Max gets Meg muffins

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englishhobby

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Jun 19, 2009
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English Teacher
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Russian
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Russian Federation
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Russian Federation
Here are sentences I made for an exercise (these particurar ones are meant to practise the /m/ sound). Are they grammatically correct? (In particular, I am interested in the combinations "gets Meg" (= "gets for Meg"), "makes Meg" (= "makes for Meg"):
1) Sometimes Max gets Meg muffins.
2) Sometimes Max makes Meg muffins.
 
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Why? Doesn't that sound exist already in your language?
It does exist, but it's much more "relaxed" in Russian, your lips are not tense at all. With "ordinary" students it is not important, but there are students who are learning a subject called English Phonetics, they are going to be teaching English Phonetics at university after they graduate, so they need to know all the nuances and even slight differences in pronunciation.
 
They're grammatical, englishhobby, but I hope you don't think they have the same meaning.
Thank you, Rover_KE, It's okay with me (if they are both grammatical, I'll choose the one with "m" for my purpose of practicing the sound "m").
 
Here are sentences I wrote made
or
Here are sentences I made up
Thank you, Teechar, but now I'm a little confused because some years ago a native speaker of English corrected me when I said "I made up an exercise (I made up some sentences) for my textbook". He said that when you "make up" something, you kind of "create a lie, something which is not true". And I create exercises (and sentences) for my textbook. So, in my particular case, is it "I make (=create) exercises (or sentences) for my textbook", "I make up (=create) exercises (or sentences) for my textbook" or "I write (=create) exercises (or sentences) for my textbook"?
 
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Unless things have changed in the last five minutes, we WRITE sentences; we don't MAKE them.
I create sentences for my textbook, do I "write" them, "make" them or "make them up"? Perhaps, I 'develop" them or "work them out"?
 
Just as well no one in Russia ever needs to say the name of their capital city, eh?! ;)
Yes, we do sometimes have to say "Moscow" (and I'm using it quite often these days since my daughter is studying English and French there at uni), but we press our lips only very slightly when we say the "m" sound. :) It's a paradox, but Russians pronunce English sounds in a much more relaxed manner (though there's a common joke that Russian accent is "rough" or even "brutal" :devilish:).

UPD: You might feel this difference here (listen to Iwan_Puzan), though we usually say "m" even weaker than here: https://ru.forvo.com/word/мама/#ru
 
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It does exist, but it's much more "relaxed" in Russian, your lips are not tense at all.
That's fascinating! I can't imagine how the "m" sound can be varied by changing how we firmly we purse our lips.

a native speaker of English corrected me when I said "I made up an exercise (I made up some sentences) for my textbook". He said that when you "make up" something, you kind of "create a lie, something which is not true".
That can, but need not always, be the case. What you make up needn't be a lie at all.
 
That's fascinating! I can't imagine how the "m" sound can be varied by changing how we firmly we purse our lips.

A lot of Russians can't imagine how the sound can be varied by aspiration :) (I think the example with using aspiration when pronouncing English "t" or "p" sounds is similar to pressing lips more firmly when pronouncing "m" - its almost the same, but it's not.
 
I create sentences for my textbook, do I "write" them, "make" them or "make them up"? Perhaps, I 'develop" them or "work them out"?
Well, I don't want to be too picky. Also, you are clearly quite creative. 😊
 
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