The old woman died under mysterious circumstances.

[emsr2d2]

Let me try again with my three sentences.

The old woman died under mysterious circumstances. She had left the engine idling and had gone back into her house, which was soon engulfed in flames. Before the firefighters arrived, the wooden house had turned [STRIKE]into the[/STRIKE] to ashes.

See above.

 

[Matthew Wai]

... "had" attaches itself to the verbs that come after it.

Having read the above, I think the second 'had' below can be omitted.

She had left the engine idling and had gone back into her house ...

 

[emsr2d2]

Having read the above, I think the second 'had' below can be omitted.

It can but it doesn't have to be.

 

[GoesStation]

If you want to learn a foreign language, you usually want help from someone who is a native speaker or a teacher, because from them you can learn the idiomatic English and other phrases which native people use in their everyday contact with each other. Millions of native speakers do not know anything about grammar and rules, but, nevertheless they use the language properly, because that was the first language they have learnt to speak.

My personal experience is unusual, but the person from whom I learned the most careful use of English was my mother. She began studying English while imprisoned in a Nazi ghetto, had her first English immersion after the war at age eighteen, and had published a short story* in a major American literary magazine by age thirty-four. So I know that it's not impossible for a non-native speaker to become a perfectly fluent expert in an adopted language.

*(My father is positive that there was not a single grammatical flaw or unnatural usage in the submitted manuscript.)

 

[Bassim]

GoesStation,
I knew that is possible for a non-native speaker to become a perfectly fluent in an adopted language. Aleksandar Hemon, from my homeland Bosnia, came to the US in 1991, just before the war broke out, and a few years later he started publishing novels written in English. He is now a well-established author. But I am talking about teaching English. If I wanted to learn English at advanced level, especially the language of literature, I would prefer a native speaker to any other person only because a native speaker can feel the subtle nuances in the language non-native speakers can't. I know that rules in the international organisations like UN and international courts regarding translators are that it should always be a native speaker.

 

[tedmc]

I have left because of the people like you. I have told you before not to answer my posts. I have no use whatsoever of your corrections. You are neither a native speaker of English nor a teacher of English. You have learnt some grammar rules like a robot and you believe you can speak and write well, and then you make mistakes because a language is a living organism and not dead rules. There are people who know all the grammar rules and they unable to write an ordinary text, because writing means using your mind creatively and not just following the rules. So I will repeat again. Please do not answer my questions. There are enough people on this forum willing to help me, and I do not need your help.

Like Matthew, I got told off and received the same comments a few months ago but I exercised restraint by not speaking out and let things be. I think the comments are uncalled for, rude and condescending, reflecting arrogance and unbecoming attitude.
I would just like to seek clarification from the moderators as follows:

1. Do members of the forum have the right to tell others not to post on the thread they started?

2. Do members have the right to choose who they want to respond to their threads, as in stating that they want native teachers only? This has happened not only with Bassim, but a few others. It smacks of prejudice to me.

I don't see the problem of non-natives and non-teachers responding to threads as the forum is being closely monitored by hawk-eyed moderators who would not hesitate to delete posts that are erroneous and do not contribute anything to the threads.

 

[emsr2d2]

Like Matthew, I got told off and received the same comments a few months ago but I exercised restraint by not speaking out and let things be. I think the comments are uncalled for, rude and condescending, reflecting arrogance and unbecoming attitude.
I would just like to seek clarification from the moderators as follows:

1. Do members of the forum have the right to tell others not to post on the thread they started? No, they don't and we have made that clear.

2. Do members have the right to choose who they want to respond to their threads, as in stating that they want native teachers only? This has happened not only with Bassim, but a few others. It smacks of prejudice to me. No, they don't. Users can choose not to read responses from certain members and they can even tell us they're going to do that but they can't stop people responding.

I don't see the problem of non-natives and non-teachers responding to threads as the forum is being closely monitored by hawk-eyed moderators who would not hesitate to delete posts that are erroneous and do not contribute anything to the threads. As far as the moderators, are concerned, there is no issue at all with non-natives and non-teachers responding as long as the advice is correct.

See above. The original question in this thread has been thoroughly dealt and we are getting into the realms of topics that should perhaps be in the Support Area so I'll close this thread now.