Tag: 間違いやすい英語表現、英会話教室　東京

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We use the the Past Perfect only when talking about an event in the past that occurred before another event in the past. We don’t use it to talk about one event in the past.

1. I had lived in Korea before I moved to Japan. (2 Past Tense Events Expressed)

2. Actually, I went home to America, first. (1 Past Tense Event Expressed)

3. So, I had lived in New York for five years before coming to Japan. (2 Past Tense Events Expressed)

NOTE to Number 3: In the second part of the sentence we use a gerund of come–which is the noun form of that verb; you can see it has ing  the end, with before providing the context of a simple past event.

Come to class and learn to speak proper English! Go to: http://sayinsei.com. 

CA

Which is better?

A. In the space shuttle’s case, the vehicle lands like a plane.

B. In the case of the space shuttle, the vehicle lands like a plane.

Or, for a more easily understood example:

A. In flower’s case, minerals, water and sunlight are essential.

B. In the case of flowers, minerals, water and sunlight are essential.

I hope you picked B.

There is a lot of confusion about using “in my case.” It starts when we try to talk about other things. We say:

“In Science’s case….” This is awkward. And it is especially awkward when we say “car’s case” (a word ending in an ‘s’). 

We should’t say “in car’s case” for two reasons：

First, it should be “the car’s,” but we shouldn’t put ‘s after ‘car’ to begin with. A car cannot own anything. It’s not alive.  

Second, as we are speaking about a car specific to our example–such as in the case of ”our car” or a car in our situation, it becomes “the car.” So we say “in the case of the car”

Now that we have that cleared up, it is far easier to say:

“with the car,” which has the same conversational meaning as “in the case of the car.”

Similarly, we say, “with me,” as in:

With me, I don’t like carrying umbrellas.

Of course we can simply say, “I don’t like carrying umbrellas.” But of course, as you are a person and you can possess experiences, you can say:

In my case, I don’t like umbrellas. This sounds technical, cold, clinical. Any time you use the word ‘case’, you sound like a clinician, a doctor, a scientist–a nerd if you are not one of those professionals or speaking in a professional situation.

So, I ask you once again:

A. In the Saturn Five rocket’s case, the vehicle loses sections as they run out of Fuel.

B. In the case of the Saturn Five rocket, the vehicle loses sections as they run out of fuel.

I hope you picked B. And of course, we can say:

A. With the Saturn Five rocket, the vehicle loses sections as they run out of Fuel.

Now look at this:

My brother is always late; in the case of my sister, I can depend on her being on time.

We change the sentence to a less technical and more casual sounding expression:

My brother is always late  (We don’t need to reference his case; we aim to speak simply in English); with my sister, I can depend on her being on time.

Any questions?

CA

Jon: Where can we get a bite?

(To “get a bite” is to have something to eat.)

Don: What’ya want?

(“What’ya want?” is a slang contraction of “what do you want?”)

Jon: Not meat.

Don: Japan’s not veggie-friendly.

(“veggie-friendly” means providing options and consideration to vegetarians.)

Jon: Why? D: Why are ya veggie?

Jon: I wanna live long, strong. I care about Earth–all species!

Jon is:

a. political

b. socially conscious*

c. weird (very strange)

d. a granola

e. a, b & d

1. All the answers here are okay, but ‘e’ is best. Jon might be “weird” in Japan, but not in English-speaking countries, where vegetarianism has been popular for decades. Many famous people in history were/are vegetarians.

2. A “granola” is a health-conscious person.

This comes from Granola Bars , which are alternatives to candy bars and thought to be healthier. They usually contain raisins, nuts, dried fruit, honey, brown sugar and rolled oats–sometime yogurt morsels.

*Socially conscious refers to a state of mind highly popular in the West. If one is socially conscious s/he makes consumer choices that support companies which are seen to care about the environment, species rights, indigenous people, fair trade and labor concerns. Some socially conscious people, for example, will not buy products from China, because of China’s human rights record, treatment of the Dalai Lama and Tibetans–as well as of Turkistan and Taiwan. 

Others will not buy cosmetics which come from animal testing (these are called cruelty-free). Vegetarians often will not buy anything that includes animal skins (“leather”) or tuna from companies known to obtain fish from slave labor or which over-fish the oceans(Thai Union, Chicken of The Sea, Bumble Bee). The idea is that consumers can change conditions in the world by nor purchasing products that come from harmful and careless companies.

Vegetarians have a much smaller carbon footprint, meaning they contribute far less to global warming and environmental destruction than do meat eaters.

Choose the best answer:

1. Hi. ____ nice to meet you.

a. Is

b. It’s

2. _____ I _____ your name?

a. Do / know

b. Can / get

c. May / have

3. Where ________ from?

a. are

b. did you

c. are you

d. are you come

4. Do you ______ if I ask what you do?*

a. care

b. mind

*what one’s job is

Continue reading “【クイズで学ぼう】Getting to Know You”

Welcome! This is a typical kind of conversation among friends that you might hear in America or in another western country:

Tweet 1

Jon: So, Don, have you seen Apollo 11?

Here, Jon does not say ‘movie,’ he simply names the title.

Don: No. I don`t know about that man.

This means Don does not trust the situation or does not think it is true.

Jon: You don`t think we went to the moon?

Don: Well, how do you trust the government?

Apollo was the government program that sent men to the moon. Because the government lied before–like about the Vietnam War, people started to distrust the Apollo program.

Jon: It’s probably the most publicly documented* event in history.

Don: What’s that mean? 

Jon: It means all the information is public! You can find all of it!

*This means that because NASA is completely paid for by taxes, everything it does is available for the public to see. Everything about the American space program is available by mail–in books or on the internet.

Tweet 2

Don: Is Apollo 11 a good film?

Jon: ‘Don`t know; ‘haven`t seen it yet.

Like Speakers of Japanese, native speakers of English often omit the subject ‘I’ in casual speech.

Don: So, I guess I shouldn’t judge until I do.

Don means he shouldn’t form an opinion about the movie until he does see it.

Jon: Let’s go. I’m sure it’ll be great!

Don: How do you know so much about @NASA.

Jon: Some of the greatest things are hidden in a place called books!

Jon wants Don to read books–and he is being sarcastic (saying exaggerated or opposite things to make a point, to be mean or to be funny; here is trying to make a point and be funny).

Don: You’re funny!

Happy English Speaking!

Can I get some help?

We know polite expressions, but we should know this one in case we forget:

“Can I get…

help

the time

a table

the soup

the sandwich

some water

another one two more

the check

a taxi (at the hotel)

directions

a map

the time

a ticket

, please?”