GYG Day 4. Don’t always speak like a native.

I always preach, listen and copy! Most of the time this advice is the easiest way to learn to speak a language and it’s the way we learn to speak our native language.

However, if you watch ‘Vid of the week’ (VOTW) – ‘Common mistakes natives make’ (click on link) @ www.teatimetitbits.de , you’ll find out that natives don’t always get it right. BTW you can get a summary of the “Common mistakes even natives make’ https://teatimetitbits.de/free-pdfs/.

Today, I would like to go into 4 specific ‘grammar’ terms, which he mentions in the vid. Are you ready for them?

(In)transitive verbs.

‘Transitive verbs’ are used with a direct object (thingybob), ‘Intransitive verbs’ are used without a direct object. e.g. ‘she wrote a letter’ (letter is the direct object), e.g. ‘He died suddenly’ to die is intransitive

Homophones.

Homophone is a word that is pronounced like another word but has a different spelling or meaning e.g. some & sum.

Stative verbs.

 A stative verb describes the way something IS (be, seem, understand, like, own etc) not an ACTION, which are known as dynamic verbs (eat, grow, knock etc)

The subjunctive mood.

The subjunctive mood is a special form of a verb used to talk about imaginary situations (made-up hypothetical situations that will never happen).

  1. e.g. If my mom were to become the President … If + were (not was) + infinitive (to become),
  2. demands e.g. “Schools require that each student be on time daily” be (not is) or
  3. requests, e.g. “Michelle requests that each quest bring a bottle of vine.” bring (not brings)
  4. or wishes  that haven’t happened yet e.g. I wish he were able to come to the birthday party.

N.B. when you use the verb ‘to be’) in the subjunctive mood, use ‘be’ in the present tense and ‘were’ in the past or future tense (see above example) no matter what the subject is. When you use the he or she form, drop the ‘s’ or ‘es’ at the end of the verb (see example 3).

Hope that has clued you up a little and with PDF sheet at hand the VOTW wonN’T be all Greek to you!!!!!!

to preach (etw propagieren), however (Jedoch), summary (Zusammenfassung), terms (Begriffe), to mention (erwähnen), thingybob (Dingsbums), to pronounce (aussprechen), demand (Aufforderung), request (Bitte), to clue sb up (informieren), to be all Greek to sb (böhmische Dörfer für jdn sein),

6 Gedanken zu „GYG Day 4. Don’t always speak like a native.

  1. Jenny Antworten

    I‘m still waiting for the perfect situation to use the subjunctive mood. Can‘t wait to see those baffled and confused faces of my fellows. 😉

    BTW: what‘s Greek for you (thanks to Shakespeare‘s „The Tragedy of Julius Caesar“ where it occured first), is Spanish for Germans („das kommt mir Spanisch vor“), whereas for Spanish people it‘s all Chinese.

    And another BTW: I don‘t always speak like natives – I speak like Dave! 😉 I‘ve already learned so much from you and that‘s why I appreciate your effort and enjoy your blog every day. Trank you!

    • Dave Preston Autor des BeitragsAntworten

      Hi Jenny. Well you don’t really wanna speak like me otherwise you will hear a thick Northern British accent, which I’m now hearing with Matthew when he speaks. Hilarious.

      • Jenny Antworten

        Hehe, in fact I‘ve already heard you talking! And this time I have to admit that YouTube is great. 😉
        Do you happen to remember that someone of our xing group posted a link to a video of the „ui! Netzwerktreffen 2017“? In this clip we can see you giving a presentation – and of course hear you, too. Well, yes, I do love the Northern accent! Robbie Williams like… his music is ok, at least some of his classics, but I love listening to him! Same with you. Music to my ears!

        • Dave Preston Autor des BeitragsAntworten

          Oh yes, I’d forgotten about that vid. Well, I’m glad to hear you’re open to different accents and only Queen’s English!!!

  2. Jenny Antworten

    Oh, and you need an edit button! I can‘t stand seeing all my typos! My mobile always tries to turn all my words into German and quite often I recognize some of its solos not before having hit the send button. E. g. thank is always turned into trank etc

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