shimacatu_sa
VIP Member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2017
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Japanese
- Home Country
- Japan
- Current Location
- Japan
Could someone please check my essay below? I would appreciate any advice and suggestions you could give me. Thank you.
Prepositions are difficult. As I try to improve my English further, I've found them the hardest to learn along with particles. Even though I have the basic knowledge of English prepositions, they have puzzled me all the time. I feel as if I barely knew their usage.
I have tendencies to want to be perfect and to overthink, which I believe some of the worst attitudes towards learning a new language. Because of these habits, I often get stuck for prepositions when trying to find the right one. The more I think about it, the more possibilities come to mind, then I become completely helpless.
The tricky part of English prepositions is phrasal verbs. If you misuse the prepositions in those verbs, the meanings become quite different from what you intended, and you can easily dig yourself into a hole. I have learned it the hard way. However, I still prefer to use phrasal verbs to regular verbs in conversations, mostly because I feel more relaxed using them. They are also much easier to spell and pronounce in general than the synonyms of regular verbs, e.g. cheer up vs exhilarate.
There seem to be no easy or quick ways to master prepositions. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. Now that I am old enough to laugh at my own mistakes and know that those mistakes help me improve English, I am going to keep trying until I get a grip on prepositions.
Question about bolded word.
To: Is this second "to" omittable in this structure? If I leave out the "to", will the meaning become "I have tendencies and I overthink" instead of "I have two tendencies"?
For your information:
I am not a student, so this essay is neither for homework nor exam. The reason I write essays is to improve my English so that I sound more natural in both writing and speaking. I am trying to find my own style that I feel comfortable with, just like the one I have in my native language. I would like to improve my usage of words and sentence structures. While natural, clear, and pleasant English is my goal, I would rather sound casual than too rigid or formal. Thank you.
Prepositions are difficult. As I try to improve my English further, I've found them the hardest to learn along with particles. Even though I have the basic knowledge of English prepositions, they have puzzled me all the time. I feel as if I barely knew their usage.
I have tendencies to want to be perfect and to overthink, which I believe some of the worst attitudes towards learning a new language. Because of these habits, I often get stuck for prepositions when trying to find the right one. The more I think about it, the more possibilities come to mind, then I become completely helpless.
The tricky part of English prepositions is phrasal verbs. If you misuse the prepositions in those verbs, the meanings become quite different from what you intended, and you can easily dig yourself into a hole. I have learned it the hard way. However, I still prefer to use phrasal verbs to regular verbs in conversations, mostly because I feel more relaxed using them. They are also much easier to spell and pronounce in general than the synonyms of regular verbs, e.g. cheer up vs exhilarate.
There seem to be no easy or quick ways to master prepositions. As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. Now that I am old enough to laugh at my own mistakes and know that those mistakes help me improve English, I am going to keep trying until I get a grip on prepositions.
Question about bolded word.
To: Is this second "to" omittable in this structure? If I leave out the "to", will the meaning become "I have tendencies and I overthink" instead of "I have two tendencies"?
For your information:
I am not a student, so this essay is neither for homework nor exam. The reason I write essays is to improve my English so that I sound more natural in both writing and speaking. I am trying to find my own style that I feel comfortable with, just like the one I have in my native language. I would like to improve my usage of words and sentence structures. While natural, clear, and pleasant English is my goal, I would rather sound casual than too rigid or formal. Thank you.
