Could you please help 8-year-old Shanghai boy improve his English?...

[fionamw]

Andy:

I go to chess school in the morning and go to swim in the afternoon this week.

I think we might say .... and then swim in the afternoon.... but there's nothing really wrong with your sentence!


I got a prize today. It was for my good grades.[/SIZE]</SIZE>[/quote]

(charlie got a prize in December for Spanish but has lost the book....!)

oh, the sentence was excellent too!!

 

[May]

I think we might say .... and then swim in the afternoon.... but there's nothing really wrong with your sentence!

xièxie (Thank you!)

Your suggestion sounds much better. It's terse.

 

[May]

Andy:

I bought a chess reference book today.It's very helpful.

 

[fionamw]

xièxie (Thank you!)

Your suggestion sounds much better. It's terse.

Terse usually implies a bit unpleasantly short, particularly in face to face conversation. You wouldn't usually use it about written language. Maybe you meant to say succinct? Oh the joys of English!!!!

Andy:

I bought a chess reference book today.It's very helpful.

Perfect. Nothing to add!

 

[May]

Terse usually implies a bit unpleasantly short, particularly in face to face conversation. You wouldn't usually use it about written language. Maybe you meant to say succinct? Oh the joys of English!!!!

I'm sorry! You are right.

It's succinct! Actually I checked the word in the dictionery and found both succinct and terse. I just chose one of them without thinking.

Thank you so much!

Have a nice weekend!

 

[May]

Andy:

My Mum will attend the annual dinner of their company tonight. There will be lucky draw.It must be very funny.

What's a pity it is! I can't go with her as I need go swimming.

 

[fionamw]

Andy:

My Mum will attend the annual dinner of their company tonight. There will be lucky draw.It must be very funny.

What's a pity it is! I can't go with her as I need go swimming.

The first sentence is a bit tricky. It depends on whether it's her own company (ie she's the boss) or the company she works for. Assuming it's not her company, I think you'd be most likely to say:

My Mum is going to her company's annual dinner tonight. (if it were her own company you'd probably say something like My Mum's holding her company annual dinner tonight.... but it's not a hard and fast rule!)
Second sentence: There will be going to be a lucky draw) It must be very funny... well I'm sorry I'm not sure what you mean. You might mean 'That will be fun' or 'It will be funny if she wins' or something else. Let me know! I don't think it really makes sense (to me... could be me, of course!) at the moment.

The last two I think you'd run together: It's a shame (or pity, but I think you'd more likely say shame) I can't go, as I have to go swimming (or I have my swimming class).

Enjoy the dinner!!

 

[May]

The first sentence is a bit tricky. It depends on whether it's her own company (ie she's the boss) or the company she works for. Assuming it's not her company, I think you'd be most likely to say:

My Mum is going to her company's annual dinner tonight. (if it were her own company you'd probably say something like My Mum's holding her company annual dinner tonight.... but it's not a hard and fast rule!)
Second sentence: There will be going to be a lucky draw) It must be very funny... well I'm sorry I'm not sure what you mean. You might mean 'That will be fun' or 'It will be funny if she wins' or something else. Let me know! I don't think it really makes sense (to me... could be me, of course!) at the moment.

The last two I think you'd run together: It's a shame (or pity, but I think you'd more likely say shame) I can't go, as I have to go swimming (or I have my swimming class).

Enjoy the dinner!!

Thank you so much!

That's not my own company. I work for a company headquartered in NewYork.

In China, it's a kind of tradition that companies arrange nice dinners to entertainment employees and their families before Chinese New Year.

Lucky draw is a traditional program too. The company prepares gifts for each one. And which gift will someone get is totally depends on lucky. I got a supermarket gift card valued around us$100.

There also were different kinds of performance during our dinner too. That's really funny. Our workmates sang,danced etc. It was a crazy night.

PS: BTW, when you have time, please take a look at the PM.xièxie (Thank you!)

 

[May]

Andy:

We are going to buy some fireworks and play with them in the evening. Off we go!

 

[May]

Andy: We lighted fireworks in the evening just now. They were really beautiful.

 

[May]

Andy: I played two sets of chess today. I got one and lost Eone.

 

[fionamw]

Andy:

We are going to buy some fireworks and play with them in the evening. Off we go!

Andy: We lighted fireworks in the evening just now. They were really beautiful.

I don't think we'd say 'play with' fireworks, only because we'd know people might think that was strange &amp; a bit dangerous &amp; might laugh... so we'd probably say 'let them off' or 'watch them' .

Wejust lit our fireworks..... just now is a phrase you usually only use to clarify to someone exactly when you're talking about, eg 'when did you let the fireworks off? Just now.

 

[fionamw]

Andy: I played two sets of chess today. I got one and lost Eone.

Well done!
I won one and lost one (horrible confusion I know, but it's correct - English spelling, huh!

 

[May]

Andy:

Mum bought lots of foods after she was off work.

 

[fionamw]

Andy:

Mum bought lots of foods after she was off work.

This could mean several things, so I'll approach it differently for each possibility:

Mum bought lots of food when she finished work today, or

Mum bought a lot of food when she finished work today, or

Mum did the shopping (a common shortened version to say you're doing the household grocery shopping...different to 'going shopping' which might mean going out looking for clothes, or whatever) when she finished work today
or

Mum .. (all the above options)..... after work today
or

maybe, though I think this is not what you meant,

Mum was off work today and she ...... (all the options) this one would be because you've used the phrase 'off work' which would usually be used to mean not at work for some reason like a holiday, or a day off, or maybe poorly, etc)

It's been raining on and off for days here.... yuk!! (mind you, we need the rain, the reservoirs were VERY low after a year's low rainfall, until a week before Christmas, when it started raining and seems never to have stopped!!!! I looked at a webpage on Sanya today, it looks utterly beautiful.

 

[May]

This could mean several things, so I'll approach it differently for each possibility:

Mum bought lots of food when she finished work today, or

Mum bought a lot of food when she finished work today, or

Mum did the shopping (a common shortened version to say you're doing the household grocery shopping...different to 'going shopping' which might mean going out looking for clothes, or whatever) when she finished work today
or

Mum .. (all the above options)..... after work today
or

maybe, though I think this is not what you meant,

Mum was off work today and she ...... (all the options) this one would be because you've used the phrase 'off work' which would usually be used to mean not at work for some reason like a holiday, or a day off, or maybe poorly, etc)

It's been raining on and off for days here.... yuk!! (mind you, we need the rain, the reservoirs were VERY low after a year's low rainfall, until a week before Christmas, when it started raining and seems never to have stopped!!!! I looked at a webpage on Sanya today, it looks utterly beautiful.[/quote]

Thank you so much!

Mum bought lots of food after work today.

 

[May]

I don't think we'd say 'play with' fireworks, only because we'd know people might think that was strange &amp; a bit dangerous &amp; might laugh... so we'd probably say 'let them off' or 'watch them' .

Wejust lit our fireworks..... just now is a phrase you usually only use to clarify to someone exactly when you're talking about, eg 'when did you let the fireworks off? Just now.

Make sense!

Thank you!

 

[May]

Well done!
I won one and lost one (horrible confusion I know, but it's correct - English spelling, huh!

Got it! Thanks!

Hope it will be sunny tommorrow in Spain!

 

[May]

Andy:

I couldn't find out my winter holiday homework today. Where can it be?

 

[May]

Andy:

Mum forgot to buy me chess excerise book today.