English Review

Last week I asked for some responses to questions in English and today I'd like to go over some of the answers.

Thanks very much to these people for participating in the first assignment! Specifically, thank you to theresa, nicholas cripps, hyunwoo sun, koungeun choi, yiwei, lucierili, RuaGreenwood, Cody, sorry if I forgot anyone.

Here are some answers I'd like to go over.

A1: I'm eating a fruit.

A2: Yes, I do.

A3: I eat a fruit after my dinner every day. Fruits keep us healthy and strong. :)

"Fruit" is an uncountable object, so we can't say "a" fruit, or "fruits" but just "fruit". "I'm eating fruit". And "I eat fruit".

Monkey:What are you doing, Mr.Pig?

Pig:I'm eating watermelon...

Monkey:Do you eat watermelon often?

Pig:Yes,I do.

Monkey:How many watermelon do you eat a day?

Pig:Three...one is for my breakfast,the second is for lunch and the last one should be for my dinner

A conversation between a pig and a monkey? Hahaha! I like it. But we should say "How many watermelons..." and not "How many watermelon...". When we ask "how many" we always use the plural. It's always hard to know when to use the plural in English.... Hyunwoo has got it completely correct:

Hyunwoo:

Q1: What are you doing?
A1: I'm listening to a podcast.
Q2: Do you listen to podcasts often?
A2: Yes, I do.
Q3: How often do you listen to podcasts?
A3: I listen to podcasts all the time.

Notice that he says that "I'm listening to a podcast". This is the only time one should use the singular in these three sentence patterns. Off the record, this is the part my girlfriend is having the most trouble with.

Next is lucierili's answer. She also has no mistakes, but uses a few constructions that beginners sometimes get wrong, so I thought I'd mention them.

Q1: What are you doing?

A1: I'm packing my luggage.

Q2: Do you study often?

A2: Yes, I do. I like studying languages.

Q3: How often do you go to the restaurant?

A3: I go once a month.

Remember what I mentioned about uncountable objects? "Luggage" is one of those so we don't say "a luggage" or "luggages" but just "luggage".

Also, she uses a plural in "I like studying languages". Notice that we have the plural "languages" and not "language".

If you want to see some more answers, look here:
http://www.maxiewawa.com/2008/08/04/simple-present-present-continuous-frequency/#comments
http://talkwiththeworld.blogspot.com/2008/08/simple-present-present-continuous.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4NdkQzk55k