Don’t Say This

From Twitter

Don’t say:
There are two members in my family
I’m business/salary man
I live Saitama
I have a wife
My first son

Try:
I’m ① clerk.
I ② for Sony.
I live ③ Saitama.
I ④ married and ⑤ two kids. ⑥ ⑦ is Toshi; the youngest ⑧ Sawa.

Choose:
am
eldest
a
an
in
at
the
work
is
have

Answers
I’m ①
a clerk. We need ‘a’ because our name is not “Clerk.”
I ②work for Sony. We don’t our title unless it is a professional title.
I live ③in Saitama. We must use prepositions before locations.
④ I‘m  married and ⑤have two kids. ⑥ The  eldest is Toshi; the youngest ⑧is Sawa.
④ Married is something we are.
⑤ We have kids; we don’t say they merely exist.
⑥, ⑦, ⑧ We never list our children by the primacy of latency of their birth; we talk about age in relation to each child.

Image & Impressions

From Twitter

  1. What is your __ of the Japanese government response to #COVID19?
  2. My __ of the US is one of ethnic strife, freedom, lots of space.
  3. Toshi: What’s your __ of @GretaThunberg?
    Rie: Who’s that?
    Toshi: Do you live under a rock? She’s the most famous #environmental #activist on Earth!

    Choices:
    image
    impression
Do you live under a rock?
Image: Carlos Roso
Image: Markus Spiske

The Answer is ‘impression.’ Many Japanese say, “my image….” This doesn’t make sense. If you said, ‘the image I have/had,’ that would be okay. However, we don’t have our own permanent images in our minds.

It’s Over

From Twitter

When I was young, my mother got aggravated if my things were __.

When we blew the mini-fireworks, confetti __.

I’m __ this TV series. It’s boring, now.

Jo: Do you wanna go get a beer?
Jay: Oh, dude, I’m __。

Choose:
over (“bored with,” “done with”)
all over (“everywhere”)
all over it (“into it,” “in love with it,” “loving it”)
flew all over (“dispersed in all directions”)

Answers
1. all over
2. flew all over
3. over
4. all over it

Don’t Blow It!

From Twitter:
Dialog
Boy: Did you ace* your test?
Girl: No. I didn’t; I blew it.
Boy: Why?
Girl: I couldn’t study; my sister and brother were acting up!

Question:
A. To “blow it” means
to make it bigger
to do badly 
to cause it to explode

B. ”Act up” means
to be active
to be up-beat
to be bad
________

The answer to Question A is ② ‘to do badly.’
The answer to Question B is ‘to be bad’

*To ace something is to do it perfectly. Basically it is the opposite of “blow it.”

Smell.

From Twitter

Is that    I smell; is mom   , again?
Is there    here?; I smell   !

Choices:
cooking
fire
cigarettes
smell
someone smoking

The answers are below the images.

Photo: Kevin Elija O’Donnell
Photo: Kevin MCcuthin

Answers And Explanation
Is that ① cooking I smell; is mom ② cooking, again? Cooking is a noun and a verb.
Is there someone smoking here?; I smell cigarettes! Smell is a verb as well as a noun.

Clubs

The Boys Club of America teaches young men leadership skills, camping and social skills.

From Twitter:

Which is correct?
Boys Club
Boy’s Club
Boy Club
Boys’ Club

Answer And Explanation
Well, they are all correct except number 2, but they all mean different things:
First, number 2 is incorrect without an article, as in A Boy’s Club;

Boys Club means a place you can go to find boys
Boy’s Club means one boy’s club, owned by him.
Boy Club either means a club for boys or a club of boys or both.
Boys’ Club means a place of , for and owned by boys

I have no purpose except to teach you style (which includes punctuation). There is no inappropriate reference here. I thought of this, because all around Tokyo one sees ‘Girl’s Bar,’ which is incorrect. It means one girl owns a bar, and it is incorrectly written. I didn’t use the example of a “girly bar” (the correct usage), because I think these places are sad, exploit women, fleece lonely and incapable men and ruin relationships; tragically, they offer jobs to young women who deserve to be offered government education and training programs. I did not want to call attention to girly bars. Also, in America, the Boy Scouts is sometimes referred to as a “boys club.”

Photo: Kyle Glenn

Expecting

From Twitter:

I wasn’t _____ rain. That’s why I don’t ave an umbrella!

a. ‘Waiting for’ is not the answer, because only farmers and poets wait for rain.
b. ‘Waiting on’ is not it, because we wait on friends and it means wait for.
c. ‘expecting’ is the answer, because it means ‘thinking would come/be/”waiting for” (sort of).
d. ‘Expect’ is not right, because it doesn’t fit the grammar; we need the continuous tense.

Photo: Jack Finnegan

Allow Me…

From Twitter:

___ me to help you.

a. allow is the answer, because we allow + noun/pronoun/proper noun
b. Lets doesn’t fit the grammar; who or what allows “me?,” and no infinitive is needed.
c. Allows doesn’t fit the grammar; who or what allows “me?”
d. Let doesn’t fit the grammar; let doesn’t require an infinitive.

Sentence Tree: Do & What

From Twitter:

Do (.) Do is a statement; it means something like “go ahead.”
……・you (?) “Do you?” is a tag question, meaning “do you (+ an implied basic verb)?”
……….・know (?) “Do you know?” asks whether the listener(s) are aware.
………………..・what (?) “Do you know what?” is an interjection and audience.
……………………….・time (?) “Do you know what time?” asks an event time.   
……………………………….・it is? “Do you know what time it is?” (asks the given time or the time of an event.) 
……………………………………….・we should be there? “Do you know what time we should be there?asks about an expected or desirable arrival time.
………………………………………・it starts? “Do you know what time it starts?” asks about the time something begins, like a movie-start-time. 
………………………………………・where (?) “Do you know where?” asks a location.
…………………………………………………..・it is (?) “Do you know where it is?” asks about the placement or location of a third-person specific object.
…………………………………………………..・we are? “Do you know where we are? asks whether the listener(s) knows the location of the the speaker, him- or her-self and the listener(s).    
…………………………………………………..・should be ? “Do you know where we should be?” asks what location the speaker and listener(s) and (an)other(s) must be in or are expected at.
………………..・me? “Do you know me?” asks whether the listener(s) knows the speaker as a person or his or her identity.
………………..・the Ims?* “Do you know the Ims?” asks whether the listener(s) knows the Im family. *a family name
………………..・it? “Do you know it?” asks whether the listener(s) knows something that’s been referenced.
………………..・how (?) “Do you know how?” asks whether the listener(s) is aware of a method.
………………………….・to go? “Do you know how to go?” asks whether the listener(s) are aware of a way or path or route.
………………………………・do it? “Do you know how to do it? asks whether the listener(s) are aware of a specific method already referred to.

Photo: Monic Melton

Progress

From Twitter:
Student: How do I remember the pronunciation of words with the same spelling but different pronunciations when they’re nouns or verbs?

Teacher: Remember this: “I will proGRESS in my PROgress.” So, accent the suffix when it’s a ①; accent the prefix when its a ②.

Choices:
noun
verb

Answer And Explanation:
We accent the suffix when it is a ① verb and we accent the prefix when it is ② noun. The prefix is the beginning half of a word or number; the suffix is the ending half.

Photo: Neonbrand