Work order problem

[dervast]

Hello.
One of the most difficult things concerning English syntax is the proper word order. I will try to illustrate my problem providing the following example.

I am trying to express the following meaning "I would like to attend some german courses offered by the university" (btw offered or host fits better here?)

So I have two sentences in mind that might be correct.
a) I would like to attend some german university courses.
b) I would like to attend some university's german courses.

Which is one is correct and why?
Best Regards

 

[bhaisahab]

Hello.
One of the most difficult things concerning English syntax is the proper word order. I will try to illustrate my problem providing the following example.

I am trying to express the following meaning "I would like to attend some German courses offered by the university" (btw offered or host fits better here?) "offered" is correct.

So I have two sentences in mind that might be correct.
a) I would like to attend some german university courses.
b) I would like to attend some university's german courses.

Which is one is correct and why? Neither is very good "...some university German courses" is better.
Best Regards

.

 

[Barb_D]

The problem is that "German university courses" (not that "German" should be capitalized) sounds as though the university is German.

If you have a specific university in mind: I would like to take some German classes at the university.

If you don't have a specific university in mind: I would like to take some university-level German courses.

 

[dervast]

Thank you

My major problem is that I am using my mother tongue to write in English. When I try to create a new sentence in English most of the time I am not sure how to construct the sentence.

For example, take a look at the following example

I have just used the coffee machine for the first time.
I have just used, for the first time, the coffee machine.

Which of these two sentences is better?

One more think to ask do you know any useful web site to study about word order in English? In my previous post I could not even think that the German university course refers to a university located in Germany.

I would like to thank you in advance for your help.
Best Regards.

 

[Raymott]

I have just used the coffee machine for the first time.
I have just used, for the first time, the coffee machine.

Which of these two sentences is better?

The first is better.
Your problem here is with the placement of adverbs/adverbial phrases. Adverbs can be placed in a variety of positions in English.

Here's a start
Adverb Placement

And you can do a Google search for "placement of adverbs" and get a lot more pages.

 

[dervast]

Great! Thanks!
So,
I have for the first time used the coffe machine is a correct sentence as "for the first time" is an adverb of frequency.

Thanks for the link

The first is better.
Your problem here is with the placement of adverbs/adverbial phrases. Adverbs can be placed in a variety of positions in English.

Here's a start
Adverb Placement

And you can do a Google search for "placement of adverbs" and get a lot more pages.

 

[Raymott]

Great! Thanks!
So,
I have for the first time used the coffe machine is a correct sentence as "for the first time" is an adverb of frequency.

Thanks for the link

I have [just], for the first time, used the coffee machine.
Yes, that's grammatical. It's not as common as putting the adverbial phrase at the end though.