Thread: проверьте, пожалуйста+)) (2)

Dear Simon,
I have good news for you! I have been looking in the listings for the last two months without any success but then a friend of mine suggested me to go directly to a real estate agent… I have found three places which you may be interested in: a flat, a small house and a big one. The flat is the cheapest and it’s nearest the centre of town. But I can’t say that it’s an advantage- the center is dirty and dangerous. The flat is more modern than the others but unfortunately it’s the noisiest. The small house is a typical ranch-house. It’s simply elongated one-story house made of wood and it’s really cozy. This house is more expensive than the flat but less expensive than the big house. It’s farther away from the centre of town than the flat and the area is quieter. It’s the oldest from all. I spotted a good private school there and an acre is considered to be quite nice. If you feel like keeping up with the Joneses buy the big house. It’s the Spanish style house with red roof and arches. It’s the most expensive of all, and it’s also the farthest from the city. I guess it’s not a problem for you because you get used to commute. It’s bigger than the others and it’s much quieter. It’s also newer than the small house but older than the flat, and it’s in the most beautiful area of all. The lot here is big enough. You’d better come and see yourself. I advise you to take out a loan from a bank as soon as you can. The bottom line is: the longer you wait-the higher prices are. Take care.
Yours, Andy.

Originally Posted by flowforever

Dear Simon,
I have good news for you! I have been looking in the listings for the last two months without any success, but then a friend of mine suggested that I (better, but your version is good) go directly to a real estate agent… I have found three places which you may be interested in: a flat, a small house and a big one. The flat is the cheapest and it’s the nearest to the centre of town. But I can’t say that that’s an advantage- the center is dirty and dangerous. The flat is more modern than the others but unfortunately it’s the noisiest. The small house is a typical ranch-house. It’s simply an elongated one-story house made of wood and it’s really cozy. This house is more expensive than the flat but less expensive than the big house. It’s farther away from the centre of town than the flat and the area is quieter. It’s the oldest of all. I spotted a good private school there and an acre is considered to be quite nice. If you feel like keeping up with the Joneses, buy the big house. It’s a Spanish style house with a red roof and arches. It’s the most expensive of all, and it’s also the farthest from the city. I guess that’s not a problem for you because you get[are?] used to commute. It’s bigger than the others and it’s much quieter. It’s also newer than the small house but older than the flat, and it’s in the most beautiful area of all. The lot here is big enough [for what?]. You’d better come and see for yourself. I advise you to take out a loan from a bank as soon as you can. The bottom line is: the longer you wait-the higher the prices will be. Take care.
Yours, Andy.

теперь тебя зовут Andy???

You are using hyphens instead of dashes. It may be alright in an e-mail, but I suggest that you learn to use dashes correctly, because when you type letters or courseworks in MS Word, incorrectly used dashes become conspicuous. (Normally, I wouldn't pay much attention to punctuation in forum posts, but you seem to be striving for perfection, so here goes):

But I can’t say that that’s an advantage- the center is dirty and dangerous.

If you want to use a dash here, it should be a long dash (so called em-dash):
But I can’t say that that’s an advantage—the center is dirty and dangerous.
Alternatively, you can use the "typewriter-style dash" (i.e. replace long dashes with double hyphens, like this: "But I can’t say that that’s an advantage--the center is dirty and dangerous". This only works for web forum posts etc; proper dashes should be used in any serious document.

The bottom line is: the longer you wait-the higher the prices will be.

I think you need a comma here rather than a dash:
The bottom line is: the longer you wait, the higher the prices will be.

The lot here is big enough

Perhaps, "fairly large"?

Depending on what you meant for this sentence here are 2 versions with corrections and alternatives:

I guess it's/that's not a problem for you because you are used to commuting.

or

I guess it will not/won't be a problem for you because you will get used to the commute.

Also I agree the sentence about the lot needs something, for example:

The lot here is big enough for a garden.

Originally Posted by flowforever

Dear Simon,
I have been looking in the listings for the last two months without any success but then a friend of mine suggested me to go directly to a real estate agent…

Why are the Present perfect continuous tense used here? Maybe the Past perfect continuous tense should be used instead?
(like I had been looking in the listings for the last two months without any success but then a friend of mine suggested me to go directly to a real estate agent… )????

also, can I say "I had been looking in the listings for the last two months without any success when a friend of mine suggested me to go directly to a real estate agent… " instead of that sentence???

Also, can I say "I had been looking in the listings for the last two months without any success when a friend of mine suggested to me to go directly to a real estate agent… " instead of that sentence???
This works, but it's kind of a run-on sentence in my opinion. I would suggest something like:
I'd looked in the for two months, but without any success. A friend of mine advised me to go directly to a real estate agent.
OR:
I had been looking in the listings for two months when a friend suggested that I go directly to a real estate agent.

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

теперь тебя зовут Andy???

Шифруюсь
Всем БОЛЬШОЕ спасибо+))

I would say: I have been looking in the listings for the past two months without any success until recently when a friend of mine suggested I go directly to a real estate agent. Yes its a long sentence but I don't think its a run-on sentence.

Other corrections:

It’s the oldest from all. It's the oldest of all/of them all.

Joneses Jones' To make a word ending in S either plural or possesive you just add an apostophe. It is still pronounced like Joneses.

It’s the Spanish style house with red roof and arches It's a spanish style house with a red roof and arches.

I guess it’s not a problem for you because you get used to commute. There are alot of things you could replace this with. I would say: It should not be a problem as I'm sure you'll get used to the commute.

You’d better come and see yourself. see them yourself /see for yourself /see it for yourself /see them for yourself

As for dashes and hypens, they are the same thing. I say this because there is only one key (on a US keyboard at least) that will make anything similar. If there ever was a difference between the two it is lost now. With that said, I think you use them way too much. I try not to use them at all except in hyphenated words.

Originally Posted by Layne

Joneses Jones' To make a word ending in S either plural or possesive you just add an apostophe. It is still pronounced like Joneses.

No, you're absolutely wrong!
Here's a quote from this site:

Plurals and Possession

My friends and I were having a discussion the other day concerning the possessive of names which end in the letter 's'. Several of us remembered being taught that, for example, it was correct to use either James' or James's to indicated that something belonged to James. Others in our group were adamant that only James' was correct. Could you clarify the issue for us?

Answer: Forming possession on words that end in s" is much less confusing if you sound out the word. The rule you are trying to remember concerns forming possession on *plural* nouns — not words ending in "s" generally.

Though it ends in "s," "James" is singular: "James is a great guy." To indicate possession, you would *say*, "Fido is Jamziz dog." You would write, therefore, "James's."

Say you live next door to a family surnamed James. When describing the lot of them, you'd form a plural with "es": the Jameses. You would use the "es" because the singular ends in "s," and we couldn't pronounce the double-s: the Jamess. You would *say*, "We are dining with the Jamziz (Jameses) tonight."

When describing a family possession, you'd *say*, "That is the Jamziz car," but you would write, "Jameses'." In this case, you would not need the extra "s." It does not get pronounced. You do not say,"Jamziziz." The apostrophe alone suffices to indicate possession.

Apostrophes, by the way, indicate that something has been left out (don't = do not). What is left out with 's is a morpheme English used to use a long time ago. In 1290, we would have written something like "Fido is Jamesis dog."

Wow, I've never heard that before. Its not the first time school teachers have misinfomed me.

I read that it would have been "Jameses dog", rather than "Jamesis", from an Anglo-Saxon case.

Still, I think you're rather more likely to see "Jones' car" than "Joneses' car". In fact, what's wrong with that? The apostrophe in the former now represents "eses" instead of just "es". Seems fair to me, if informal.

Wow, I've never heard that before. Its not the first time school teachers have misinfomed me.

School teachers, they are the same everywhere
My teacher of Russian sometimes corrected my phrases, which actually where already correct, and thus turned them into wrong ones! One instance that I still remember is this:
I wrote:
"во что бы то ни стало" - 100% correct;
She corrected it into:
"во чтобы то ни стало" - 100% wrong.

Still, I think you're rather more likely to see "Jones' car" than "Joneses' car". In fact, what's wrong with that?

Well, if that wasn't enough for you read this

The apostrophe in the former now represents "eses" instead of just "es".

Not sure what you meant. Following your logic, if the apostrophe represents "eses", then your "Jones' car" in full would be "Joneseses car"

Originally Posted by Seventh-Monkey

I read that it would have been "Jameses dog", rather than "Jamesis", from an Anglo-Saxon case.

Still, I think you're rather more likely to see "Jones' car" than "Joneses' car". In fact, what's wrong with that? The apostrophe in the former now represents "eses" instead of just "es". Seems fair to me, if informal.

Yeh you are talking trash.

Regarding apostrophe, it's not that simple.

If a word ends in an S. In the singular you add 's.

The Bus's wheels (the wheels of the bus).
But if the next word starts with an S, you JUST ADD AN APOSTROPHE:
The Bus' seats. (the seats of the bus)

The witness's account of events.
The witness' story.

The Buses' seats (the seats of the buses).
The Buses' windows (the windows of the buses).

So it would be:

Mr. Jones is nice
Mr. Jones's friend
Mr. Jones' son (because son starts with an S)
The Joneses are nice
The Joneses' son

>But if the next word starts with an S, you JUST ADD AN APOSTROPHE:

jeez, that's news to me. Care to give us the reference (preferrably one in print as opposed to wiki or smth.) As you can tell, I do not agree with this one.

Hehe, guys, a lot of spears have been broken in debates about possessive forms.

To begin with, check this very instructive blog item: http://theslot.blogspot.com/2006/05/rob ... l#comments.

To sum it up, different media in US use different sets of rules regarding this issue.

The Chicago Manual of Style says, "Since the feelings on these matters sometimes run high, users of this manual may wish to modify or add to the exceptions." (I can't give a link because this quote is from my own hard copy of the Manual). The complete rules, including the alternative rules, take several pages of fine print.

Can you scan it?