[Grammar] He is an English teacher.(English here defines origin of the teacher not the subject)

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Dear all,
This is not my homework.

I have come to know that if I write - "He is an English teacher.", it tells me about the nationality of the teacher rather than the subject taught by him. I also come to know that if I want to tell that the person whom I am talking about teaches English, then I should write:- "He is the teacher of English".

Therefore following should be true:-
"He is a Russian teacher" means the teacher is Russian in origin.
"He is a Japanese teacher" means the teacher is Japanese in origin.

So the question is, will the same logic work in the sentence given below also?
"He is an Urdu teacher."
Does the above sentence mean that the teacher is the Muslim or it means the teacher teaches Urdu?

Is the question mark in above sentence correctly used?

 

[GoesStation]

Your understanding is not correct. "He is a Russian teacher" is potentially ambiguous; it can mean either "He is a teacher who is Russian" or "He is a teacher of the Russian language." However, in actual use it will almost always mean the latter -- he teaches Russian.

I know of Urdu only as the name of a language, but if it can also refer to an ethnicity, the same potential ambiguity applies.

Don't write "He is the teacher of English." It isn't natural. You can use the indefinite article though: "He is a teacher of English."

The question mark in the final question is correct, but you should write a Muslim.

Don't include sentence-ending punctuation in a quoted sentence unless it also ends the sentence in which it's quoted.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Kindly explain "Don't include sentence-ending punctuation in a quoted sentence unless it also ends the sentence in which it's quoted." a little bit more.

Please tell me is it right to use "He is an English teacher" for a teacher who is not English in origin and teaches English.
Is the full stop in the above sentence correct?

 

[GoesStation]

I have [STRIKE]come to know[/STRIKE] learned that if I write [no hyphen] "He is an English teacher", it tells me about the nationality of the teacher rather than the subject taught by him.

Kindly explain "Don't include sentence-ending punctuation in a quoted sentence unless it also ends the sentence in which it's quoted." a little bit more.

That sentence contains a quoted sentence. You included that sentence's final punctuation, a period ("full stop" in BrE), but the sentence containing the quote continues. You should not have included that period in the quotation.

Please tell me is it right to use "He is an English teacher" for a teacher who is not English in origin and teaches English.
Is the full stop in the above sentence correct?

The period/full stop is correct, and it's right to use "He is an English teacher" for a person from any country who teaches English.

 

[Roman55]

Please tell me is it right to use "He is an English teacher" for a teacher who is not English in origin and teaches English.

The 'ambiguity' comes from the fact that, in English, the same word is used as a noun to describe the name of the language, and as an adjective to describe the natives of the country. The natural way to talk about a language teacher is the same as the way we talk about a teacher of anything else. A maths / physics / French teacher.

 

[jutfrank]

Note that the ambiguity is not present in speech—the two senses being intoned differently.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Regarding your statement "Don't include sentence-ending punctuation in a quoted sentence unless it also ends the sentence in which it's quoted", please tell me if I have written the following sentences correctly or not.


He said to him, no space"how are you no question mark".

Should "H" be capital?

 

[GoesStation]

Regarding your statement "Don't include sentence-ending punctuation in a quoted sentence unless it also ends the sentence in which it's quoted", please tell me if I have written the following sentences correctly or not.


He said to him, no space"how are you no question mark".

Should "H" be capital?

The H should be capitalized because it's the first letter of the first word of the quoted sentence. Because the quoted sentence ends the sentence it's embedded in, you should include its final punctuation mark and let it end the whole mess: He asked him, "How are you?"

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

What about the sentences given below?

He said, "Are you out of your mind?".
He said, "Are you out of your mind?"
He said, "Are you out of your mind".
He said, "Are you out of your mind."

 

[emsr2d2]

What about the sentences given below?

He said, "Are you out of your mind?". :cross:
He said, "Are you out of your mind?" :tick:
He said, "Are you out of your mind". :cross:
He said, "Are you out of your mind." :cross:

See above.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Please be patient and tell me which of the following is correct. (I hope that I have correctly used period in the previous sentence.)

He said, "Life is beautiful.".
He said, "Life is beautiful."
He said, "Life is beautiful".

 

[jutfrank]

What about the sentences given below?

He said, "Are you out of your mind?".
He said, "Are you out of your mind?"
He said, "Are you out of your mind".
He said, "Are you out of your mind."

For the record, I would teach you to use only the first. For me, the second is incomplete. The third and fourth lack a question mark. The comma is not necessary.

 

[Rover_KE]

With 'asked' instead of 'said', and without the comma, for me, #2 (if you had helpfully numbered them) has sufficient punctuation, and represents the way such examples are punctuated in books I read published in both the UK and the USA.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

What about these?

He said, "Life is beautiful.".
He said, "Life is beautiful."
He said, "Life is beautiful".

 

[bubbha]

He said, "Life is beautiful.". Incorrect.
He said, "Life is beautiful." Correct in the US.
He said, "Life is beautiful". Correct in the UK.