Today, my friend has a question about ‘past participles’.

Q: What is a ‘past participle’?

A: Good question! A past participle is a kind of verb form.

Recently, I visited a friend of mine. This friend is not a native English speaker.

It was my first time to visit their house and when I arrived, they were busy in the kitchen. They asked me to wait for a moment. That was fine.

I asked them, “Do you mind if I sit down?”

They answered, “Yes.”

This confused me, because their answer means “Yes, I do mind!”, which means “You cannot sit down!”

Actually, they wanted to say that it was okay for me to sit down. So what happened? Why did they make this mistake?

Actually, questions using  ‘do you mind …?‘ often confuse English students:

Let’s take a look:

do you mind = do you think it is a problem

“Do you mind if I sit down?” = “Do you think it is a problem if I sit down?”

“Yes, I mind (if you sit down)” = “Yes, it is a problem if you sit down.”

“No, I don’t mind (if you sit down)” = “No, it is not a problem if you sit down.”

Example:

So if someone asks:

Do you mind if I turn on the TV?

You should answer:
Yes, I do (this means DON’T turn on the TV)
No, I don’t (this means GO AHEAD and turn on the TV)

I explained this to my friend and he then said he didn’t mind if I sat down! I was happy!

ACTIVITY:

How would you answer the following:

1) You are staying with a family in Australia. You want to go out with some friends tonight.

You ask them: “Do you mind if I come home late tonight?”
They answer: “Yes.”

What does their answer mean? Is it okay for you to go out or not?

2) You live with a room mate.

Your room mate asks: “Do you mind if I smoke?”

But, you HATE smoking. What would you say? “Yes” or “No”

3) Your friend asks you: “Do you mind if I borrow $100?”

What would you answer? Explain why you agree or do not agree to lend them the money.

One of my friends asks about subject verb agreement:

QUESTION: Can you please explain this?

I , we , you , they   … play football
but
he, she plays football

Why is there an ‘s‘ after the verb play for he and she, but not for we and they?

MY ANSWER: Good question!

The reason for this is because in English we follow a rule that we call subject verb agreement.

Every sentence has a subject and a verb:

Example 1: I play football            -            Subject: I         Verb: play

Example 2: He plays football            -            Subject: He        Verb: plays

So when should you use an ‘s’ with the verb? Let’s take a look!

Using regular verbs:

Using Irregular verbs:                                                                 Examples of irregular verbs: do, have

 SUMMARY: USE ’S' FOR HE / SHE (Third person singular)

Correct these sentences:

1) He live in China.

2) I loves to eat icecream.

3) They watches movies all the time.

4) She eat slowly.

5) We goes swimming every weekend.

Put your answer in the comments!

Want more practice? Go here: http://www.askjohnenglish.com/?p=439

Today, let’s look at a question on ‘replying’!

 Q: Can I say: “Thank you for reply”? 

  A: In short – no.

In this example, the word ‘reply‘ is a verb.

When we say thank you for doing something, we need to use ing…

<THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN BY A GUEST WRITER>

Japanese is among the most fascinating languages in the world to study as a non-native speaker. Its complexity, its openness to incorporating words from other languages (gairaigo), and its association with one of the world’s strongest economies makes it an ideal choice for foreign language study. Here are 5 tips for learning Japanese faster and with better retention.

Here are 5 tips for learning Japanese online.

1: Get a good online flashcard system: Flashcards are an indispensable tool for learning Japanese. You can find great software programs or online applications that allow you to easily store and then test yourself on key words. Some even use pictures to really help you remember words faster.

2: Read at least one online newspaper article daily: Reading an online newspaper article every day – even as a beginner who has to look up each and every word in a dictionary – is a great way to study Japanese. Trick: try leaving an online dictionary open in a separate browser window (see Tip #4) while reading so that it is easy to copy-and-paste unknown kanji into that online dictionary. Toggling back and forth between the two is quick and this makes for faster reading.

3: Watch Japanese videos on YouTube: One of the most important parts of learning a foreign language is developing your listening skills. Do a search on YouTube or Google Videos daily for Japanese videos. To find videos this way, here is a trick: do a search for the word for video (bideo) using katakana in either of these sites and tons of Japanese language videos will pop up. If your computer does not type in Japanese, just go to an online dictionary that allows you to type in a romaji word and returns the katakana equivalent. Then, cut-and-paste the katakana word for video into your YouTube search box. Be sure to watch videos showing people of both sexes and all ages: everyone speaks a little bit differently and this is a great way to get exposed to different styles.

4: Use a good online kanji dictionary: Once you actually graduate from romaji and start using kana and kanji, I highly suggest switching to an online kanji dictionary as soon as possible. A great, no-frills and FREE one that I have been using for years is maintained by a gentleman called Jim Breen. You can find his current site by searching for “Jim Breen WWWJDIC” in Google.

5: Use Google to check your writing: Once you are at the stage where you are writing in Japanese on your computer, a great way to check your phrase usage for correctness is to search for it in Google. Be sure to use quotations so that you get an exact match. Tens or hundreds of thousands of search results returned for your phrase usually indicates that it is correct. Caution: Japanese people make mistakes, too, so do not just assume that if you get a handful of search results your phrase is correct; try an alternate phrase for comparison. This method is not foolproof, but I have found that it is ten times faster than trying to look it up in a book or asking someone. I use this method almost daily to check my Japanese grammar and syntax.

If you would like to get rid of the problem of learning Japanese then just simply visit our site Learn to Speak Japanese. There are lots of people who visit our site and get rid of this problem.

JOHN’S COMMENT

I lived in Japan for many years and learning Japanese was a lot of fun! This article has some good tips on how to practice Japanese, but you can use them to practice English too!

Remember:

1. Use flashcards to help you remember new words
2. Read an online newspaper. There are many good ones. Personally I read the Sydney Morning Herald.
3. Watch videos on Youtube in English. Don’t only watch videos that TEACH English. Watch videos that are native speakers USING English!
4. There are many good online dictionaries for learning English. One good one is: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
5. Use Google to check your grammar and spelling. This is also a good suggestion!

Well, I want to thank our first guest writer! Some good tips!

Please tell me what you think!

Did you enjoy this article? Would you like to see more advice from guest writers?

Let me know in the comments!

Let’s look at some important grammar:

 Subject-verb agreement for simple present tense.

Here are some examples:

• I like animal books.
• She likes animal books.
• He likes animal books.

NOTICE: When I am talking about other people, I put an ‘s’ on the end of the verb ‘like’.

ACTIVITY

Here is a paragragh about my wife. Please read it carefully. There are some mistakes. Please rewrite the sentences CORRECTLY in the comments!

My wife like photography. She also love animals. She takes a lot of photos of animals. They are all REALLY cute!

PICTURE 1: This is a White Peacock. The White Peacock love to show his tail feathers.

PICTURE 2: This is a Koala. Koalas eats eucalyptus leaves and sleeps all day long.

PICTURE 3: Do you know what this is? She like grass and have a baby joey in her pouch!

REMEMBER: PUT YOUR REWRITE IN THE COMMENTS!