How do British people understand British English?

Discussion in 'Serious Discussion' started by mdlgaofei, Mar 14, 2016.

  1. Mutoid

    Mutoid MDL Member

    Sep 23, 2015
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    Sorry guy , I completely forgot to reply to your point about dictionaries .... how rude of me ! :eek:

    Anyway , my view is that dictionaries are always out-of-date , it's in their very nature.
    Language is not static construct , it is fluid , and it constantly evolves.
    There are words that may not be in the book on your shelf , but will certainly be included in the latest editions ...
    eg Skype , Text , Spam , as nouns , but also as verbs .

    It's worth bearing in mind that in Elizabethan times , there was no such thing as exact or "correct" spelling.
    If a word conveyed accurate , unambiguous meaning to the " average " reader , it mattered not how it was spelled .
     
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  2. MrMagic

    MrMagic MDL Guru

    Feb 13, 2012
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    Physical book dictionaries will be very out of date, online dictionaries will not
     
  3. Mutoid

    Mutoid MDL Member

    Sep 23, 2015
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    Interesting point there , if you are referring to the well-trusted sources that you mentioned in an earlier post .

    But here is just one example of why that is incorrect :-

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/
     
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  4. MrMagic

    MrMagic MDL Guru

    Feb 13, 2012
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    #104 MrMagic, May 9, 2016
    Last edited: May 9, 2016
    Urban dictionary is not a British English or even a recognised dictionary... it's a BS dictionary for fun

    Why do you keep referring to it?

    Anyway, enough, I'm out /
     
  5. mdlgaofei

    mdlgaofei MDL Member

    Dec 2, 2015
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    Those sentences don't belong to my homework.Those sentences belong to an article online.
    Could you show more tips to reduce the difficultly?
     
  6. MrMagic

    MrMagic MDL Guru

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    #106 MrMagic, May 10, 2016
    Last edited: May 10, 2016
    Here is my only tip, the majority of the first examples in each sentence are wrong, the second examples are correct

    What're the different meanings of "I got this computer from bargain" and "I got this computer on sale"?

    I got this computer from bargain -I got this computer at a bargain price (Means the price of the computer was low, and a great price)

    Probably a better way to say the correct example would be:

    I got this computer while it was on sale (Means the computer was at a reduced price compared to the normal price)

    You can use both examples for the same thing:

    I got this computer while it was on sale, it was at a bargain price.
    or
    I got a great bargain on this computer, it was on sale
     
  7. mdlgaofei

    mdlgaofei MDL Member

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    Does this sentence contain all the knowledges of sentences? What are others
     
  8. mdlgaofei

    mdlgaofei MDL Member

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    There's a music in this world "Then There's You".Why use "is",not use "are"?
     
  9. mdlgaofei

    mdlgaofei MDL Member

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    #109 mdlgaofei, May 18, 2016
    Last edited: May 18, 2016
    (OP)
    The sentences "He has been to China" and "It's a dog".Change the sentences into general questions : "Has he been to China?" and "Is it a dog"?
    The wrong sentence is "Does he have been(Has looks like a verb)".My understanding(s) : We didn't change "is""am""are" into "do(es) be" or others;and their functions(or others) are different. So we didn't change "has been" into "does have been"
    Did I find the official way?


    Which(What) type(or others) of verb do "be""am""are""is" belong to?
     
  10. gorski

    gorski MDL Guru

    Oct 21, 2009
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    I think you just have to sit down and work on it, m8.

    Clear your mind of these useless and rather hollow questions and just sit down and study, get it on board and improve your English... :)
     
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  11. mdlgaofei

    mdlgaofei MDL Member

    Dec 2, 2015
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    Why aren't the questions of "have been/done""be""am""are""is" useful?
     
  12. excalibur2

    excalibur2 MDL Senior Member

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    #112 excalibur2, May 20, 2016
    Last edited: May 20, 2016
    Well even if you can read\write\speak fluent English...some of the politicians can still confuse you:-

    Donald Rumsfeld
    "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones"
     
  13. gorski

    gorski MDL Guru

    Oct 21, 2009
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    That's what you get from Neo-Cons... :D :D :D

    mdlgaofei - just learn it, m8... Much more productive... ;)
     
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  14. mdlgaofei

    mdlgaofei MDL Member

    Dec 2, 2015
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    Could you post simpler sentences?
     
  15. Joe C

    Joe C MDL Guru

    Jan 12, 2012
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    That would be an unknown....and if no nobody else knows, then the answer is no.
     
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  16. Michaela Joy

    Michaela Joy MDL Crazy Lady

    Jul 26, 2012
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    [​IMG]
     
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  17. mdlgaofei

    mdlgaofei MDL Member

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    I heard this dictionary that includes Chinglish.
     
  18. mdlgaofei

    mdlgaofei MDL Member

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    #118 mdlgaofei, May 26, 2016
    Last edited: May 26, 2016
    (OP)
    Be动词

    Auxiliary verb-"助动词" Modal verb-"情态动词" and others(“动词”-"verb"). I cannot find the translation of "be". The word "be" doesn't seem translated into Chinese by anyone.
    How to translate the word "be" into Chinese? Is "be" the special verb that belongs to English?How do native speaker think about it?
     
  19. SOCRATE_MMXII

    SOCRATE_MMXII MDL Expert

    Jan 25, 2012
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    There's no "be" in English. There's "to be" = "to exist" and "bee" = "an insect that produces honey".
    Trying to do a crude translation from one language to another will get you nowhere. What you are trying to accomplish is pure madness, but if you have fun...then don't let me stop you.
     
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  20. excalibur2

    excalibur2 MDL Senior Member

    Aug 1, 2015
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    Well it was a quote from a US politician for Americans as he probably thought English speakers in the rest of the world were too dumb to understand it :biggrin: