When you (to go) to school?

[milan2003_07]

Dear friends,

I'm posting a question on English grammar with a sentence taken from the Russian-English grammar book by Golizinskiy (this is one of the best grammar books used in Russia and published in Russian).

Golizinskiy is offering the following sentence to choose the correct grammar form of the verb "to go": "When you (to go) to school?". This short sentence has no continuation or any preceding info to understand the situation more clearly. The task is to put the verb in the correct form using Present Continuous, Present Indefinite, Past Indefinite, or Future Indefinite.

The thing is that I consider several possibilities to be relevant here:

1. When will you go to school? This suggests to me that I'm asking someone when he will go to school after kindergarten (case 1) or we can just be in the process of asking someone who is currently relaxing on summer holidays and we would like to know how many days are left till the beginning of classes (case 2).

2. When did you go to school? This means we're wondering at what age or what year did he/she first went to school.

3. When do you go to school? This one can mean a question about the age children usually go to school in some country. In other words, it can be paraphrased "When do you normally go to school / When do you normally start school?"

4. When are you going to school? Asking about someone's upcoming intentions or just wondering when he/she will leave home and head for school.

The excersise in the grammar book is very likely to require only one possibility. So I'm a bit confused which grammar form to choose.

 

[Tarheel]

All of your choices are possible.

 

[emsr2d2]

Dear friends,

I'm posting This is a question on English grammar, with using a sentence taken from the Russian-English grammar book [title of book required] by Golizinskiy (this is one of the best grammar books used in Russia and is published in Russian).

Golizinskiy is offering gives the following sentence to as an exercise in which I must choose the correct grammar form of the verb "to go": "When you (to go) to school?" no full stop here
This short sentence has no continuation or any preceding info to understand the situation more clearly. The task is to put the verb in the correct form using the present continuous, present indefinite, past indefinite, or future indefinite.

The thing is that I consider several possibilities to be relevant correct here. They are:

1. When will you go to school? This suggests to me that I'm asking someone when he will go to school after kindergarten (case 1) or we can just be in the process of asking someone who is currently relaxing on summer holidays and we would like to know how many days are left till the beginning of classes (case 2).

2. When did you go to school? This means we're wondering at what age or what year did he/she first went to school.

3. When do you go to school? This one can mean a question about the age children usually go to school in some country. In other words, it can be paraphrased "When do you normally go to school/When do you normally start school?"

4. When are you going to school? Asking about someone's upcoming intentions or just wondering when he/she will leave home and head for school.

The excersise exercise in the grammar book is very likely to require only one possibility correct answer no full stop here so I'm a bit confused which grammar form to choose.

Please note my various corrections above.

 

[milan2003_07]

Why is it wrong to say "Golizinskiy is offering the following sentence ..."? I agree with "Golizinskiy gives the following sentence ..." that you've suggested.

I have seen names of English tenses written from a capital letter. Is it wrong? Should it always be, for example, "present simple" rather than "Present simple"? Or maybe "Present Simple". I'll repeat that I've seen different ways of writing tenses' names, but probably some resources weren't based in England or the US and I shouldn't have trusted them without checking first.

The incorrect spelling of "exercise" was a misprint.

 

[probus]

Why is it wrong to say "Golizinskiy is offering the following sentence ..."?

1. It isn't wrong. It's just slightly unnatural.

2. As @Tarheel pointed out, all three choices are possible. The best choice depends on context. Is there any more context in that part of Golizinskiy's textbook?

3. We don't normally capitalize the names of tenses, but perhaps some books do so. And Donald Trump is unpredictable: he might capitalize anything.

 

[milan2003_07]

1. It isn't wrong. It's just slightly unnatural.

2. As @Tarheel pointed out, all three choices are possible. The best choice depends on context. Is there any more context in that part of Golizinskiy's textbook?

3. We don't normally capitalize the names of tenses, but perhaps some books do so. And Donald Trump is unpredictable: he might capitalize anything.

1. OK.

2. There is no context other than the sentence itself. Therefore, I was a bit puzzled today which tense to use. We even had a little dispute with my students regarding the correct choice. Actually, I was suspecting that several options (correct answers) are possible, but at the same time I knew I had to choose only one. Probably, this a drawback of Golizinskiy's book because this sentence isn't a very good one for learners.

However, Golizinskiy's grammar book is one of the best published in Russia. When I was studying at school we would use it very often in different grades and my knowledge of grammar seriously started from that very edition.

3. OK.

 

[tedmc]

Why is it wrong to say "Golizinskiy is offering the following sentence ..."? I agree with "Golizinskiy gives the following sentence ..." that you've suggested.

I have seen names of English tenses written from a capital letter. Is it wrong? Should it always be, for example, "present simple" rather than "Present simple"? Or maybe "Present Simple". I'll repeat that I've seen different ways of writing tenses' names, but probably some resources weren't based in England or the US and I shouldn't have trusted them without checking first.

The incorrect spelling of "exercise" was a misprint.

I think it's a statement of fact, quoting from a book, so the simple present tense is more appropriate.

 

[jutfrank]

Golizinskiy is offering the following sentence to choose the correct grammar form of the verb "to go": "When you (to go) to school?".

Are you sure you copied the question faithfully?

As it's written in the quote above, there is no possible way to make it grammatical. You can't start a question with "When you ...".

 

[milan2003_07]

Are you sure you copied the question faithfully?

As it's written in the quote above, there is no possible way to make it grammatical. You can't start a question with "When you ...".

Yes, I'm sure I copied the question faithfully. "When you ..." can't start a question, but the task in the grammar book is also to make the right word order in affirmative sentences and in questions, so they check the word order as well. The correct word order is "When + auxiliary verb + pronoun/noun + ...".