Well, obviously, good can be used in that expression... it just shouldn't be.
:)
No, seriously, in the above case, one (properly) notes some process as having "gone well." Likewise, one hopes that something will go well, etc.
"The non-English portion of my Assessment center was good -- it went well. The English, well, not-so-good."
:)
But -- as has been noted by others -- your English is generally proper, and well-received by at least a plurality (if not a majority) of native-English speakers here.
Alitan — despite his em dash impairment — is entirely correct.
Don't feel too bad about it, Drejk; it's one of those "errors" that is so common it might as well become a part of the language.
I was raised by an English teacher*, and then got a BA in English. I notice not only spelling and grammar mistakes, but also imperfect style. Run-on sentences, inelegant phrasing, ect. I have every right to be a grammar Nazi...Does your stylistic authority extend to other languages and abbreviations, e.g. Latin?
Never took Latin. Learned Spanish well enough to avoid more language classes after high school, but that was ten years ago and I've hardly spoken a word since.
Went to S Korea for a few weeks; learned their alphabet and enough to be able to ask korean girls if they're attached. ("Namja cheengu eesoyo?") But nothing more.
I'm not going to tell you you're wasting your time...but you're wasting your time. ;) Unless you're in a few very specific career fields, your English is already more than sufficient. Your English is better than many native speakers, which is why nobody calls you out on your mistakes.My English wasn't good enough to pass Assessment Center session (at least I guess it was English that I failed because everything else went very good) when I was trying to get job at Aon Hewitt. It was listening from recording, however.
I'm sorry to hear that, man. Is the assessment written, spoken, or both? Because honestly, I'd have no idea that English is your second language from the way you write.
PS: Alitan is right -- 'good' is not properly used in the way you did -- but nobody except an English professor would care, so it may as well be proper. Come to think of it, I can't even explain why what you did is technically improper.
Me old ma...."Are we going to the paak?" ;)
I've got to visit Australia some day. I love regionalisms. :)
Good is an adjective, well is an adverb.
I'm usually able to ignore mis-spells (in English, at least - I get rather more uptight about Swedish), especially ones where you can see how someone could make that mistake, but one I just don't get is 'apposite' for 'opposite.' Is there a dialect of English where the first 'o' is pronounced like that?
I'm usually able to ignore mis-spells (in English, at least - I get rather more uptight about Swedish), especially ones where you can see how someone could make that mistake, but one I just don't get is 'apposite' for 'opposite.' Is there a dialect of English where the first 'o' is pronounced like that?
If you pronounced the "a" as "ah" rather than "ay" then its pretty much indistinguishable from the first syllable of "opposite," hence the error could be made. Blame "Hooked on Phonics." (Hukd on fonix werkd 4 me.)
Apposite is also a word. It means "fitting", "appropriate".
But you've probably seen it as an incorrect spelling, by Americans I'd say, as most British or Australian accents pronounce it firmly as a short "o". Certain Irish accents draw it out to be "ah-pposite" as well.
What? So now it's not okay to beat someone up GOOD, now you have to beat them up WELL? Pffft.
What? So now it's not okay to beat someone up GOOD, now you have to beat them up WELL? Pffft.
Lol I don't make up the rules :)
Apposite is also a word. It means "fitting", "appropriate".
But you've probably seen it as an incorrect spelling, by Americans I'd say, as most British or Australian accents pronounce it firmly as a short "o". Certain Irish accents draw it out to be "ah-pposite" as well.
And that's the two reasons it bugs me (for whatever reason, despite having watched large amounts of American TV-shows since before I was old enough to read the subtitles, my English is a lot more British than American. Personally I blame Andres Lokko.)
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Good is an adjective, well is an adverb.Lolly Lolly Lolly...
** spoiler omitted **
......I had just gotten that out of my head.
Every non-native English speaker I've ever spoken to either hates American English or British English, often, but not always, depending on who taught them. I've never met someone comfortable in both.
I hate neither. I am feel better at American English, but aside from a few things I know (defence vs defense, armour vs armor, etc.), I hardly know the differences and probably use a mix of both. I can't even ever remember which uses gasoline and which uses petrol (a crucial difference as a group of German saboteurs/spies learned during WWII) ;)
I can't even ever remember which uses gasoline and which uses petrol (a crucial difference as a group of German saboteurs/spies learned during WWII) ;)
Gas is Stateside, Petrol is Brit.
A lot of the things I know that use different words in Britain are for parts on cars.
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I was raised by an English teacher*, and then got a BA in English. I notice not only spelling and grammar mistakes, but also imperfect style. Run-on sentences, inelegant phrasing, ect. I have every right to be a grammar Nazi...
My Dad taught language arts and my mom was also an English teacher at one point (but later went to history and French), and I have a Master's degree in English, and I've been paid to proofread. I won't continue the Nazi metaphor as that could get disturbing, but if we're on the same ship, I might be the first mate. :)
*To this day, my mother corrects me when I say "Me and so-and-so..." "'So-and-so and I' is the proper use." Also, my father used to reply with "I don't know, can you?" when I would ask "Can I have X?" He eventually gave up though. :)
Going off on a tangent here ...
My pet peeve is when people overcompensate for the common mistake of using the objective pronoun when it should be nominative, that they use the nominative pronoun for EVERYTHING, even when it should in fact be objective.
Translation:
For the love of God, people need to stop saying "Between you and I ..." ! Oh my God, it's even on television all the time. "Between" is a preposition, therefore the pronoun that follows it is the object of the pronoun, and thus should be objective (me). How hard is that!?
Example:
"Between you and me, your mother and I think you should take grammar classes."
Trick is always to remove the compound and say it with just the pronoun and question and see if it sounds right ("Bob and __ went to the store" -- I went to the store or me went to the store? [the latter is only correct if you're Cookie Monster]. "Mom gave it to Bob and __." -- Mom gave it to I or Mom gave it to me? Easy).
I can't even say that universal wizard cantrip...prest...something. I gave up years ago; I just call it 'Presto!' I don't even try to spell the official word. /tangent
Break it down.
Presti (or presto if you like)
Digit (as in the digits on your hand)
ation (common ending to a word)
:)
On another note, digitalelf wins the thread for linking Schoolhouse Rock.
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As I keep having to tell people, I am not a Grammar Nazi. I have yet to annex the Grammar Sudetenland or conquer Grammar Poland.
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You are however the Blackguard of Puns.
I cannot think of any examples in English where "ou" is pronounced as a long "o" ...Though, if you're thorough, you might think of a few.
Good catch -- so "ou" being pronounced as a long o is just rare, not unknown.
At least I thought of "get" before trying to say that I was not aware of "ge" being pronounced with a hard "g" -- but I was pretty confident that a silent "e" would disappear in that case.
Oh, don't get me started about so-called 'hard' and 'soft' g's, and modifying vowels...!
Every non-native English speaker I've ever spoken to either hates American English or British English, often, but not always, depending on who taught them. I've never met someone comfortable in both.I hate neither. I am feel better at American English, but aside from a few things I know (defence vs defense, armour vs armor, etc.), I hardly know the differences and probably use a mix of both. I can't even ever remember which uses gasoline and which uses petrol (a crucial difference as a group of German saboteurs/spies learned during WWII) ;)
I shouldn't have said anything about your English in my previous post, because I may have jinxed you; the bolded misphrasing is a common thing that non-native speakers do.
Properly, you could say "I am better at..." or "I feel more comfortable with...," and 99% of English speakers wouldn't even blink at "I feel better at/with..." or "I feel comfortable with..."
Example:
"Between you and me, your mother and I think you should take grammar classes."
...Is this an example of your pet peeve, or an example of proper grammar? ;)
When i see words like sourceror, resistence, rouge and similar, i get very annoyed, but i resist correcting the people who wrote them. And i see some people persistently write like that. Why does that annoy me so?
Any ideas?
.
I'm the same way with Finance. It annoys me when I see and hear about
others making wrong decisions in the face of basic Time-Value of Money
calculations.
Read a f-ing book!
.
Oh, don't get me started about so-called 'hard' and 'soft' g's, and modifying vowels...!
Every non-native English speaker I've ever spoken to either hates American English or British English, often, but not always, depending on who taught them. I've never met someone comfortable in both.I hate neither. I am feel better at American English, but aside from a few things I know (defence vs defense, armour vs armor, etc.), I hardly know the differences and probably use a mix of both. I can't even ever remember which uses gasoline and which uses petrol (a crucial difference as a group of German saboteurs/spies learned during WWII) ;)I shouldn't have said anything about your English in my previous post, because I may have jinxed you; the bolded misphrasing is a common thing that non-native speakers do.
Properly, you could say "I am better at..." or "I feel more comfortable with...," and 99% of English speakers wouldn't even blink at "I feel better at/with..." or "I feel comfortable with..."
I just noticed it when I started reading new posts moment ago and wondered if someone will call me on this. It's one of my more common error types - re-edition error. I wrote the sentence once, then went back and rewrote it using different tense but failed to notice that I hadn't cut all the previous version. I guess I was writing 'I am feeling better' and later intended to change it into 'I feel better' but hit shift+left not enough times before pushing delete.
EDIT: This is the kind of error I probably wouldn't make while speaking. If anything I would stop mid-sentence, coughed or something and started the sentence from the beginning using different tense.
EDIT 2: Obviously, I noticed it after the edit time limit passed.
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There are typos and then there is laziness. There is illiteracy and then there is laziness. There is ESL and then there is laziness. Everyone has their own tolerance level for spelling and grammar mistakes, but a deliberate and flagrant refusal to correct your own mistakes, or make excuses for them, completely detracts from your message.
I had the below discussion with my daughter a few weeks ago about why spelling, grammar, and diction are important. (I don't care what anyone says! I still use Oxford commas.) She is 14 but has a 5th grade vocabulary.
"If you brought this note to your teacher, what would she say?
"Plase ecus my daughter. She wuz sik."
Your teacher would assume you wrote it, not your parents. You don't just learn to read and write for yourself. You do it for your kids too. You want to be able to read a book to them without having to look up words. You want to be able to help them learn to read and write."
This is going a little off the topic, but I heard Neil DeGrasse Tyson once say "Evolution is Darwinian, but education is Lamarckian." The more we educate ourselves, the more we have to pass on to our children. Back on topic, this is why I strive for perfection in what I do, including spelling and grammar.
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It is important. I'm far from perfect, I notice mistakes I make and ones other people make as well. I do think that in a discussion not about spelling or grammar, that correcting someone, as if it were a valid point about the subject is extremely rude and snobbish. It doesn't actually improve the quality of discussion and instead makes it worse.
I do sympathize with those who have the pet peeve. The only real solution is to decide to not care. It's not an easy thing to do, I know I've held on to strange concepts and gotten angry when they were violated, but it was my decision to hold on to them and get angry about it. Part of it is deciding if it's worth letting that 'control' you.
Editorializing in general, I think a loss of depth in language proficiency could lead to slower rate of knowledge accumulation. I think the text message or twitter vocabulary is useful, but if it ever means we lose some capacity for more complex communication that will have strong effects on our culture.
...Is this an example of your pet peeve, or an example of proper grammar? ;)Example:
"Between you and me, your mother and I think you should take grammar classes."
It is an example of the correct use of nominative (I) versus objective (me) case pronouns.
If I was misusing/abusing the pronouns, the erroneous version would read, "Between you and I, your mother and me think..."
The key problem phrase is "between you and I," which people often say, thinking they are making themselves sound terribly intelligent by replacing "me" with "I" when it is, in the case of being an object of a pronoun, actually incorrect.
I just noticed it when I started reading new posts moment ago and wondered if someone will call me on this. It's one of my more common error types - re-edition error. I wrote the sentence once, then went back and rewrote it using different tense but failed to notice that I hadn't cut all the previous version. I guess I was writing 'I am feeling better' and later intended to change it into 'I feel better' but hit shift+left not enough times before pushing delete.
Ah, my bad; I've done the same thing.
"If you brought this note to your teacher, what would she say?
"Plase ecus my daughter. She wuz sik."
Your teacher would assume you wrote it, not your parents. You don't just learn to read and write for yourself. You do it for your kids too. You want to be able to read a book to them without having to look up words. You want to be able to help them learn to read and write."
All too true!
I think of proper grammar and spelling as a self-fulfilling tragedy; many of us know that English could be more elegant and generally better, but there's too much pressure from the professional world to make a stand against the status quo. So every generation inflicts it on the next. :(
Some trace the America spellings to Noah Webster, who published his dictionary in 1828 with words like "color" and "center" spelled as Americans spell them today. Of course, when it comes to actual usage, these things emerge over time.
Isn't Webster the one who called the British spellings of those words 'pretentious' and such? Which cracks me up, considering that his changes effected what, like 0.0001% of the English language? And his changes suffer from the English language's pervasive ambiguity all the same; real improvement would have been 'kolor' and 'senter.' :)
I heard that American spelling was not truly standardized until the late 19th century/very early 20th? (ie 1880, or so, - on)
Care to field this one, DQ? I'm no historian.
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English, standardized? Sounds like a good idea. Someone really ought to get cracking on it.
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When i see words like sourceror, resistence, rouge and similar, i get very annoyed, but i resist correcting the people who wrote them. And i see some people persistently write like that. Why does that annoy me so?
Any ideas?
Despite my own poor spelling,I agree. However, you realize that "similar" is spelled that way.
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Despite my own poor spelling,I agree. However, you realize that "similar" is spelled that way.When i see words like sourceror, resistence, rouge and similar, i get very annoyed, but i resist correcting the people who wrote them. And i see some people persistently write like that. Why does that annoy me so?
Any ideas?
I know. I meant 'and similar' as in 'and similar words'.
Ah, my bad; I've done the same thing.
I just noticed it when I started reading new posts moment ago and wondered if someone will call me on this. It's one of my more common error types - re-edition error. I wrote the sentence once, then went back and rewrote it using different tense but failed to notice that I hadn't cut all the previous version. I guess I was writing 'I am feeling better' and later intended to change it into 'I feel better' but hit shift+left not enough times before pushing delete.
I do that all the time.
Worse, my brain runs faster than my fingers (and I type fast!). I will type mid-sentence, have a new thought, go down and start a new sentence to capture the idea I've had, and then I either forget to finish the first sentence or when I do go back to finish it, I don't properly complete it.
One of my earlier posts in this thread has something like that... ah, here it is:
In fact, he noted it bothered him that it annoyed him and wanted to understand why that was better.
The sentence should just end at "why." "That was better" was actually the start of a new idea which I then rewrote, but I forgot to delete/rewrite that phrase. It doesn't make sense that it should bother him and that he thought it would be better (why would it be better?). The idea was supposed to be "it annoyed him and he wanted to understand why that was; it is better for him to try to understand that than carry on being annoyed." But it ends up sounding like the opposite!
Some trace the America spellings to Noah Webster, who published his dictionary in 1828 with words like "color" and "center" spelled as Americans spell them today. Of course, when it comes to actual usage, these things emerge over time.
Isn't Webster the one who called the British spellings of those words 'pretentious' and such? Which cracks me up, considering that his changes effected what, like 0.0001% of the English language? And his changes suffer from the English language's pervasive ambiguity all the same; real improvement would have been 'kolor' and 'senter.' :)
I heard that American spelling was not truly standardized until the late 19th century/very early 20th? (ie 1880, or so, - on)Care to field this one, DQ? I'm no historian.
Without looking it up, IIRC Celestial Healer is right in that Webster pioneered a lot of the changes.
There were a lot of language reformers in the 19th and early 20th centuries on both sides of the Atlantic though.
Ultimately, I think what really standardized any given form of English was publishing houses establishing style manuals, which didn't exist in the early days of publication. As the publishers themselves at least standardized what came out of their printing presses, the language took on a more uniform look (but still fraught with the many inconsistencies which make the English language so special).
Things are always changing though. Dictionaries in the early 20th century didn't contain "D'oh" as a common non-derogatory expletive. :)
Ah, my bad; I've done the same thing.
No, it's my bad. I should be more careful during rewriting sentences. I keep telling myself that every time I notice that I made that kind of error :(
Ah, my bad; I've done the same thing.
I just noticed it when I started reading new posts moment ago and wondered if someone will call me on this. It's one of my more common error types - re-edition error. I wrote the sentence once, then went back and rewrote it using different tense but failed to notice that I hadn't cut all the previous version. I guess I was writing 'I am feeling better' and later intended to change it into 'I feel better' but hit shift+left not enough times before pushing delete.I do that all the time.
Worse, my brain runs faster than my fingers (and I type fast!). I will type mid-sentence, have a new thought, go down and start a new sentence to capture the idea I've had, and then I either forget to finish the first sentence or when I do go back to finish it, I don't properly complete it.
One of my earlier posts in this thread has something like that... ah, here it is:
In fact, he noted it bothered him that it annoyed him and wanted to understand why that was better.The sentence should just end at "why." "That was better" was actually the start of a new idea which I then rewrote, but I forgot to delete/rewrite that phrase. It doesn't make sense that it should bother him and that he thought it would be better (why would it be better?). The idea was supposed to be "it annoyed him and he wanted to understand why that was; it is better for him to try to understand that than carry on being annoyed." But it ends up sounding like the opposite!
Some trace the America spellings to Noah Webster, who published his dictionary in 1828 with words like "color" and "center" spelled as Americans spell them today. Of course, when it comes to actual usage, these things emerge over time.Isn't Webster the one who called the British spellings of those words 'pretentious' and such? Which cracks me up, considering that his changes effected what, like 0.0001% of the English...
I do that a lot when rewriting sentences. sometimes badly rewriting sentences causes people to not understand my posts.
Ah, my bad; I've done the same thing.
It's one of my more common error types - re-edition error. I wrote the sentence once, then went back and rewrote it using different tense but failed to notice that I hadn't cut all the previous version.I do that all the time.
Worse, my brain runs faster than my fingers (and I type fast!). I will type mid-sentence, have a new thought, go down and start a new sentence to capture the idea I've had, and then I either forget to finish the first sentence or when I do go back to finish it, I don't properly complete it.
It's something of a relief to see that I'm not the only person with this problem. :)
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Hee hee!
Flamewars about spelling, grammar and punctuation.
You guys rock.
Anyway, I like to think that my grasp of the English language is pretty decent, but I often post while high, so, please, chalk up any mistakes to [bubble bubble bubble].
Ah, my bad; I've done the same thing.No, it's my bad. I should be more careful during rewriting sentences. I keep telling myself that every time I notice that I made that kind of error :(
"BAD" ...IS...NOT...A...NOUN!!!!!!"
Pant, pant, wheeze, okay, got that pet peeve out of my system. Sorry if I made a scene.
Where were we?
We were just discussing what kind of big bad is the most horrifying... =)
I think I'd have to say apostrophe misuse. No use. Etc., etc.
It isn't a plural signifier, you @#@$*& sign-makers.
>sigh<
The game terms, especially "sourceror" and especially "rouge", occur so often in the rulebook that if someone mispels them them I have serious doubts about whether or not they looked up the answer to begin with.
Some portion of these people may have a reading disability, and some may be doing it sarcastically. I try not to get too steamed by it. But, if it's there, there needs to be real substance to the post or else I'm going to ignore it.
The rogue/rouge is a perfect example of a common form of error in dyslexia. A letter order error(my other half, a dyslexia specialist cannot remember the formal name at 7 am on a sunday morning, and google-fu sounds to much like effort right now). That kind of mistake(especially when inconsistently made) is often a sign of processing issues.
Except if the message also contains other complex words well spelled.
I think I'd have to say apostrophe misuse. No use. Etc., etc.
It isn't a plural signifier, you @#@$*& sign-makers.
>sigh<
I was in a barbeque place yesterday and having that problem. We were waiting for our order and I said: "They need to hurry up, otherwise I'm going to find a pen and start correcting their menus."
I suppose I'll forgive them, because the food was really good.
Except if the message also contains other complex words well spelled.
no, not really. I can spell pseudopodia, allopatric speciation, sympatric speciation, allele frequency, cytoplasm and myosin correctly pretty much every time, and will usually get them right in writing.
First word I was ever consistently able to spell correctly was television.
Complex or long works are often easier for dyslexics to remember, especially if they are something that get used a lot in an area of interest.
No, it is the simple words that are the real issue. Their and there. It is literally the last six months to a year that I have finally gotten anywhere near to internalising the correct usage of their and there. I have known on an intellectual level what the difference was for seventeen or eighteen years, but actually being able to consistently get usage right has taken years. Even now, tiredness or stress still means that the coping mechanisms slip.
When someone uses "loose" instead of "lose." Annoys me to no end.
Also, does anyone know why spellcheck doesn't catch the misspelled word "somehting?"
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Ah, my bad; I've done the same thing.No, it's my bad. I should be more careful during rewriting sentences. I keep telling myself that every time I notice that I made that kind of error :("BAD" ...IS...NOT...A...NOUN!!!!!!"
Pant, pant, wheeze, okay, got that pet peeve out of my system. Sorry if I made a scene.
Where were we?
bad [bad] 45. idiom my bad, Slang: my fault! my mistake!