Thread: Looking for friends

Hi!
My name is Andy. I`m 25. Location- Moscow. I`m looking for friends who learn russian. I can support you in russian and I expect you to help my in english.

Well then you have come to the right place, porcupine.

Originally Posted by DDT

Well then you have come to the right place, porcupine.

Is it clever sentence you suppose???

Originally Posted by Sukhoff

Originally Posted by DDT

Well then you have come to the right place, porcupine.

Is it clever sentence you suppose???

Well, everything that I write is clever. It just means that you are welcome here.

"Porcupine" is just a name used by the most funny American comedians from the 1940's, The Three Stooges. Much more funny than your Russian counterparts I'm sure. If you want we can have a big fight over this. That could be entertaining!!

Stop confusing our ESL Russians, DDT. lol.

My name is Andy. I`m 25. Location- Moscow. I`m looking for friends who learn russian. I can support you in russian and I expect you to help my in english.

If you don't mind me making some corrections , this is how I would say the same thing;

My name is Andy, and I live in Moscow. I'm looking for friends who want to learn Russian. I can help you with Russian, and I hope for you to help me with my English.

*my needed to be me. (But, I think maybe you just typed that accidentally, because if there was no 'in' after it, it would've been correct).
*the word support does make sense, but isn't as accurate as the word help would be in this sentence. The word support usually means that you will be doing some of their work for them, whereas help means you are guiding them whilst 'they' do the work (in learning Russian).
*In English, the word with is used when saying you're going to help somebody with their language learning. There are times where using in is correct, though.
*expect is a strong word. If used in the wrong sentence, it can sound rude. But, it's obvious you aren't being rude because you're new to English. Expect means that you've already decided what will probably happen in the future. The word hope in this sentence would tell people what you 'intend' to happen, what you 'want' to happen. It tells the person why you are here, and what you 'hope' to get out of the exchange.
*"I'm looking for friends who learn Russian" does make sense, but it isn't grammatically accurate. That's why I corrected it. It sounds too general. It can sound like you want to talk about Russian, rather than want to teach it to them. "I'm looking for friends who want to learn Russian" is more specific. But, it did make sense.
*Everything you said was perfectly understandable. Only some little details were incorrect.

Good luck!

in my school they changed the name from ESL to ELL(English langauge learners) because they felt that ESL was too degrading or something.

If you ask me english language learners is probably the worst thing they could be called.

Originally Posted by brett

My name is Andy, and I live in Moscow. I'm looking for friends who want to learn Russian. I can help you with Russian, and I hope for you to help me with my English.

It is far, far more likely that he intended to say "I'm looking for friends who are learning Russian.
You know that "friends who learn Russian" is incorrect, but you don't know why. The answer is that "they learn" is present simple, whereas "they are learning" is presenting continuous. The present continuous tense is used to indicate ongoing, uninterrupted, incomplete processes, whereas the present tense is used to indicate habitual actions. (NB: there are other uses of both these tenses, I'm only referring to the uses relevant in this context).
This is really quite tricky. For example you can say "I study Russian".
One way to look at this is that "learn" is more like "выучить" - completed learning. So if I say "I learn Russian", it sounds like I am learning each week, then forgetting, then learning again.

Brett, it's good that you try to help, but I fear you're tending to jump into making generalized statements. Think very carefully about counterexamples before giving anyone any rules about English grammar.

It just means that you are welcome here.

Thank you very much.

"Porcupine" is just a name used by the most funny American comedians from the 1940's, The Three Stooges.

I`m not expert in American comedies (which took place in 1940`s especially)

Much more funny than your Russian counterparts I'm sure.

Who are you talking about?

If you want we can have a big fight over this. That could be entertaining!!

What for?

Originally Posted by "Sukhoff[quote

If you want we can have a big fight over this. That could be entertaining!!

What for?[/quote]

Ha ha have no fear Sukhoff. DDT loves to argue, and that

Originally Posted by DDT

Well then you have come to the right place, porcupine.

It may be there are some misunderstandings. But as you can see I`m a...beginner. So you could no use some hard sentences like that. I just can`t understand some languages features

Originally Posted by Kamion

Originally Posted by "Sukhoff[quote

If you want we can have a big fight over this. That could be entertaining!!

What for?

Ha ha have no fear Sukhoff. DDT loves to argue, and that

Originally Posted by brett

Stop confusing our ESL Russians, DDT. lol.

My name is Andy. I`m 25. Location- Moscow. I`m looking for friends who learn russian. I can support you in russian and I expect you to help my in english.

If you don't mind me making some corrections , this is how I would say the same thing;

My name is Andy, and I live in Moscow. I'm looking for friends who want to learn Russian. I can help you with Russian, and I hope for you to help me with my English.

*my needed to be me. (But, I think maybe you just typed that accidentally, because if there was no 'in' after it, it would've been correct).
*the word support does make sense, but isn't as accurate as the word help would be in this sentence. The word support usually means that you will be doing some of their work for them, whereas help means you are guiding them whilst 'they' do the work (in learning Russian).
*In English, the word with is used when saying you're going to help somebody with their language learning. There are times where using in is correct, though.
*expect is a strong word. If used in the wrong sentence, it can sound rude. But, it's obvious you aren't being rude because you're new to English. Expect means that you've already decided what will probably happen in the future. The word hope in this sentence would tell people what you 'intend' to happen, what you 'want' to happen. It tells the person why you are here, and what you 'hope' to get out of the exchange.
*"I'm looking for friends who learn Russian" does make sense, but it isn't grammatically accurate. That's why I corrected it. It sounds too general. It can sound like you want to talk about Russian, rather than want to teach it to them. "I'm looking for friends who want to learn Russian" is more specific. But, it did make sense.
*Everything you said was perfectly understandable. Only some little details were incorrect.

Good luck!

Thank you muchly!!
You really helped me to understand clear-cut distinctions
I would appreciate if you correct me in future if possible
Thanks once again!

Yes Sukhoff, I was teasing. But seriously, I think your English is good enough to be easily understood.
I shall correct one thing:-

Do not say "Thank you muchly".
Лучше сказать "Thank you very much"

Originally Posted by DDT

Yes Sukhoff, I was teasing. But seriously, I think your English is good enough to be easily understood.
I shall correct one thing:-

Do not say "Thank you muchly".
Лучше сказать "Thank you very much"

OK, there are not any misunderstanding now

As to word "muchly" I just followed on-line dictionary.
http://lingvo.yandex.ru/en?text=%D1%81% ... 5&l=%D1%A0
I`ll try to find better one in this case.

I see that your on-line dictionary says that this (thank you muchly) is correct. But I assure you that to English speakers this sounds very funny.
The American girls would love you for your accent, though.

Originally Posted by DDT

I see that your on-line dictionary says that this (thank you muchly) is correct. But I assure you that to English speakers this sounds very funny.
The American girls would love you for your accent, though.

Would the american girls love me for my accent?????? Oh, that`s great
I would visit US to speak with them and to show them my funny accent in this case