Thread: The difference between 'sat' and 'sitting' explained.

btw I think "I'm going to go..." is 100% formal and correct by any standard in any variety of English; without "to go" it's probably colloquial but still fine to use, imo.

You're right that "I'm going to go" is entirely correct in any dialect of English. I never care about formal language. If a native speaker says that 'this is correct' I consider it correct as well. When my university teacher (who I don't quite like) says that what I say is not grammatical I just keep silent and think: How does she know what is grammatical and what is not? Then if I tell her that a native speaker read my essay (for example) and said that it's fine that means it's fine. I have never learned formal language. I study English to communcate with other people. To me, it's strange to see formal posts when discussing commonplace things.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

You're right that "I'm going to go" is entirely correct in any dialect of English. I never care about formal language. If a native speaker says that 'this is correct' I consider it correct as well. ...

You can't really think this way. You can't imagine how many people speak a non-grammatical English, even if they are native English people.
She's a teacher and probably spent years studying the correct English (grammar, spelling, etymology) and not the one that everybody speaks.
For example, you can hear a lot of people say "it don't matter" or "what you said?" which are okay but only as an everyday English, and some people won't even notice the mistake. But both are grammatically incorrect.

I think this problem is the same everywhere whatever the language.

To be honest, I am English through and through and honestly say the phrase all the time. I am from Leeds though so my Yorkshire accent makes me sound much worse!

The whole point of this thread was mainly to give anyone help who has this problem/has had in the past, but also to see whether other english/english speaking people have the same problem with grammar in general - this was just an example as my father pointed it out when I mentioned Russian language and this forum...

Still interesting to hear comments etc...

Andy

"I will be going there tomorrow."
"I'll be going there tomorrow."
"I am planning to go there tomorrow."
"I'm thinking about going there tomorrow."
"I'm going there today."

Originally Posted by Spiderkat

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

You're right that "I'm going to go" is entirely correct in any dialect of English. I never care about formal language. If a native speaker says that 'this is correct' I consider it correct as well. ...

You can't really think this way. You can't imagine how many people speak a non-grammatical English, even if they are native English people.
She's a teacher and probably spent years studying the correct English (grammar, spelling, etymology) and not the one that everybody speaks.
For example, you can hear a lot of people say "it don't matter" or "what you said?" which are okay but only as an everyday English, and some people won't even notice the mistake. But both are grammatically incorrect.

I think this problem is the same everywhere whatever the language.

What you said? Is cleary wrong, and sound wrong to most educated people. However, "I'm going to school tmorrow" sounds fine to almost everybody. I think you will find that in modern revised English grammars this phrase is fine. It is only in old books that this will be described as wrong.

I suppose the same can be said for the Russian phrase "Завтра я иду в кино".

Originally Posted by JB

"I will be going there tomorrow."
"I'll be going there tomorrow."
"I am planning to go there tomorrow."
"I'm thinking about going there tomorrow."
"I'm going there today."

Eh? Nobody questioned phrases like that iirc.
It's really simple. There are phrases that are used only locally, or otherwise looked down upon by a lot of people. The one that started this thread is probably one. I myself use words like "sjudoj"/"tudoj" at times, but when around people whom I would not like to come across to as uneducated I may try to avoid them. In such cases, a non-native speaker might want to avoid them too.

And there are expressions like "I'm going there tomorrow" or "since two months ago" or "u nego netu doma" or probably lots more that I can't think about right now, which are fine with just about anyone except for a few select pundits. And these are fine for anyone imo, native speaker or not.

Originally Posted by TATY

What you said? Is cleary wrong, and sound wrong to most educated people. However, "I'm going to school tmorrow" sounds fine to almost everybody. I think you will find that in modern revised English grammars this phrase is fine. It is only in old books that this will be described as wrong.

I suppose the same can be said for the Russian phrase "Завтра я иду в кино".

I agree with you and you don't need to be educated to know that it's cleary wrong. A proper education is not given to everybody and some people don't even know the basis of English grammar, or went through so quickly that they don't remember part of it.

You can't really think this way. You can't imagine how many people speak a non-grammatical English, even if they are native English people.
She's a teacher and probably spent years studying the correct English (grammar, spelling, etymology) and not the one that everybody speaks.
For example, you can hear a lot of people say "it don't matter" or "what you said?" which are okay but only as an everyday English, and some people won't even notice the mistake. But both are grammatically incorrect.

I think this problem is the same everywhere whatever the language.

You're right that I can't imagine how many people speak non-grammatical English even if they are native English speakers. This is because I have never met such people. Hope I won't ever meet them.

What you said? Is cleary wrong, and sound wrong to most educated people. However, "I'm going to school tmorrow" sounds fine to almost everybody. I think you will find that in modern revised English grammars this phrase is fine. It is only in old books that this will be described as wrong.

I suppose the same can be said for the Russian phrase "Завтра я иду в кино".

Sounds good to me.
You have always got to keep up with "modern revised English grammars". I don't think English changes so quickly you constantly have to worry about whether something new was accepted
the other day. I mean that grammars change fairly quickly if we see them as part of language.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

You're right that I can't imagine how many people speak non-grammatical English even if they are native English speakers. This is because I have never met such people. Hope I won't ever meet them.

Unfortunately you can't tell what's gonna be at first sight when you meet them but only when they start to speak.

I fully agree with you here.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

You're right that "I'm going to go" is entirely correct in any dialect of English. I never care about formal language. If a native speaker says that 'this is correct' I consider it correct as well.

You would if you cared about your social status. Not everything you can say to your friends or write online and be understood works well in an application or at an interview for a job. Let's not make a little cult out of "native speakers", there are many ignorant idiots among them too. I would not trust teaching let's say Russian to just any bum off the street of Moscow.

Let's not make a little cult out of "native speakers", there are many ignorant idiots among them too.

That's right. I just don't talk to such people. Usually when I come to an English-speaking country I try to find people who I've got something to share with. Then communication becomes much more exciting!

You would if you cared about your social status.

I'm middle class, I suppose, so I don't care much about my social status. I am positive that even an impeccably educated person would not get upset or something if he heard "I'm going there tomorrow". What do you think?

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

I am positive that even an impeccably educated person would not get upset or something if he heard "I'm going there tomorrow". What do you think?

He could but then it's a medical condition.

Then he's a genius who needs to see a doctor. It's well known that genius's behavior's sometimes significantly resembles that of a psycho.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

I'm middle class, I suppose, so I don't care much about my social status. I am positive that even an impeccably educated person would not get upset or something if he heard "I'm going there tomorrow". What do you think?

There's nothing wrong saying "I'm going there tomorrow" since it's grammatically correct to use the present continous for a future event.

I know. We have already figured it out

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

I know. We have already figured it out

I know but since you wrote "what do you think", I just thought you had a 1% doubt.

And you were absolutely right when you thought I had a 1% doubt. Honestly, I had a 5% doubt