Diary - I saw a guy from a video saying he'd dedicated eight hours

[Maybo]

This is an entry from my diary. Please check it and correct any mistakes.

I saw a guy from a video saying he'd dedicated eight hours a day for a month to practise French speaking skills. Although I'm not sure if he really did that, if he did, he was the most disciplined person I've ever seen. Some other youtubers talked about how to learn English, and they suggested learners think in English. I wonder how to do that. If second language learners are able to think in English, then we already are native speakers. They advised learners to compose sentences in English directly rather than translating from their native languages. I think it requires a lot of exposures to English.

 

[emsr2d2]

I saw a video by a guy from a video saying in which he said/who was saying he'd dedicated eight hours a day for a month to practising his spoken French. speaking skills.

Although I'm not sure if he really did that but, if he did, he was is the most disciplined person I've ever seen heard of.

Some other YouTubers talked talk about how to learn English, and they suggested learners think in English.

Unless those YouTubers were talking in the same video you mentioned earlier, use the present tense.

I wonder how to I can do that.

Or "I don't know how to do that".

If second language learners are able to think in English, then we already are native speakers.

That's not true. You can't be a native speaker and a second-language learner of the same language. You could say that if you've reached a standard at which you can think in that second language, you might be "native level" or "near-native".

They advised learners to compose sentences in English directly rather than translating from their native languages.

That's always good advice.

I think it requires a lot of exposures exposure to English.

It does. It usually requires living in an English-speaking country for a long time.

 

[Tarheel]

I would say:

I'm not sure if he really did that, but if he did ....

 

[kadioguy]

I don't think that the if should be omitted in post #2.
The pattern "not sure if/whether" looks fine to me.

 

[Tarheel]

@Maybo Eight hours a day? You don't really believe that do you? Maybe one hour a day. There's no way he spends eight hours a day practicing his spoken French. Think about it. Do you talk for eight hours?

 

[jutfrank]

I don't think that the if should be omitted in post #2.
The pattern "not sure if/whether" looks fine to me.

The if seems to be wrong, which is why emsr2d2 crossed it out.

You can understand an optional linking 'that' to go in its place:

a) I'm not sure that he really did that.

The meaning is equivalent to 'I doubt that he really did that'. The implication is that he's being untruthful.

You can use 'whether' if the uncertainty is binary (with only two logical possibilities), but in doing so, it helps to follow with 'or not' to make the binary meaning clear:

b) I'm not sure whether he really did that or not.

This has a slightly different meaning from sentence a. It isn't about doubting in the same way. It's more about uncertainty as to what really happened.

 

[kadioguy]

The if seems to be wrong, which is why emsr2d2 crossed it out.

a) I'm not sure that he really did that.

The meaning is equivalent to 'I doubt that he really did that'. The implication is that he's being untruthful.

You can use 'whether' if the uncertainty is binary (with only two logical possibilities), but in doing so, it helps to follow with 'or not' to make the binary meaning clear:

b) I'm not sure whether he really did that or not.

This has a slightly different meaning from sentence a. It isn't about doubting in the same way. It's more about uncertainty as to what really happened.

How about (c)?

c) I'm not sure if he really did that.

I referred to the following content:

not sure if/whether
I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing this correctly.
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/sure

 

[jutfrank]

How about (c)?

c) I'm not sure if he really did that.

I referred to the following content:

not sure if/whether
I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing this correctly.
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/sure

As an isolated sentence, yes, using if is very natural there, and you're very likely to hear similar in casual spoken registers, but in my judgement it's generally inferior to whether and so I'd teach you to use whether instead.

In the context we're discussing, I think it's wrong because Maybo doesn't mean that (though to be honest I'm not entirely sure about this). I think she means 'I'm not sure that he really did that', which is what I said in post #6 (sentence a.) and what emsr2d2 implied with her correction in post #2. If Maybo's intended meaning was what I expressed with sentence b., then it's fine.

 

[Tarheel]

"I'm not sure if he really did that" is natural in American English.

 

[emsr2d2]

"I'm not sure if he really did that" is natural in American English.

It's natural in BrE too. I just don't think it fits this situation. Here's an example of how I'd use each one:

Bob: Did John tidy his room today?
Helen: I'm not sure if he did [that]. (Bear in mind that "I'm not sure" would suffice here.)

Bob: John told me he tidied his room today.
Helen: I'm not sure he did. (This might be followed by something like "His room's still very untidy".)

In the first, Helen's saying she doesn't know if he did or he didn't.
In the second, she's expressing mild disbelief.