This page is devoted to questions on English posed by Russian speakers. The questions are in purple print with mistakes in blue. The answers are in black and corrected mistakes are in red as on the corrections pages.

I am grateful to Tom Makholski and Barry Lord for some of the explanations here.

Index

Names of places with and without article

a friend of mine / my friend

Can't buy me love [me as dative and possessive]

Couldn't stop doing

Dunce + other derogatory words in English

Logical future

remove v. move

slang for steal

question and demand

hate and dislike

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are explanations that have been requested by Russian learners of English.

THE ATLANTIC but LONDON [without article] 

> You use "the" before the name of sea but do not use it before the name of port.

It's a good question. I realise that the and a are a dreadful problem for speakers of all Slavonic languages. And there are some very grey areas.

There is a reason but I had to think about it, and really it boils down to accepted use. No one ever sat down and said, 'This is when we'll use the'. We use 'the ' with the name of every sea, I think. But we don't use it for towns.

In your story you wrote Odessa port not the port of Odessa. Actually we would be more likely to say the latter and then we would put in 'the' because port is an ordinary noun, not a name - the port of Odessa. If on the other hand we take on a foreign name complete with port, then we don't change it. The only example I can think of is Portoprince. I'm not even sure whether it is one word or two, but it is never said with 'the'.

So the general rule is names of seas includes 'the' but names of towns do not. With countries the problem can't be solved so easily; some have 'the' [the Lebanon for example] and others [most in fact] do not.

On the whole you just have to keep on using the language and asking sensible questions as you just did, and eventually your instinct for good guesses on this matter will improve. If it's any consolation, I have been doing that with Russian stress for over 30 years and I'm still not 100% in my guessing.

Daf

A FRIEND OF MINE

"a my friend" is not possible. You can't use a + my.

'my friend' = мой друг

a friend of mine = один мой друг. I think that is what led you to the first example you gave.

We can also say 'Sergei's friend' or 'a friend of Sergei's'.

NB both of these require the possessive apostrophe +S.

I remember when I first met один мой друг I thought, 'How illogical.

Mind you, if one lives in a glass house one should not throw stones.

I also remember when I was learning Russian and my teacher [who since has become a good friend] was explaining something. I said, 'But that's not logical!' He looked at me sadly and said, 'Do you think English is logical?' 'Of course,' I replied with great assurance. Later, when I embarked on a career of teaching English and therefore had to study it properly, I blushed with shame every time I remembered that. English is certainly in the running for the title 'most illogical language'. You know we have a proverb 'It's the exception that proves the rule'. In my classroom every time I explained a rule and then paused, my students would say, 'But. . . ' and they were always right.

Daf

My question is: The Beatles famous song states 'Can't buy me love'. Why not my love?

There are two possible explanations:

  • They are from Liverpool, which has a very distinct local dialect. In this dialect, as in quite a few other varieties of English, 'my' is often replaced by 'me'.
  • This could be one of the fairly rare structures where English actually uses a case [dative] although it is not distinguishable from the accusative except by position and context.

Examples

He bought me a book= He bought a book for me. In both cases the book is the direct object. The 'me' is referred to as the indirect object. If this comes last, it requires a preposition but not when it comes before the direct object. The choice of before or after usually depends on the presence or absence of clauses and whether the direct object too is a pronoun.

Thus:
  1. He bought me a book.
  2. He bought me that book that my aunt was talking about.
  3. He bought it for me.
  4. He bought me it. [He bought a book for me is possible but sounds unnecessarily awkward] .
  5. He gave him a book.
  6. He gave him the book that the teacher recommended.
  7. He gave it to him.
  8. He gave the student the book that the teacher recommended.
  9. He gave the book to the student who wanted to read it.
  10. He gave the book that the teacher recommended to the student who wanted to read it.

As a rule of thumb it is usual to put the indirect object first [with no preposition] [1, 5].

If the direct object is a pronoun, it is more usual to put it first [so the indirect object needs a preposition] [3, 7.]

If the direct object is qualified by a clause, it comes last [2, 6, 8 ].

If the indirect object is qualified by a clause,* then that comes at the end [9].

If both are qualified by a clause, it is more usual to put the direct object first and then he indirect object with the appropriate preposition.

*There are less alternatives in the first set because 'me' never really needs qualifying. More a matter of philosophy than grammar <g>

See Mini lesson on give / take etc.

COULDN'T STOP

I couldn't stop laughing. Is "stop" acceptable here too?

Yes but it needs additional words.

I couldn't help laughing = I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

I couldn't stop laughing means I started laughing and then couldn't stop, whereas I couldn't help laughing means I couldn't resist starting to laugh in the first place.

I couldn't help laughing is more usual and neater English than I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

Даф

ON DEROGATORY WORDS IN ENGLISH

"Dunce" is quite an old-fashioned word now... but the more modern words sound a bit harsh. Please can you tell us some such modern words?

Most of the words I can think of are local, not "politically correct" or obscene. I can't speak for American English, but in British English, a common adjective is "thick". There are some slang words derived from this, like thicko". ("He's a thicko"). The "o" ending is common in derogatory slang. E.g. "wino" (alcoholic).

Another British slang term is "head banger". For example, a teacher friend, in describing his day, said that "After the break, I have a double lesson with third year head-bangers". I don't know if these words have any meaning in the US. You should be careful with these words. If you call someone "thick" or a "head banger", you should first make sure that they are much smaller than you are :-)).

Barry

Phrases like "If you call me, we will meet tomorrow" are translated as "Если вы позвоните, мы встретимся завтра" (both parts in future). [I am really puzzled now]

Exactly! That is the problem. Russian uses future + future [which is entirely logical] but English uses the present + future [which is not].

I cannot understand why the usage of future tense is prohibited after "if" .

It is not really that it is prohibited. There is no law about it. It is just that we do use the present tense for such a situation [1st conditional where there is a distinct possibility or even likelihood]. If you use future + future, you will be fully understood but it will be clear that you are not English.

So please explain the following examples to me: Even if some of these examples have no sense please translate them into correct grammar.

If you call me, we will meet tomorrow = Если вы позвоните, мы встретимся завтра.

That's fine. And it is the correct version for all the suggestions addressed below.

If you will call me, we will meet tomorrow (is this prohibited?)

No not prohibited. Language doesn't have prohibitions. It just has things that one says and things that one does not say. In this sense it is a mistake but mistakes, in my opinion fall into three categories.

1) Sounds foreign but quite comprehensible.

2) Mistakes that English people make, ie. dialect or other usage that is not the accepted norm. These are not a problem unless you are applying for a job that requires 'correct' ie. standard English. For example: 'I ain't got nuffin [I haven't got anything].' would be fine if you wanted to serve on a street barrow [stall] in the East end of London but not if you wanted to work in a bank.

3) Mistakes that render what you want to say incomprehensible to an English speaker.

To my mind 1 is minor, 2 is inadvisable as you then get confused by not knowing which variation to use. To go back to Barry's lovely metaphor about language as a sea, we all need a star to steer by when learning a foreign language. 3 always needs correcting, otherwise the learner simply will not be able to make himself clear.

If you will be calling me, we will meet tomorrow = Если вы собираетесь позвонить, мы встретимся завтра.

The future + future falls into category 1.

If you are calling me, we will meet tomorrow. Category three [or bordering on it]. It makes no real sense. I tried translating it literally but it doesn't work in Russian either as Russian doesn't distinguish between two separate present tenses. If you are calling me now, I presumably know that you are doing so so the 'if' is meaningless.

 Daf

Remove - move.

When I started learn English I always used the word "remove", but practically always I was corrected to use "move".

Move sth. = put it in a different place.

remove sth. = take it away

Remove is seldom used for simply moving sth. from one place to another without the idea of 'away'. It used to be used in posh English for moving house [lorries for this purpose still carry the word REMOVALS, but nowadays we say 'I'm moving'.

Daf

slang for "steal"

How are these used please -filch, nick, pilfer, rip-off, take a five finger discount. What other expressions like this are there?

To filch or to nick sth. = slang for steal.

Pilfering [the noun] is the commoner than the verb in UK. eg. The garage had a problem with pilfering = the staff were taking bits and pieces of equipment etc.

It's a rip off =someone is charging undeservedly high prices. Verb = to rip s.o. off.

To take a five finger discount. I've never heard this one, but again I take my hat off to the Americans for colourful language.

To make off with = usually to grab sth. and run

To walk off with = usually to take sth. accidentally, such as borrowing a pen and then putting it in your pocket.

To snaffle [steal] sth. is one we used a lot in my family. It was a favorite of my mother's.

Daf

 

Please help with how to use "to ask" and "to question".

1.to ask a question

2. to ask s.o. about sth.

3. to ask whether / if etc + reported speech. He asked me if I wanted to play.

4. to ask s.o. to do sth. He asked me to shut the door.

to request s.o. to do sth. = to ask s.o. to do sth. but much more formal.

to question the truth of a statement = to doubt whether it id true/ to throw doubt upon a statement.

To question s.o. [about sth.] - interrogation

This can't be used as the equivalent of any of the four versions of 'ask' above, since it is transitive and the object has to be a person. The nearest is 2 but that is quite informal and could even be a single question, whereas to question s.o. is probably the police and could take hours.

In my opinion "request" is more official than "question".

Moreover, you can use "request" as Russian "просба", or "требование" more successfully than use of "question".

They are different in meaning [see above].

"request" as Russian " просба ", -- right.

запрос = question not request. / требование = demand

ask =спрашивать / request = просить

If you will use "question" here you will be understand too, but "request" is more expressive?

No, they're not synonymous at all.

My English teachers of English <gg> told me

"dislike" = "hate" without any nuances, as "hate" is shorter it is more popular. But "dislike" and "do not like" are not quite the same.

That's about right but the nuances can vary. For instance

I hate George. == really much stronger than 'don't like him' or 'dislike him'. Concerning attitudes to people, "hate" is much stronger than either "dislike" or "do not like".

But we often use "hate" when saying we dislike sth. Here the degree of disliking is really shown by the tone of voice and emphasis.

I hate cabbage / I hate French [language] / I hate rain - all these could be varying levels of dislike. On the whole I don't think you need to go any deeper. You both have a pretty good idea of the usage.

 

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