken language is of course important. Written language has to be understood via what appears on the page, whereas spoken language is embellished by tone of voice, stress, facial expression and body language.
Consider the sentence:
look out
Without punctuation you don't know whether I'm inviting you to look out the window, or warning you that standing by the window is a bad idea. In spoken language this confusion cannot occur.
The Ecole Francaise decided to impose rules on French. As a result French is a dying language.
Were you at school before Winnie said those words?
There are no rules in English. Your teachers at school teach rules because that is the easiest way to teach, but even in those days this was a nonsense rule. As is starting a sentence with a conjunction.
The difference between written and spoken language is of course important. Written language has to be understood via what appears on the page, whereas spoken language is embellished by tone of voice, stress, facial expression and body language.
Consider the sentence:
look out
Without punctuation you don't know whether I'm inviting you to look out the window, or warning you that standing by the window is a bad idea. In spoken language this confusion cannot occur.
The Ecole Francaise decided to impose rules on French. As a result French is a dying language.
"We shall never surrender! [to poor grammar]"
Mar 4th 2009, 2:49 pm
#33
High in the Dandenongs
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Location: Listening to Puffing Billy
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Mar 4th 2009, 2:53 pm
#34
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Posts: 794
Re: Collective Nouns
Exactly. And Aussies who make a dog's brekky of the spoken English language won't necessarily write a business letter like that.
Mar 5th 2009, 9:46 am
#39
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Posts: 1,048
Re: Collective Nouns
My school didn't really seem to teach grammar. In fact I'll learn more about English grammar in French lessons when the teacher would yell IT'S THE SAME AS IN ENGLISH and we'd say 'we don't know what it is English either'
Then there would be a quick grammar lesson.
Then there would be a quick grammar lesson.
Mar 5th 2009, 11:58 am
#40
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Location: Woop Woop
Posts: 4,808
Re: Collective Nouns
My school didn't really seem to teach grammar. In fact I'll learn more about English grammar in French lessons when the teacher would yell IT'S THE SAME AS IN ENGLISH and we'd say 'we don't know what it is English either'
Then there would be a quick grammar lesson.
Then there would be a quick grammar lesson.
Mar 5th 2009, 2:16 pm
#45
...giving optimism a go?!
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Brisbane (leafy, hilly western suburbs)
Posts: 2,202
Re: Collective Nouns
Simple - you need only know four different words just rearrange them to suit the situation:
'eh'
'yeah'
'no'
'good'
and remember every sentence ends "." (pronounced like the English "but")
Lets try it:
Q: "How are you today?"
Correct response: "Yeah, no good but"
Q: "This is a rather nice bottle of wine dont you agree?"
Correct response: "yeah - good eh!" (use of "but" optional in this case)
Q: "Is there anything worth watching on tv tonight?"
Correct response: : "eh??"
Q: "I see Australia are sucking at cricket lately, do you have any opinions on the topic?"
Correct Reponse:" yeah eh... no good..."
'eh'
'yeah'
'no'
'good'
and remember every sentence ends "." (pronounced like the English "but")
Lets try it:
Q: "How are you today?"
Correct response: "Yeah, no good but"
Q: "This is a rather nice bottle of wine dont you agree?"
Correct response: "yeah - good eh!" (use of "but" optional in this case)
Q: "Is there anything worth watching on tv tonight?"
Correct response: : "eh??"
Q: "I see Australia are sucking at cricket lately, do you have any opinions on the topic?"
Correct Reponse:" yeah eh... no good..."
