The "English is my 2nd language" Thread

[Plendakor]

Yooo. I'm pretty sure a good bunch of you guys aren't native english speakers. So am I (not?) even tho I live in a bilingual country (but from the blue side of Quebec ) So How about a thread to help each others from time to time.

Sometimes it's the ambiguity of a word
Sometimes it's a little tip with syntax that you need.
Tenses... ? What about those damn tenses, ask here.

Whatever you need/know, share, community.

For instance, I can never remember how to spell Tho and Tuff. help me

 

[Mago]

For instance, I can never remember how to spell Tho and Tuff. help me

www.google.com

^^

though and tough is what you mean I guess

 

[Ola Englund]

I have constant problems with mic'ing, micing, micking etc... A

 

[TravisW]

I have constant problems with mic'ing, micing, micking etc... A

The entire English-speaking world has constant problems with that, probably because it's a derivative of "Mike" which has nothing to do with "Mic" or "Microphone".

English is a silly language. The beauty of it is that no matter how badly you Yoda your way through word order in a sentence, it's probably correct somewhere.

 

[Skinny Viking]

and no fucking noun gender bullshit

 

[DanLights]

I love English, easy yet varied ways to express yourself, most song lyrics in Spanish sound cheesy when the same words in English sound cool and mean, specially Death metal

Not only the noun gender stuff, I absolutely dislike the "polite" second person treatment that pretty much all western languages except English use, fuck that shit.

 

[ratsapprentice]

and no fucking noun gender bullshit

FUCK.THAT.SHIT.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

I actually think in English for some stuff (audio, medical stuff, computer-related stuff, etc...), like I don't even try to think in Spanish, which is my mother tongue. It's just simpler, more direct. It happens to me a lot that I'd use an English word rather than a Spanish word that doesn't even exist because it's more specific to what I want to say.

 

[Plendakor]

Yeah that happens to me all the time. I'm getting assimilated. Call Pauline Marois.

 

[Mutant]

My written english sucks.
My spoken english sucks even more.

One day i will stop being lazy about it and learn the language properly.
My current english skills come 99% from reading forums and wiki pages on the internet.

 

[Ola Englund]

The entire English-speaking world has constant problems with that, probably because it's a derivative of "Mike" which has nothing to do with "Mic" or "Microphone".

English is a silly language. The beauty of it is that no matter how badly you Yoda your way through word order in a sentence, it's probably correct somewhere.

So for once and for all. How do one correctly write miking micing ?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Mic/Mic'ed/Mic'ing

It's an abbreviation of microphone, so any use of a K is incorrect.

 

[luismars]

Actually English is my third language, as Mutant said, I learnt more reading books, forums and watching films than going to school

The worst part is when you don't know how to say something in your own language, and the exact translation sounds wrong.


EDIT: Google and wikipedia use miking.

 

[ratsapprentice]

The only reason it's used is because it feels awkward to write it with a C.
If anyone can explain it further than that, then by all means.......

 

[Ola Englund]

ok so how would I correctly name a video Mic'ing a cab for metal?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Just found this, although I do maintain that, as an abbreviation it should be spelled with a C.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_proper_abbreviation_for_microphone_mic_or_mike

 

[colonel_claypoo]

english>german for me. I love the english language. I sometimes struggle with the correct use of tenses, tough.
for example, when do you use present perfect and when simple past?
it seems to me that nowadays people, even native speakers, mostly use the simple past form although the're talking about something that has JUST happened (which would be an indication to use pthe present perfect right?).
I've seen that mostly with americans.
what's your take on that, native speakers?

 

[DanLights]

english>german for me. I love the english language. I sometimes struggle with the correct use of tenses, tough.
for example, when do you use present perfect and when simple past?
it seems to me that nowadays people, even native speakers, mostly use the simple past form although the're talking about something that has JUST happened (which would be an indication to use pthe present perfect right?).
I've seen that mostly with americans.
what's your take on that?

You're not exactly right on the present perfect thing, but you're not wrong either. Although Brits tend to use it for things that just happened, it's really more to express a past action with a clear effect in the present. That's the theory, But I don't think it's used that often nowadays. The common use is for a past event in an indefinite or present time ("I've been to Japan twice" means twice in any moment of your life, indefinite and continues to the present, assuming you're not dead. "I've been to Japan twice this year" is an unfinished time, assuming it's not the 31st of December at 11:50 pm. It also means you're fucking cool for going to Japan twice a year).

It drives me nut how people from Madrid use the present perfect (spanish equivalent) for EVERYTHING in the past, which is plain wrong, and Galician people never use it even when it's supposed to be used, which is also wrong (they would say the Spanish equivalent of "I didn't go there yet" instead of "I haven't been there yet", and that's wrong in both languages). At least Galicians use the excuse that in Galician language there are no perfect tenses and they took that habit from Galician to Spanish.

About the mic thing, I guess some authority has to come to a consensus, cause although I agree using a "k" doesn't sound right, the whole mic'ing thing isn't "right" either, cause that's not what apostrophes are for. I guess only recently has the word microphone been used as a verb, and microphoning, as plausible as it is grammatically, is too long for us lazy fucks

There was an old thread a couple years ago by Ryan Harvey with a poll on the mic thing

 

[colonel kurtz]

pretty fucking sad that every non-native english speaker who has posted in here has a better grasp on the language than probably 90% of all americans...

 

[Skinny Viking]

90% might be pushing it