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Friday, March 24, 2006
Subjunctive in English
In fact native speakers use the subjunctive in English less and less. But in the past they used it much more to talk about possible, desirable or imaginary situations. These days they are more likely to use modal verbs such as 'should' or 'would'.
However, we can still use the subjunctive in certain situations:

Firstly, it is sometimes used in 'that' clauses after certain words (e.g. suggest, recommend, advise, insist) to express the idea that something is necessary or important. For example:
I recommend that he begin a course of treatment immediately.
The judge insisted that she give evidence in court.

Now this use is more common in American English than it is British English. We can also use the subjunctive of the verb 'be' after 'if' or 'I wish' with 'I' and 'he/she/it'. For example:
I wish I were young again.
If I were you, I'd use it while you have the chance.

And finally, we still use subjunctive forms in certain fixed expressions, for example:
God save the Queen.
Be that as it may, we must make savings.
If he decides to leave me, well so be it.
Q & A
Q.I have a little question about though. I'm not sure of its many meanings. Sometimes it is in the middle of a sentence and sometimes at the end of a sentence and I get confused.

you can put though at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of sentences. We can use though, and although, or even though at the beginning of a subordinate clause to mark a contrast with the idea in the main clause. For example: 'Even though he didn't have much time, he stopped to help the old lady.' We can change the order of the two clauses and say: 'He stopped to help the old lady, even though he didn't have much time.' In these examples, though means 'despite the fact that'. We can also put though at the end of the contrasting clause. For example: 'I still find English hard to understand; I can understand more than last year, though!' When placed at the end of a sentence like this, though means 'nevertheless' or 'however'.

Q.What is the difference between hear and listen? This question has been confusing me for some time.

We use hear for sounds that come to our ears, without us necessarily trying to hear them! For example, 'They heard a strange noise in the middle of the night.' Listen is used to describe paying attention to sounds that are going on. For example, 'Last night, I listened to my new Mariah Carey CD.' So, you can hear something without wanting to, but you can only listen to something intentionally. An imaginary conversation between a couple might go: 'Did you hear what I just said?' 'No, sorry, darling, I wasn't listening.'

Q: Could you tell me the difference between "satisfying" and "satisfactory"?

"Satisfactory" means that something is adequate, or acceptable. Whereas "satisfying" means that something meets your needs or requirements and has positive associations. So what would be the difference between a "satisfactory" meal and a "satisfying" one? In the first case the meal was ok, in the second case it was one that you enjoyed. So generally we prefer to have "satisfying" experiences to "satisfactory" ones.

Q: I would like to know if there is any serious stylistic difference between 'I shall' and 'I will' in the future simple tense, and if 'I will' is, for example, unacceptable in a particular society, and if 'I will' can be considered as a mistake in an exam.

The first thing I want to say is I wouldn't worry about trying to use 'shall' rather than 'will'. I can think of no social situations where using 'will' instead of 'shall' would cause social offence. In fact, in modern English, 'shall' is rarely used in American English and only in specific situations in British English. 'Will' is the dominant form today. So when giving information about the future and making predictions, we can use either 'shall' or 'will' with the 'I' and 'we' forms. So we can say either, 'I shall be ready at 8 o'clock' or 'I will be ready at 8 o'clock'. In both cases the contracted form is 'I'll'. We would normally use 'will' with 'you', 'he', 'she', 'it' and 'they'. For example, 'Tomorrow it will be cold and foggy with light showers in the east.'

Q: Please, I want to improve my English. How can I do it?

It's hard to give specific advice without knowing more about you so I'm going to give you some general advice which will maybe be of interest to other listeners and readers.
Point 1
Be clear about why you want to learn English. Do you want it for your job, to help you get a job, to talk to English speakers, to help you study?
Point 2
Be clear about how good you want your English to be. How good do you want to be at speaking English, listening, reading, writing?
Point 3
Have a clear image of yourself when you have achieved the proficiency that you want. What will you see, what will you hear, how will you feel?
Point 4
If possible, enrol on a language course. If you can't, put yourself in situations where you can use English which leads on to ......
Point 5
Look for opportunities to learn and use English. Speak English whenever you can. Listen to the radio and CDs in English, read and write in English. If you look for opportunities, you will find them.
Point 6
Write down new words and phrases in a notebook. Keep the notebook with you so you can look at it when you have a spare moment.
Point 7
Practise, practise, practise. There's an expression in English. If you don't want to lose it, use it. This is very true when it comes to learning foreign languages.
Point 8
Find a learning buddy or colleague. Find someone you can learn English with. Speak with each other. Send each other messages in English.
Point 9
Learn little and often. Make it a habit to learn English ten minutes each day. This is much better than learning for longer once a week. And the final point: At the beginning of a learning period, ask yourself, "What do I want to learn today?" At the end of a period, ask yoursef, "What have I learnt today?" There's a story about a teacher who told his students, ?You know you're making progress in English when you speak in English, think in English, and dream in English. One day a student came into the class very excited and said, "Teacher, Teacher, last night I dreamt in English." The teacher said, "That's wonderful. What did you dream about?" And the student said, "I don't know, it was in English."

Q: What is the difference between inquire and enquire?

A: There is a very simple answer here - there is no difference in meaning. The spelling with 'e' is British, the spelling with 'i' is North American. The same goes for the nouns, 'inquiry' and 'enquiry'. There are of course other differences in spelling between American and British English. The most common ones are words that end with 'our' in British English and are spelled 'or' in American English - labour (labor), honour (honor), and so on. Another common difference is words that end in 're' in British English and are spelled with 'er' in American English- theatre, centre. And finally, words that end with - 'ize' in American English and are often spelled with - 'ise' in British English - sympathise, criticise, and so on. Luckily, my spell checker accepts both!

Q: What's the difference between "should have" and "must have" ?

'Should have' is used to talk about past events which did not happen or may not have happened.
For example: I should have finished this work by now OR I should have studied harder for my exams. In both the sentences above, the speaker might be expressing regret and/or criticism for not having done something. We also use should have to express unfulfilled obligations, for example: He should have helped his mother carry the shopping.
Now 'must have' is used to express something that the speaker has deduced or is certain about in relation to the past.
For example, if you wake up in the morning and you see the ground is wet outside, you might say: "It must have rained overnight".
So let's look at a sentence with both should have and must have in it... Jane should have arrived by now; she must have missed the bus". In this situation, we would expect Jane to have arrived by now, but as she hasn't, we come to the conclusion that her lateness is due her having missed the bus.



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اینم قسمت سرگرمی وبلاگ(بازی باموس) 14:25