Grammartical problems!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Help! … Help! … Help!
I am Dell, a Vietnamese girl. I’m self-teaching English now and find out it’s not an easy job. I am always being in trouble with grammar. So, please, help me to solve them. Thank you very much!

Here are my questions:

1. Can I use the following phrases with past simple? If the answer is not, please explain to me the reason why.

over the last hundred years or so
within the last 3 months

2. Is it right if I write “Goodbye I am going there before you” ?

3. Where is the right place for “just” and “only” in a sentence?

4. When I read a book , they wrote “The journey took 6 months”. Can I replace “took” by "lasted”?

5. Why did they use “good grief” in the following conversation? And why did they use the underline word here?

A: I wasn’t going very fast, you see, I had only just turned the corner … and there was a bit of a line of traffic, and then …

B: So it was a bit of miracle he wasn’t hurt, wasn’t it?

A: Apparently, it was his party-piece, because the police to me that he had done it very often, this, ‘cos it got him a bed for the night, you know, it got him in hospital. And they were getting a bit fed up. He has already had them there that morning apparently, saying someone had put a bomb under his bed. But then he picked on me, and it got him a bed for the night in hospital.

B: Good grief!

6. Why did they use “where” after “chore” in the next context? Can I replace it by “ which”?

“I think it makes me realize how much of the time that I spend with my family is spent doing, you know, chores where I don’t have quality time with another person … I am doing the washing, and I am doing the cooking, I am tidying up.”

7. Why didn’t they use “use” instead of “using” in the following conversation?

“If you feel tired, breathless or unable to hold a conversation, you are going too fast … Take your pulse after 10 minutes, using a watch with a second hand. If your heart is beating beyond the high end of your aerobic rate, you are exercising too hard.”

That’s all for now.
Thank you for your help!
Sincerely,
Dell

[Tdol]

Hi, Dell, firstly you should say 'I'm teaching myself English'. Secondly, welcome.

Help! … Help! … Help!
I am Dell, a Vietnamese girl. I’m self-teaching English now and find out it’s not an easy job. I am always being in trouble with grammar. So, please, help me to solve them. Thank you very much!

Here are my questions:

1. Can I use the following phrases with past simple? If the answer is not, please explain to me the reason why.

over the last hundred years or so
within the last 3 months

Use the present perfect with these time phrases not the past because they continue up to now.
2. Is it right if I write “Goodbye I am going there before you” ?
This doesn't make much sense. Doyou mean 'Goodbye, I am leaving before you'?
3. Where is the right place for “just” and “only” in a sentence?
They can move around the sentence, modifying different things:
Just\only John is ten. = he is the only child of this age
John is just\only ten. = he is very young
4. When I read a book , they wrote “The journey took 6 months”. Can I replace “took” by "lasted”?
Yes, you can. However, if your talking about yourself, use 'take- the journey took me an hour.
5. Why did they use “good grief” in the following conversation? And why did they use the underline word here?

A: I wasn’t going very fast, you see, I had only just turned the corner … and there was a bit of a line of traffic, and then …

B: So it was a bit of miracle he wasn’t hurt, wasn’t it?

A: Apparently, it was his party-piece, because the police to me that he had done it very often, this, ‘cos it got him a bed for the night, you know, it got him in hospital. And they were getting a bit fed up. He has already had them there that morning apparently, saying someone had put a bomb under his bed. But then he picked on me, and it got him a bed for the night in hospital.

B: Good grief!
It is a polite way of expressing surprise or shock.
6. Why did they use “where” after “chore” in the next context? Can I replace it by “ which”?

“I think it makes me realize how much of the time that I spend with my family is spent doing, you know, chores where I don’t have quality time with another person … I am doing the washing, and I am doing the cooking, I am tidying up.”

No you can't use 'which' here. The chores are associated with a place.
7. Why didn’t they use “use” instead of “using” in the following conversation?

“If you feel tired, breathless or unable to hold a conversation, you are going too fast … Take your pulse after 10 minutes, using a watch with a second hand. If your heart is beating beyond the high end of your aerobic rate, you are exercising too hard.”
You could say 'use', but here it isn't meant as a second instruction, but a part of the first.

That’s all for now.
Thank you for your help!
Sincerely,
Dell

Does that help?