Teacher Discussion Forums

When Reagan was President he had Prince Charles round to tea. He offered him a cup of tea, with the tea bag still in the cup and was amazed when Charles just stared at it, not knowing what to do. You'd think the White House could afford an etiquette advisor. Hmmm... To be honest, Stephen, you'd thi...

Oh, thank you! You're both too kind. And they use "Did you ever.........?" when it doesn't mean "at any time during that finished period of your life". They can't spell, or make decent tea, or use the present perfect, or use gears on their cars, or walk without looking as if they've got off a horse....

Hi all

Americans use the words yet and already quite regularly with the simple past tense.

Amy

Hi Itasan The term joyriding is well-known in the US, too. Joyriding is driving a car simply for pleasure and excitement, and the driving is often done recklessly and at high speed. The car is often driven without the owner's permission. In the US joyriding doesn't necessarily mean that the car was ...

Hi Before anybody gets into possible differences, it should be mentioned that " any longer " is always written as two words. " No one " is also written as two words (or possibly hyphenated). And now a question: Did you really mean to write anymore (one word, AmE usage) or did you possibly mean to wr...

'flannel panel' I have read some kind of definition on this, but I cannot grasp the image too well. I wonder if I could have some sample articles of this kind. Hi Itasan I found these for "flannel panel": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannel_panel http://www.magforum.com/glossaryd.htm http://answer...

My Japanese-English dictionary says: 1. neutered - mainly UK 2. altered - mainly US, Aus 3. castrated - no indication Is this true? Thank you. 'My Japanese-English dictionary says: ' in answer to what? 8) If Itasan is talking about neutering pets, I have to admit that I always "get the cat / dog fi...

Hi 'The President's been shot!' and 'Somebody's shot the President!' If the President of the US had just been shot, I seriously doubt that any American would run around emotionally using the present perfect to announce it. 8) I also think the active is much more emotional than the passive. Using the...

Hi Stephen Thanks for your take on things. I'm aware of what the dictionaries say - now. Most of the ones I checked make notations that the usage is "chiefly British". But apparently this notation has been recently dropped. The thing is, a word like immediately isn't the sort of word a native speake...

Hi JuanTwoThree Thanks for the input. It's entirely possible that I may have heard this from British colleagues on occasion (here in Germany) and simply ignored it as a slip of the tongue. Or I may have even read it somewhere and just assumed a typo. :lol: The problem is that if one of my students h...

Hi Itasan As far as I know: 1. "Daylight time" would mainly be used when referring to the time in specific US time zones. For example: EDT = Eastern Daylight Time (vs. EST/Eastern Standard Time during the rest of the year) MDT = Mountain Daylight Time (vs. MST/Mountain Standard Time during the rest ...

Hi JuanTwoThree Thanks very much for the link. There were a few "live" examples for immediately used as a conjunction included there. Can I assume the usage is "new" for you, too? Or had you heard it before? What I'd like to do, if possible, is get a feel for just how regularly these two words are u...

Hi everybody I was wondering if some of you could give me some input. I've recently found out that the words directly and immediately can be used as conjunctions in British English. The meaning is apparently the same as as soon as . Example: " I'll come directly I've finished. " As I understand it, ...

Hi fluffy If I ask my students to produce sentences using a particular verb tense, grammar point, etc., I usually give them a minimum number of words that must be used in their examples. :twisted: I do this in an effort to avoid just the sort of "wishy-washy-ness" you're talking about. Creating a fi...

Hi Itasan

You can also use the verb downshift (which means 'to shift into a lower gear').

Amy