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glenn
Joined: 18 Mar 2007
Location: Daejeon, Korea
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 Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:53 pm Post subject: Grammer question |
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This one still gets me, my students asked me why it's "go to the store" or "ging to Seoul" but not using "to" to say "go home" or go downtown"
thx
glenn |
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Straphanger
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Location: Chilgok, Korea
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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While we're on the subject, can anyone think of an example of a verb performing the adverbial function or used as a gerund, that is not conjugated to the infinitive?
There has to be one.
I want to buy some shoes.
I'm going to catch the bus.
Etc.
I've got brain-lock and I can't think of an exception to that rule, it's been bugging the hell out of me. |
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billybrobby
Joined: 09 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:06 pm Post subject: |
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| grammAr |
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billybrobby
Joined: 09 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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To answer your question, which was about grammar and not spelling anyways, just turn to the big man himself:
http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar/confusing_words_come_go.html
| Quote: |
In a few fixed expressions, however,
go is used without a preposition:
go home / go downtown /
go uptown |
So basically, there are just a few expressions that defy the rule and there's no clear reason why. |
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Bread
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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| "Go home" is weird in German, too. It uses nach instead of zu. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:18 pm Post subject: Re: Grammer question |
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| glenn wrote: |
This one still gets me, my students asked me why it's "go to the store" or "ging to Seoul" but not using "to" to say "go home" or go downtown"
thx
glenn |
It's good to have curious students.
'go home' is used so often we have simply dropped the 'to the' part. That may not be a satisfactory explanation for students so I would group it with similar examples:
go home
go downtown
go there
'there' in English is not a pronoun, i.e. it doesn't substitute for, say, 'Seoul' but for 'to Seoul' (or 'in Seoul' etc). So it's an adverb and, in the same way, 'downtown' can be thought of here as an adverb meaning 'in the direction of downtown' (even though it can also be a noun).
One might ask why we say 'in there' and 'out there' but not 'to there' (well, you might use 'to there' where it means the same as 'up to there'). I don't have time to think about that now.
If you're teaching elementary school kids it's better not to get too deeply into the abstract rules but, I think, separating 'go X', 'go to X', 'go to the X' expressions into groups could be helpful. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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| billybrobby wrote: |
To answer your question, which was about grammar and not spelling anyways, just turn to the big man himself:
http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar/confusing_words_come_go.html
| Quote: |
In a few fixed expressions, however,
go is used without a preposition:
go home / go downtown /
go uptown |
So basically, there are just a few expressions that defy the rule and there's no clear reason why. |
English is full of fixed expressions, many using articles and some not. They are idiomatic units and should be taught as such since attempting to analyse them won't work. |
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MollyBloom
Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Location: James Joyce's pants
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:39 am Post subject: |
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Sorry to hijack, but what's the difference between "of course" and "sure"? I was thinking along the lines that you can ask "Are you sure?" and not "Are you of course?"
On a test my co-teacher made, "sure" and "of course" is apparently the same word in Korean, but "of course" was the answer she chose. Some students that were more fluent shit a brick when they got it wrong. |
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Letsbehonestaboutit
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 5:14 am Post subject: |
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| MollyBloom wrote: |
Sorry to hijack, but what's the difference between "of course" and "sure"? I was thinking along the lines that you can ask "Are you sure?" and not "Are you of course?"
On a test my co-teacher made, "sure" and "of course" is apparently the same word in Korean, but "of course" was the answer she chose. Some students that were more fluent shit a brick when they got it wrong. |
In the example you've given, the difference between "sure" and "of course" is that the two words have different meanings. "Sure" means "certain" and "of course" means an affirmative "yes". "Of course" doesn't mean "certain," so you can't ask "Are you of course?" or "Are you yes?" as it makes no sense.
However, "sure" can also be used as an affirmative "yes" as in:
P1: Are you coming?
P2: Sure (yes)
P1: Are you coming?
P2: Of course (yes)
P1: Are you coming?
P2: certain (sure)
P1: Are you coming?
P2: Of course (sure, yes) |
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Bread
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 5:23 am Post subject: |
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| MollyBloom wrote: |
Sorry to hijack, but what's the difference between "of course" and "sure"? I was thinking along the lines that you can ask "Are you sure?" and not "Are you of course?"
On a test my co-teacher made, "sure" and "of course" is apparently the same word in Korean, but "of course" was the answer she chose. Some students that were more fluent shit a brick when they got it wrong. |
"Of course" means "certainly" or "surely." As far as I know, it's short for "as a matter of course." |
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Letsbehonestaboutit
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 8:15 am Post subject: |
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