Friday, 18 March 2016

Present simple



Forms: walk, walks, go, goes.
We make questions and negatives with do or does and the infinitive:

Positive statement   They talk.           Mary goes.
Negative statement They don't talk.   Mary doesn't go.
Positive question     Do they talk.      Does Mary go?
Negative question   Don't they talk.   Doesn't Mary go?

We use the present simple for general facts, e.g.:
  • The sun rises in the east.
  • Most dogs swim very well.
We also use it for habits or regular actions in a time that includes present time, e.g.:
  • Margaret walks to work.(La Margaret va a la feina caminant.)
  • Nowadays all young people go to school. (Avui dia tots els nois van a l'escola.)

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

How to express.

Few days ago I read an article about how to improve my English. So I'll do.
Reported speech.
When we report what someone said, we often need to make changes in order to maintain the meaning of the message. Most of the changes in English correspond to changes in Catalan.

Say, tell and ask are often misused. Here are the main uses. Of the three, only say can be used with direct speech. e.g. Brian said, "I'm hot".
As for reports, both say and tell can report statements, say without an indirect object, tell with an indirect object. e.g. Brian told me that he was hot. Brian say that he was hot.
Commands.
Brian told me to stand up.
Report questions.
Brian asked (me) if I was hungry.