Q&A - P2 English

[jedamum]

Hi Learning Partners,

Thanks a lot for the clarifications.

[24hr-mum]

this word order my child got it wrong (P2 eng)

she wrote: would u like to go with me to the movies?
teacher said shd be ‘would you like to go to the movies with me’
why?

[iFruit]

lauren:

this word order my child got it wrong (P2 eng)

she wrote: would u like to go with me to the movies?
teacher said shd be 'would you like to go to the movies with me'
why?

I think \"movies\" is the direct object here and \"me\" is the indirect object, and structurally it should come in the format of (subject + verb + direct object + indirect object)

That's the reason why the first sentence above sounds strange which comes in the format of (subject + verb + indirect object + direct object)

OTOH, if you make \"me\" as the direct object it sounds fine as in the following.

\"Would you like to go with her to the circus or would you like to go with me to the movies?\"

All very difficult to explain to a P2 but I suppose the sentence structure is something they pick up automatically as they read widely

[24hr-mum]

oh no, i still dun understand.

are they any bks on sentence structure?
wat abt this word order question:

i went to the show recently
i recently went to the show

is 2nd one wrong? why?

i thot word order was easy till my girl made such mistakes.

[iFruit]

lauren:

oh no, i still dun understand.

are they any bks on sentence structure?
wat abt this word order question:

i went to the show recently
i recently went to the show

is 2nd one wrong? why?

i thot word order was easy till my girl made such mistakes.

This is a adverb (\"recently\") positioning question. Adverbs of time (\"recently\", \"now\",\"yesterday\") come at the end of verb/object. Adverbs of frequency of time (\"usually\", \"never\") come before verb.

If you replace \"recently\" with \"yesterday\", you will see why second one sounds strange.


I went to the show yesterday.
I yesterday went to the show



I'll let others comment on grammar books. There are plenty out there..and then there is this big debate about the use of grammar books. It appears the prevailing theory is that you pick up grammar from reading and speaking widely (which is not necessarily wrong).

HTH

[jedamum]

iFruit:

I went to the show yesterday.
I yesterday went to the show

the first sentence is an Eng sentence.
the second sentence sounds like a sentence translated from a CL sentence.

my boy is opposite. he can write correct Eng sentence, but his CL sentence, he tend to translate from EL and get \"I went to the show yesterday\" for CL \"Wo qu can dian ying zhuo tian.\"
have to converse frequently to get it straight.

[24hr-mum]

what abt ‘i went recently to the show’?

recently is after ‘went’ but still wrong?

[jesschan]

jedamum:

tend to translate from EL and get \"I went to the show yesterday\" for CL \"Wo qu can dian ying zhuo tian.\"

same as my boy! was just reminding him recently before his CL oral not to make this mistake ...

[iFruit]

lauren:

what abt 'i went recently to the show'?

recently is after 'went' but still wrong?

The time adverb should come last. You can replace \"recently\" with \"yesterday\" and see the difference.

\"I went yesterday to the show.\"


It just doesn't sound right..

[Tinkerbelle]

jesschan:

jedamum:

tend to translate from EL and get \"I went to the show yesterday\" for CL \"Wo qu can dian ying zhuo tian.\"

same as my boy! was just reminding him recently before his CL oral not to make this mistake ...

:hi5: My DD also write CL sentences based on her translation from EL. Thus, she seems to be writing broken Chinese most of the time. She's in P1 so I hope it's not too late for her to learn to differentiate between the two.