Korean Job Discussion Forums

alphalfa · Joined: 12 Feb 2003

I'm not quite certain about the proper answer form to ~
Q1:How do you go to school? Q2: How do you come to school?

For Q1 I would answer I walk. On foot. [WALK]
I take the bus/subway. [BUS/SUBWAY]
I take my bike. [BIKE]
I take my car. [CAR] *adults would say

For Q2 I would answer I walk. On foot. [WALK]
By bus/subway. [BUS/SUBWAY]
By car [CAR]
By bike [BIKE]

In the teaching material I have been asked to teach from ~
the answer to Q1 says " I go to school by bus/subway."

Enlighten me please on this particular grammar point.

alphalfa

katepult · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:11 pm Post subject:

I'd use either of your answers with either question.

The material is probably asking you to teach "I go to school by___" to have the students get more practice making complete sentences. If it's a basic book, the authors probably don't want to introduce too many possibilities at once.

Is it English Time 3? I remember there's a unit that covers that question and transportation vocabulary.

katepult · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:13 pm Post subject:

Just thought of this after I posted.

I'd usually use "How do you come to school?" if I'm at school asking the question. I'd use "How do you go to school?" if I'm not at school.

Straphanger · Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Location: Chilgok, Korea

Two ways to say the same thing, you're just using two different verbs - one is to take and the other is to go.

The prepositional phrase (adverb phrase) in the predicate in case 1 - I go to school by bus. - performs the additional adverbial function by modifying the verb to go (as does the prepositional phrase "to school"). [Warriner's, Second Course, Chapter 14]

The second case - I take the bus - is a simple sentence with a subject pronoun, the verb to take, bus as the object, modified by the article the. But you've removed the other adverbial phrase that is present in the first case. [Warriner's, Chapter 10]

The problem is that, depending on your level, they may or may not know that the object of an interrogative is conserved in the responsive declarative statement. The second case response, for lower level speakers, should be "I take the bus to school." with the prepositional phrase "to school" performing the same adverbial function as it does in the question, except in the question it's modifying to go and in the answer it's modifying to take.