Engleski jezik, reči i gramatika, XII deo

Danas donosimo nekoliko zanimljivih primera jezičkih nedoumica u engleskom jeziku. Da li je on “handsome” ili “beautiful”, proverite u nastavku 🙂

111. When do you use “your/you’re”?
The word your is used to show ownership like your car or your school. Whereas, the contraction you’re is used for the words you are as in the sentence, “You’re invited to my party this Saturday night.” Both words are pronounced the same way.

112. Double negatives
Do you catch yourself saying double negatives like “She cannot go no where?” A double negative is using two negative words or phrases in the same sentence. This sentence should be rephrased to read, “She cannot go anywhere.”

113. When to use “between/among”?
The word between is used when you have two items or people in your sentence, while the word among is used for more than two items or people. These sentences show you the correct way to use these words: “Mother placed the flowers between the candles on the table” (this would mean there are only 2 candles); and “Mr. Jones reviewed the new law case among other cases” (this would mean that Mr. Jones talked about the new case, as well as more than 2 other cases).

114. “Arrived at/arrived to/arrived in”?
You must pay particular attention to what it is that you want to say and then match the preposition “at, to, or in” with the verb arrived. For example, you would say that you “…arrived at such and such time.” You would say, “You arrived at an audition or at the school.” And you would say, “You arrived in a certain place like New York.”

115. What is the difference between “gender/sex”?
Many people use these words interchangeably, but they do have different meanings. Sex refers to male or female and their biological and physiological characteristics. Gender refers to masculine or feminine and behaviors, roles, expectations and activities in society.

116. “Beautiful or handsome”?
Beautiful is an adjective that means aesthetically appealing. It is generally used to describe the female beauty of softness, meekness and grace. Many things are beautiful: the sunrise, the weather, children, a friendship, a Power Point presentation, etc. Handsome is usually a form of beauty that is associated with a good-looking male of any age. However, it can also be used to describe something that is large like a handsome wage (meaning a good wage or lots of money).

117. “Since/because”?
Since and because are both conjunctions. Since generally refers to time like “I have not cleaned my house since Saturday.” In this case, if you substituted the word because for since, the sentence would not make sense: “I have not cleaned by house because Saturday.” On the other hand, the word because would be used in sentences to explain a cause or reason of but not dealing with time: “The children played at the park with their babysitter because their mother was gone shopping.”

118. “This morning/today morning”?
You would never use the expression today morning. Instead, say the word today at the beginning of your sentence or this morning. For example, “Today the sunrise was beautiful” or “This morning the sunrise was beautiful.”

119. “Scan/skim”?
Many people use these words interchangeably, but they really mean two different things. Both are verbs. Scanning is to search for something (a word, phrase, diagram or other piece of information) within a book or other written material, possibly in an index or table of contents. Skimming is used to gather quickly as much information as you can from browsing the content, chapter titles, summaries, etc. You scan to find a specific detail; you skim to get an overview.

120. When to use “off/of”?
These are two different words with different spellings and meanings. Off is the opposite of on. Of is a preposition used to mean the distance or direction from, the source, the cause, or the contents. So you turn off the television and you read a table of contents.