corrections help

Hello
Please can you help me? I am English, but living in Belgium and help some friends with English problems. A first year english student was showing corrected homework from school, and I found things totally wrongly corrected, to my way of thinking. Five sentences. I would value your opinion of these.
1. There's nothing wrong ABOUT being shy.
2. Stop FROM doing things you want to do.
3. Sorry, I can't sew these buttons UP.
4. We get AT school by 8.20.
5. I need A GRAMMAR to do my exercises.
I have put what I consider the mistakes in capital letters.. For instance according to me A GRAMMAR should be a grammar book, or some grammar.. I hope you can help me here.
Best wishes Valerie.
my e-mail is [deleted email address]

[Red5]

Originally Posted by Valerie Speller

1. There's nothing wrong ABOUT being shy.
2. Stop FROM doing things you want to do.
3. Sorry, I can't sew these buttons UP.
4. We get AT school by 8.20.
5. I need A GRAMMAR to do my exercises.

Hi Valerie,

I can't see anything obviously wrong about #1 above, but 2 - 5 are certainly odd. Below, I've listed my suggestions...

2. Stop [deleted FROM] doing things you want to do.
3. Sorry, I can't sew these buttons ON.
4. We get TO school by 8.20.
5. I need A GRAMMAR BOOK to do my exercises. (I don't really understand what the original sentence was trying to get at here, so I've taken a wild guess!)

I hope that helps!

PS - I've deleted your email address from your post. Please register with this forum to allow others to email you. :wink:

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Valerie Speller

Hello
Please can you help me? I am English, but living in Belgium and help some friends with English problems. A first year english student was showing corrected homework from school, and I found things totally wrongly corrected, to my way of thinking. Five sentences. I would value your opinion of these.
1. There's nothing wrong ABOUT being shy.
2. Stop FROM doing things you want to do.
3. Sorry, I can't sew these buttons UP.
4. We get AT school by 8.20.
5. I need A GRAMMAR to do my exercises.
I have put what I consider the mistakes in capital letters.. For instance according to me A GRAMMAR should be a grammar book, or some grammar.. I hope you can help me here.
Best wishes Valerie.
my e-mail is [deleted email address]

I agree wih Red

1. with
2. delete from
3. on
4. to
5. "Grammar" can be defined as a grammar book, so this is not completely wrong. However, it s not normal usage in English at the current time. "Grammar book" would be more idiomatic.

Originally Posted by Valerie Speller

Hello
Please can you help me? I am English, but living in Belgium and help some friends with English problems. A first year english student was showing corrected homework from school, and I found things totally wrongly corrected, to my way of thinking. Five sentences. I would value your opinion of these.
1. There's nothing wrong ABOUT being shy.
2. Stop FROM doing things you want to do.
3. Sorry, I can't sew these buttons UP.
4. We get AT school by 8.20.
5. I need A GRAMMAR to do my exercises.
I have put what I consider the mistakes in capital letters.. For instance according to me A GRAMMAR should be a grammar book, or some grammar.. I hope you can help me here.
Best wishes Valerie.
my e-mail is [deleted email address]

Here's my take on all of this.

1. There is nothing wrong with being shy.

2. You should not stop yourself from doing what you want to do. (provided it "good" for you and others)

3. I'm sorry, but I can't sew these buttons on.

4. We get to school at 8:20 every day. (of course every day that is a school day - tacitly understood of course)

or: We get to school by 8:20 each day. ( or every day)

5. I need a grammar book to do my exercises.

Using the word "grammar" as in a "grammar reference" is fine. I think "grammar book" or even "grammar reference book" works better.

The term "grammar" as in a "reference book of grammar" sounds to me more like something teachers, grammarians or linguists would say when speaking amongst themselves. This is how I see the word "grammar" when used in this context. I think it is better for a student to say "grammar book" or "grammar reference" or "grammar reference guide". This is more my opinion than anything else, of course.

One definition of "grammar". A secondary definition.

4. A book containing the morphologic, syntactic, and semantic rules for a specific language.


Complete definition.

gram·mar (grăm'ər)
n.

The study of how words and their component parts combine to form sentences.
The study of structural relationships in language or in a language, sometimes including pronunciation, meaning, and linguistic history.

The system of inflections, syntax, and word formation of a language.
The system of rules implicit in a language, viewed as a mechanism for generating all sentences possible in that language.

A normative or prescriptive set of rules setting forth the current standard of usage for pedagogical or reference purposes.
Writing or speech judged with regard to such a set of rules.
A book containing the morphologic, syntactic, and semantic rules for a specific language.

The basic principles of an area of knowledge: the grammar of music.
A book dealing with such principles.

3. Sorry, I can't sew these buttons UP.

Here's how we can use "up", of course.

I'm sorry, but I can't sew this sweater up. The rip is too big. :(

I also think it is important for learners to write sentences that are as complete as possible.

Therefore, I added "I'm" and "but".

We often leave words out in our casual everyday conversation. At beginner and intermediate levels students should always be encouraged to write complete sentences. The more advanced a student is, the more it is ok to present to the student how we "really use the English language" in our casual conversation. Writing complete sentences, I believe, is especially important for those learning English in a non-English speaking country. Those that are learning English in an English speaking country hear it all and therefore have some type of advantage. They can learn what is really correct from a teacher and also observe and listen to how native English speakers really use their language.

It's a tough thing to tackle, but this is how I see it.