Check out today’s Teatime Titbit: Wobbly Wednesday. Getting places.
“How do you get there?” I ask
“I drive the train to work.” He answers.
“Oh really, do you have a train driving licence” I ask
“Of course, I haven’t” (should, of course, be “I don’t – but that’s not the issue (Thema) here)
“Well then, how can you drive the train to work, you’re not a qualified train driver?” I say
“Oh, I understand, so I travel/go by train” The penny’s dropped!!! (der Groschen ist gefallen)
“How did you get home after the party?” I inquire (nachfragen)
“I went there to foot” she answered with a proud (stolz) look on her face as if she had run a marathon
“You mean you hopped (hüpfen) home”, respect considering how many cocktails you said you had!
“What means ‘hopped’? (should, of course, be “I don’t – but that’s not the issue here)
“It means to jump with one foot“.
“Oh, no, it was hard to go” she said (should, of course, be “I could hardly walk” –but that’s not the issue.)
“to walk, I could hardly walk” I gently nudged (stupsen) her in the right direction.
“Yes, it was hard to walk at home” (should, of course, be “walk home” – but that’s not the issue here).
“So did you walk all the way home?” I ask trying to elicit (etw hervorrufen) the correct version. Remember – copy & paste!
“Yes” she said. “It was just round the corner”.
“What was just round the corner? I asked puzzled (verwirrt)
“My flat, it’s only 2 mins. by feet away”
“You mean ‘the party was in walking distance’, or ‘you can walk there in 2 mins’ or ‘you can go there on foot in 2 mins’.” I impatiently (ungeduldig) give her the correct versions.
“Yes, we understand us” (should, of course, be “each other” –but that’s not the issue here).
“English for runaways” I say jokingly (zum Spaß).
“How will you get to Paris?” I ask
“We will go by plane from Cologne”.
“You mean ‘fly’!”
“Yes, we will fly by plane from Cologne”
“It’s like with ‘drive a car’ or ‘ride a bike’, you don’t need to say ‘car or bike’ because it’s understood. You only include a vehicle if you don’t use a car – drive a lorry, tractor etc.”
“Oh really, I didn’t know that.”
“No worries, and how will you get to Cologne airport?” Wanting to see if the penny has dropped.
“We will drive by train.”
So, better stay at home, then there’s no need for searching the right expression 😉
however, this might be tricky, too. Depending on how you spent your last evening and night you might be crawling along the floor or toddling into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water right now. Or you might just be shuffling along (due to a very hard workout, not because of too many drinks of course 😉 ), perhaps even limping out of bed (athletic injury, no pub brawl). Maybe you are in a hurry to go to work but you can’t because your bathroom is still occupied so that you now pace back and forth with a nervous look on your watch every now and then…
Hm, most accidents occur in the household. This rule even applies for grammar – there’s a lot to think about even for describing „doing nothing“.
You see: no need to stay at home after all. Let’s get out and make our mistakes rather there while enjoying life! Dave helps us with the correct explanations of how we move. Thank you!