Active and Passive Vocabulary

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Harry Smith

When you teach English as a second language the students often complain about reading rules, grammar tenses, spelling and of course vocabulary. Let's take for example the verb "To look". As a beginner they have to know the following phrases: "look for" look after" look up" look forward to" look at" look like" etc. It's really hard to remember, isn't it?

It's very difficult. That's why there are teachers.

[Harry Smith]

Originally Posted by MikeNewYork

It's very difficult. That's why there are teachers.

I always tell my students if you want to make friends with English you shouldn't pay attention to all these difficulties because some time later they don't seem difficult at all. Learning English and learning to drive are alike. They both seem difficult at the beginning and are very easy two or three years later.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Harry Smith

I always tell my students if you want to make friends with English you shouldn't pay attention to all these difficulties because some time later they don't seem difficult at all. Learning English and learning to drive are alike. They both seem difficult at the beginning and are very easy two or three years later.

Having taken Spanish, Latin, German, and driving, I found driving to be the easiest by far.

[Tdol]

But a mistake when driving can be more serious than a grammar mistake.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Tdol

But a mistake when driving can be more serious than a grammar mistake.

You mean a gerund bender?

[Tdol]

:-d

[Harry Smith]

Originally Posted by MikeNewYork

Having taken Spanish, Latin, German, and driving, I found driving to be the easiest by far.

I had to start driving Russian cars, after them I also find driving to be the easiest exercise I have ever done. And I agrre with Tdol that a driving mistake can be the last. We all make grammar mistakes and very often find out something new in English. I think all the differences between American and British English are the result of grammar mistakes mainly.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Harry Smith

I had to start driving Russian cars, after them I also find driving to be the easiest exercise I have ever done. And I agrre with Tdol that a driving mistake can be the last. We all make grammar mistakes and very often find out something new in English. I think all the differences between American and British English are the result of grammar mistakes mainly.

Your last point is an interesting statement. Mistakes by whom? It can be said that in 1600 there was no American English. By 1700, because of the separation from the homeland, American settlers started on a path that was slightly different from England. But one has to remember, that the English language wasn't very mature in the 15th or 16th centuries. The first real dictionary wasn't published until the mid 1700s. Grammars were uncommon until the late 18th century. It is not terribly surprising that these two varieties developed somewhat differently. If you look at it as a biological organism, this is similar to what happens when a single species is divided by a geological phenomenon. After many generations, the two populations will have developed differences.

[Tdol]

So Brits and Shermans are different species now? That explains a lot.

[Harry Smith]

As for me Ilike both languages: American & British English, though they differ not only in pronunciation but also in grammar and vocabulary too.