Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[missdaredevil]

1.the way, where were you in the pictures, Teresa's?

2.Is *cost-effective* used to describe people or things?


3.What is IELTS score equivalent of TOEFL 650?
What is the right way to say that? The way I wrote it has to be wrong.


4.If I were to explain what a "toe" mean?
Is it ok to say "it's a finger of your foot" ?


5.Why did you say *so*=Why didn't you say that earlier?

Is that the right interpretation?

6. I hate being in a crowd
or
I hate being in crowds

Which one is correct?

[redset]

1. Sorry, I really don't get what you're saying here. Can you try and explain it in a different way?

2. Usually 'cost-effective' is used for things which cost money, especially things where you have to keep spending money on them (like a business, or something that uses electricity). It means that the results you get are good value for the amount of money you spend. You could use it for people, but usually only if they're providing a service, like someone who comes to clean your house.

3. I'd put 'the' in front of 'IELTS' (because you're asking for the equivalent) but otherwise that's fine. It looks strange to people who don't understand the terminology - you could change it to 'what is the IELTS equivalent of a TOEFL score of 650?', but your original sentence is fine for talking to people who know about IELTS and TOEFL scores

4. That's a pretty good explanation! You're using what's called an analogy - taking something the other person understands (hand and fingers) and comparing them to what they don't understand (foot and toes). You could say 'it's like a finger of your foot' or 'toes are like your foot's fingers' - saying 'like' is similar to saying 'they're not really fingers', if you need to make that clear.

5. Did you mean 'why didn't you say so?' If you did then yes, you're right - it means 'why didn't you say that was the case?', whatever the two people are talking about. But it's unusual to hear 'why did you say so?' - that would mean 'why did you say it?' and seems to imply that there was a reason why the person should have kept quiet about it.

6. They basically mean the same thing. The first one sounds a little bit more poetic to me, but that's just me.