Does “I fancy dark chocolate” mean “I like dark chocolate” or “I imagine dark chocolate”? Which is closer? I just looked this word up and found three meanings at least (I use ABBY Lingvo too): to imagine, to think and to like. I had always remembered something like this “But, only fancy, the thousands of wax lights.” and associated this word with “to imagine”. Now, that you explained, I’m beginning to feel the difference. A tough word, I gotta say. Thx!

” Your revisions were helpful as usual, though.” To tell you the truth, I’ve never understood why peope use “though” the way you use it now, too. I don’t think it can be adequately translated into Russian in this sentense. We use “though” = хотя as an adversative conjunction synonimous to “но” and ”однако”, like in “I will come though I may be late” – “Я приду, хотя, может быть, опоздаю.” I’ve just started a new thread about “though” on the forum. Maybe someone will help.

I could have gone to the movie, but stayed home instead. Я мог пойти в кино, но вместо этого остался дома.
I should have gone to the movie, but stayed home instead. Мне следовало пойти в кино, но вместо этого остался дома.

Is there any difference between “какой-либо” and “какой-нибудь”? They mean the same. Какой-либо is just more of literary style. “Is there a difference with general conversation?” – What is “general conversation”?

So, do you have any kind of pet? I don’t have any pet at present. I used to have a cat half a year ago. I pick him up in the street as a kitten and kept him the whole winter just to save him. He ruined almost the whole appartment, wall-paper, furniture, clothes. In sping I took him to my boyfriend’ to the country and said “Thank God”

I can’t agree with you about your withholding speaking. As I said, language is about speaking, activating what you have learned. I’m certain that it should be activated as soon as possible. I’m gonna give you an example. You can see that my written English is... umm... not bad But it has never been activated properly. Just recently I kind of spoke to an American for about half an hour (if those my 10-20 phrases can be called that, he was the one to speak). I felt helpless all the time we spoke. He said, “It was nice meeting you” while leaving. And oops, I was speachless. I was trying to recollect “It was a pleasure meeting you, too”. I was desperately turning all what I knew in my head and still couldn’t remember. I remembered that one minute later, after he has left, and was like, “I have known that for years, why on earth could I not I remember?” And it’s not that I was excited or agitated or afraid, no way. The reason was that my language is kind of a dead language. Do you know what I mean?

Anyway, if you ever decide to speak with me live, you at least will have some fun because my spoken English is way more laughable than your written Russian.