Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Would you please help me with the following sentences?

1) One month after he turns 65, he will retire and buy a house at / on (?) the beach. (Can both prepositions be used here? Would they give a different meaning to the sentence ?)

2) The last bus gets to the station at ten to eleven. (is "to" a preposition? Does somebody know where the expression comes from?)

3) When / If things go wrong�. (are both conjunctions correct here?
Could somebody tell me what we can say next?)

4) Since his son�s arrest, two days before, he hadn�t slept very much . (is �two days ago� possible too?)

5) Could somebody give me an interesting sentence with the expression 'prim and proper', please ?

Many thanks,
Hela

[CP]

1. Either will work. A house at the beach might be in the beach town but not necessarily right on the sand. A house on the beach is on the sand.

2. It means 10 minutes before 11 o'clock. We also say 10 of 11 and 10 before 11. I suppose it comes from meaning 10 minutes to go before it is 11 o'clock.

3. When things go wrong implies that things will go wrong; it's only a matter of time. If things go wrong implies that everything might go right.

When things go wrong, Sally gets depressed. If things go wrong, we can always sell the house and move to Tahiti.

4. You don't want to say �two days ago� because that means "two days before right now." "Two days before" means "two days before the time of writing / saying this."

5. The twins, just five years old, were dressed in identical dresses, starched to perfection, all prim and proper, and they were on their best behavior for the wedding.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[hela]

Thank you very much for your help, CP

All the best,
Hela