Rhekemi Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 2 hours ago, Lindsrhyl said: @Rhekemi As a C1/C2 level English "speaker" (because i gotta admit, i never really spoke), rules within rules are kinda nonexistent. At least i didn't pay attention so far. On the other hand, FR/ES, and maybe IT definitely are intricate, and if we had to get a reference for complexity rating (within european boundaries), i'd propose German, which is kinda like the old Latin (but also hella fun with 7565455 letters words). Okay. And congrats on passing your exams, btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doloriss Posted December 6, 2016 Author Share Posted December 6, 2016 My native language is Polish (Slavic tongue) therefore I don't have problems with understand simple rules like building times. I have problem to understand minute differences between Present Perfect and Past Simple (and other similar issues) "I know you have eaten the cookie because you have chocolate on your fingers" in Polish there is no difference between "I know you ate the cookie" and "I know you have eaten the cookie". It's hard to me learn collocations not all of them are obvious for me. For me English is difficult to speak correctly not to be understood :) but I know not enough words to feel good with my level of English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsrhyl Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 (edited) You have eaten the cookie, therefore you have chocolate on your fingers now, and i'm angry at you. Present perfect. You'm nom nomed the cookie, and licked your fingers. Well... now there's no more cookies, but i can't tell who ate it... Past simple. Edited December 6, 2016 by Lindsrhyl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voltocitygel Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 Lol, the way German works is pretty fun. Want more description? Slap more words onto that word to make a super word. (I don't speak German, just know a few super basic words and the idea of how it works) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unus Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 4 hours ago, Doloriss said: My native language is Polish (Slavic tongue) therefore I don't have problems with understand simple rules like building times. I have problem to understand minute differences between Present Perfect and Past Simple (and other similar issues) "I know you have eaten the cookie because you have chocolate on your fingers" in Polish there is no difference between "I know you ate the cookie" and "I know you have eaten the cookie". It's hard to me learn collocations not all of them are obvious for me. For me English is difficult to speak correctly not to be understood :) but I know not enough words to feel good with my level of English. PHEW! Thank goodness, there's still hope for you then. I've found the further east (or north or west) you go from the angloid world, the harder it is to try and grasp the english tongue for non-native folks (big revelation, huh? Duuuuuh). Again, so far, since you don't seem to be using a translator, you appear to have a bright educational future ahead of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsrhyl Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 (edited) And to say no one praised my teaching skills... TT_TT Now i'll go back in my dark room, curl under the blanket, only cover against this cold world, and cry lots... Edited December 6, 2016 by Lindsrhyl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doloriss Posted December 6, 2016 Author Share Posted December 6, 2016 2 minutes ago, Lindsrhyl said: And to say no one praised my teaching skills... TT_TT Now i'll go back in my dark room, curl under the blanket, only cover against this cold world, and cry lots... Thank you for your "nom nomed the cookie" :D I'll remember that example. 39 minutes ago, Unus said: PHEW! Thank goodness, there's still hope for you then. I've found the further east (or north or west) you go from the angloid world, the harder it is to try and grasp the english tongue for non-native folks (big revelation, huh? Duuuuuh). Again, so far, since you don't seem to be using a translator, you appear to have a bright educational future ahead of you. Weee there is still hope! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhekemi Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 (edited) 20 hours ago, Doloriss said: My native language is Polish (Slavic tongue) therefore I don't have problems with understand simple rules like building times. I have problem to understand minute differences between Present Perfect and Past Simple (and other similar issues) "I know you have eaten the cookie because you have chocolate on your fingers" in Polish there is no difference between "I know you ate the cookie" and "I know you have eaten the cookie". It's hard to me learn collocations not all of them are obvious for me. Polish is a difficult language to learn (for foreigners), I'm told. And yes, that the different tense forms can be tricky. Lindsrhyl's post is good. If by similar issues, you mean things like past perfect, then grammatically correct past perfect would be: "I knew you had eaten the cookie, because you had chocolate on your fingers." Sounds really formal and stiff! But it's correct. Past perfect means that an action has already taken place (it is in the past) before another action in the past, or a series of events in the past. For past perfect, all actions typically take place in the past tense. The past perfect action in this case is the cookie eating. It naturally happened first, and the evidence (chocolate fingers) happened after. We use "had eaten". The second action, event or occurrence is the chocolate on the fingers and it's past simple, so we use "had chocolate on your fingers". Another example that mixes past and present: "I know you ate the cookie, because you have chocolate on your fingers." Still correct, but less formal, and how we use English conversationally and casually. The cookie has been eaten in the past, but the evidence on the fingers is still present. Overall, you're conveying the same meaning, just different ways and distinguishing when the action had taken place (or is taking place). Other correct forms would be: "I knew you'd eaten the cookie." (Past perfect) and "I knew you ate the cookie." (Past simple) "I know you ate the cookie." (Present + past simple) I also noticed that you're having trouble with prepositions (words like in, on, to, up, down, unto, onto, into), and -ING verb forms (present participles and gerunds) which show an ongoing action in English. Those are common hurdles for all ESL/EFL students, or anyone informally picking up English as a new language. I hesitated to PM you because doing so makes a commitment (on my part) that I'll be obligated to uphold. Right now I'm not sure I can tackle any new commitments. But I'll send you a PM on the prepositions and present participles anyway. They're such little things, but they read (and sound) like hiccups that make most ESL students sound odd to natives, unfortunately. The good news is you can, of course, change that with time. Edited December 7, 2016 by Rhekemi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
321agemo Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 I can probably help. Technically im chinese and english is considered my second language, ive spent a significant amount of time in the uk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsrhyl Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 This thread now: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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