2005/10/25, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > -- you can say "mother tongue" but most people say "native language" > John
Oh, of course, "mother tongue" could sound a bit old-fashioned, couldn't it? > 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 Actually, I'd like to achieve the highest level :) I know I want too much :) > 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 I see - that differs from what we have in Czech. :) Thank you. > 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 see. Another difference. Could this be different in British English? I think I've seen a sentence with a comma preceding "too". > -- 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. Britain is rich in dialects, but I'd have to look at Gimson's Pronunciation to be sure. > -- 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. Yeah, I felt that too. Could you thus rewrite the sentence in order to show me what it should have looked like? > -- 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 Oh, sure. But you might have noticed I wanted to sound funny and be, say, hyperbolic, if you like :) (whence the archaic "Be your delay forgiven!" :)) Thanks for the corrections, John. I'm happy to have learnt something again. Best, Pet'usek
