Hi Raj,
Be your delay forgiven ;). I agree we should write in English primarily, but using another language might prove fruitful from time to time - whenever all other means of explanation fail, or when we happen to find a useful linguistic parallel in the particular foreign language or a mother tongue of -- you can say "mother tongue" but most people say "native language" John one's own. I don't mind friendly greetings in various languages, but let's use English as much as possible. For me as a Czech, groups like this seem to have born some fruits already (moreover, this has been the only opportunity to use English for a few months or so), nevertheless, I still haven't achieved the level of English I'd like to. What level would you like to achieve ? For ordinary business letters, conversation, etc., it looks like you've already achieved it to me. Would you like to try to read James Joyce for example, or T.S. Eliot? These, especially Joyce, are really really advanced texts, which MOST native speakers find difficult or impossible. --- JOHN Now, we get to your posting. I can't comment on your punctuation, since I'm by no means sure, how to use it properly, but there's one thing I can write No comma after "sure" John about: spelling. If I'm not mistaken, you wanted to use the verb "hurt", not "heart", as "heart" is a noun - the muscle beating in your chest and pumping your blood all over the body. I think the pronunciation is diverse, too, but no comma after "diverse" -- John I admit there might be dialects or accents of English, in which the difference has disappeared already, and, if you wanted to use the dialect, you'd have to stick to its distinct pronunciation rules in order to keep certain consistency and thus be understood. -- I do not know of any dialect of English where "heart" would be confused with "hurt". --"Hurt" and "heard" (past participle of "hear") could be confused though. -- John I must look at my English grammar handbook again and do some revision after the long time of sleeping :), so, whenever I make any mistake, I hope to be corrected by any of you, dear friends, for which I thank you in advance. -- There is nothing grammatically wrong with the above sentence, but "the long time of sleeping" -- and "any mistake" (should be "a mistake") sound somewhat stilted. -- Also, at least in the USA, we very seldom call people "dear friends" unless they are truly -- intimates, and maybe not even then. --- Bye, John Yours, Pet'usek (which is a familiar local diminutive of Petr in Czech) P.S.: There's one thing I'd like to ask the native speakers - correct word order. As various grammars vary in what the correct word order should be, I'd love to know your personal opinions. Thanks again.
