I don't know how to learn english.

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Anonymous

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Hello
My name is Mehran .I am iranian and i wanna learn english in 6 month.

What can i do.Plz guide me.
Thanks alot
 

Tdol

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6 months is a very short time. To maximise your progress, you should take every opportunity to practise- do you have English speakers you can communicate with? (If not, you can use forums like this, etc). Are you studying it at a college or schools? Do you have coursebooks to help you, a dictionary, a grammar?

OK- a few quick tips for online learning-
Dictionaries
www.dictionary.com
www.onelook.com

Grammar
https://www.usingenglish.com/glossary.html

:oops:
 

Tdol

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Re: I don't know how to lear english.

Mehran said:
Hello
My name is Mehran .I am iranian and i wanna learn english in 6 month.

What can i do.Plz guide me.
Thanks alot
OK, here are some corrections- Iranian should have a capital letter- all nationality words do, so English should, too. I is written with a capital letter. 'wanna' is not used in formal English- it is very colloquial, try 'want to' instead, although it's OK for e-mails. 'A lot' is two words. Post more messages and see what you can learn. :shock:
 
E

ExK

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Me again!

which of the following is correct?

1. ".... is acceptable to Indian" or "..... is acceptable to the Indian"

2. "I'm a Chinese" or "I'm Chinese".

:oops:
 

Red5

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ExK said:
1. ".... is acceptable to Indian" or "..... is acceptable to the Indian"

2. "I'm a Chinese" or "I'm Chinese".

1 = "... is acceptable to the Indian."

2 = "I'm Chinese"
 

Red5

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When you use "The", it refers to a definite, particular object or person.

Using "A" refers to no particular object or person.

In your example:

"... is acceptable to Indian" = Incorrect, because you are using the Zero Article to refer to a specific person. If you wish to use this form, you could say "acceptable to Indian people", but that changes the meaning of the sentence.

"... is acceptable to the Indian" = Correct, because you are using the Definite Article to talk about a definite (specific) person, though it is more common to use "acceptable to the Indian people".

"I'm a Chinese" = Incorrect, because you are using the Indefinite Article. We use the indefinite article to talk about "one" person that is not a specific person. We need to add a noun after "Chinese" if we use "a". EG: He is a Chinese person from Shang Hai - not any specific Chinese person.

"I'm Chinese" = Correct, because you are using the Zero Article to suggest that your nationality is Chinese, and therefore you are part of the group of people who are Chinese.


See also: https://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/article.html
 
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gwendolinest

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Red5 said:
"I'm a Chinese" = Incorrect

Er, I beg to differ. “I’m a Chinese” is perfectly okay. Here, “Chinese” means “Chinese person”.

:)Fade-col:)
 
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Anonymous

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gwendolinest said:
Red5 said:
"I'm a Chinese" = Incorrect

Er, I beg to differ. “I’m a Chinese” is perfectly okay. Here, “Chinese” means “Chinese person”.

:)Fade-col:)


Perfectly okay, but likely in terms of how we speak?

To me, it doesn't sound very natural, though we may say it is grammatical.


:?:
 

Red5

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gwendolinest said:
Red5 said:
"I'm a Chinese" = Incorrect

Er, I beg to differ. “I’m a Chinese” is perfectly okay. Here, “Chinese” means “Chinese person”.

:)Fade-col:)

If someone said “I’m a Chinese” to me, I'd be inclined to ask them "Chinese what?". I see it the same way as if someone said "I'm a English."

:eek: :)
 
A

Anonymous

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If someone said “I’m a Chinese” to me, I'd be inclined to ask them "Chinese what?". I see it the same way as if someone said "I'm a English." <<<<<

I have to agree with that.


I believe we are talking here about what is "technically and grammatically" correct as opposed to "how English is used and how it makes sense to us".

I am a Chinese.....?
 
A

Anonymous

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In that particular instance, using "a Chinese" alone doesn't sound natural, just as using "an English" alone in the same type of sentence doesn't sound natural. I think this is because "Chinese" and "English" can be seen as being nationalities/groups of people and also languages.

By the same token, if someone were to say "I am a Venezuelan.", it would sound better. Or "I am an American."

It depends on what the specific sentence is.

Does everyone know what I mean?
 
A

Anonymous

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To note an apparent oddity where this question is concerned:


He is a Spanish. - incorrect

He is Spanish. - correct

He is a Spaniard. - correct


It seems that other nationalities don't have a word like "Spaniard" in English.

1. I'm a Norwegian. - correct and it sounds "natural".

2. I'm a Chinese. - correct, but does it sound "natural"?

In light of sentence number 1, I can see Gwen's point about "He is a Chinese." quite clearly, yet at the same time, it just doesn't sound "natural" to me. It seems to be a rather odd inconsistency that I had never noticed before.

What about this one? - I'm a French. - I can't say it sounds quite right, yet "I'm a German." sounds fine to me.

"I'm a Swedish." Neither can I say this one sounds right. But this one, "I'm a Russian." sounds fine.

I'd have to say, though, that typically we would not use the indefinite article in this type of sentence.

Interesting inconsistencies we have here. mm....


:idea: :shock: :idea: :shock: Oh yes and one more thing, if we say, "I'm a .....................Help! Wait a minute.... :grab:
 
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gwendolinest

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See this: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Chinese

Chinese

A native or inhabitant of China.

“English” and “Spanish” are different. “English” doesn’t mean a native or inhabitant of England (though “the English” refers to the English people collectively). Similarly for “Spanish”.

You can look up the entries in www.dictionary.com yourselves.

So, you can say “I’m a Chinese”, but not “I’m an English” or “I’m a Spanish”!

:)Fade-col:)
 

Red5

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I'm going to duck out of this now, and leave it to the teachers and experts. ;-)
 
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gwendolinest

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Sorry, I think I got a bit carried away there in my excitement.

:)multi:)
 
A

Anonymous

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gwendolinest said:
See this: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Chinese

Chinese

A native or inhabitant of China.

“English” and “Spanish” are different. “English” doesn’t mean a native or inhabitant of England (though “the English” refers to the English people collectively). Similarly for “Spanish”.

You can look up the entries in www.dictionary.com yourselves.

So, you can say “I’m a Chinese”, but not “I’m an English” or “I’m a Spanish”!



:)Fade-col:)


I see. I saw the definition. So the "word" Chinese with regards to it being the name of a nationality is different than other names of nationalities. I did not know that.

:shock: :) 8)
 
E

ExK

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I'm getting very confused :oops: ...

I've heard in movies "I'm an American!" ...

would you question "you are an american what?" ???

chinese is both a race and a nationality ... should both "I'm chinese" and "I'm a chinese" be acceptable?

:oops:
 

Tdol

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You do hear 'Chinese' with numbers: three Chinese came into the room. there used to be the word'Chinaman', but I haven't seen it in a long time. Some nationalities have a special word for the individual, like Swede for a Swedish person or Dane for someone from Denmark. :lol:
 
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