[Lenka]

I am sorry to bother again, but I have been thinking of the mistakes I did and have a few questions that are all connected with the essay. By the way, the essay isn’t for school – I won’t get a mark from it and no teacher is going to correct it – that is why I asked you to do that. Moreover, I believe you much more than Czech English teachers. I mean English teachers who are Czechs.

Well, here are the questions (or sometimes sentences and statements (that I derived from the corrected essay) that I would like you to confirm and say whether they are or aren’t right)

1) We never say “fill by“ but “fill with“ (just tell me whether it is true)

2)I wrote: …to tell the true…
- you corrected it to ….to tell the truth… - why? There is an English word “true“, isn’t it?

3)I wrote: “we can whenever change our lives“ and you corrected it to “we can always change our lives“.
Is it correct to write “we can change our lives whenever (we want)“ – just to change the word order? Why?

4)They live almost without rest.
- Can I write “without any rest“ ?

5) The most wide-spread nowadays are probably sports. Why can’t I use expression sport hobbies? Is it totally incorrect or does it just sound weird?

6) I suppose no one can imagine a man sewing.
Why is it incorrect to write …anyone can’t…?

7) A few days ago I read this sentence: “They consider you an adult when you are 18“ (I hope I wrote it without any mistakes; by the way, may I say “without any mistakes“? This question is contained in question number 4)
However, in the essay I wrote: “they might consider it as a hobby.“ And you didn’t say it isn’t written right. Does it mean that both the collocations are right? Is it correct to say “they consider me as an adult“?

8) A typical men’s hobby is fishing. Why can’t I say “typically“ instead of “a typical“ ?
Typically can’t be used as an adverb in the sentence?

9) People in the UK spend 15 minutes a day doing sport on average.
a) Is it correct and with the same meaning to write “doing sports“? (plural)
b) Word “sport“ can’t be used also as a verb? Is that why I can’t say ….15 min. a day sporting…. ?
Most people sport. – this sentence is incorrect because word sport isn’t considered a verb?
c) Word average is always connected with preposition ON ?

10)a) small children are devoted to collecting anything
b) they can devote themselves to other hobbies
If I understood it well, we can say “to be devoted to + gerund“ or “devote + reflexive pronoun + to + gerund“ and the meaning is always same, isn’t it?
Ad b) Is the meaning same if I write “they can be devoted to other hobbies/doing other hobbies“ ?

11) I wrote: I don’t know how much minutes Czech people spend.
- is it really correct to write much instead of many? Minutes are countable, aren’t they?

12) Noun view is always connected with preposition of ?