Najčešće greške

Kada su greške prilikom korišćenja engleskog jezika u pitanju, prosto ne znam odakle da počnem. Da l’ da krenem od svakodnevnih ubacivanja tarzanski-izgovorenih engleskih reči u sprski jezik ? Ipak, ne. Predugo bi trajalo, ja bih se iznervirala, a neki komentari bi glasili kako je jezik nešto što se menja i da nemam pravo da se bunim.
Naravno da je jezik nešto što se menja, ali kada bi se malo i naše ponašanje promenilo – do ovoga ne bi došlo. Stalno bismo da menjemo ceo svet prema sebi, a retko ko se zapita da li je u pravu ili nije. Eto, opet sam počela da razglabam o tome, iako sam rekla da neću.

Nije da idem „po kućama“ i ispravljam greške, ali kad neko, sav bitan, kaže: „Let’s talk ON English.“ (umesto „Let’s talk IN English.“) , onda ne mogu da ćutim. POSEBNO kada to čujem od kolega sa fakulteta.
Ovaj post se odnosi na te, naizgled, sitne greške. Da nisu bitne – ne bismo ih nazivali „greškama“.

Ono što jednostavno morate da izbacite iz glave prilikom učenja stranog jezika jeste – vaš maternji. Dokle god razmišljate na srpskom jeziku, govoreći na engleskom – pravićete neke banalne greške.  Redovno mi se dešava da, kada ispravim neku takvu, dobijem odgovor: “ ‘Ajde, bre, pa razumeće me i pored toga, kao da je bitno!“
Naravno da će vas razumeti, niko nije ni rekao suprotno. Ako ste se našli u sred nedođije i primorani ste da pričate na engleskom kako znate i umete (rukama, nogama, pantomimom) – u svakom slučaju je najbitnije da vas sagovornik razume. Ali, možete da zvučite lepo i kulturno čak iako vam je nivo znanja engleskog jezika – početni.
Sve zavisi od vas samih. Može profesor da ide za vama i da vas ispravlja non-stop, ako vi sami ne želite da promenite svoje greške – one će uvek biti tu.

Napisaću samo nekoliko najčešćih grešaka koje će, nadam se, nekome biti od pomoći. Ukoliko vas zanima zašto je neka rečenica tačna/netačna, slobodno pitajte (čak iako se ne nalazi na ovom spisku). 

How many Japanese letters do you know?
How many Japanese characters do you know?

He made a world record.
He set a world record.

I was ten minutes late fot the English lesson.
I was ten minutes late for the English class.

Let’s begin from page 10.
Let’s begin at (on) page 10.

His temperature went down.
His temperature came down.

Give me money, if you have.
Give me money, if you have any.

You’ll have a cold if you sleep with your window open.
You’ll catch a cold if you sleep with your window open.

He is our common friend.
He is our mutual friend.

It was my first time to go abroad.
It was the first time I had gone abroad.

While walking along the street, I met my friend.
While walking along the street, I met a friend of mine.

He hit me strongly.
He hit me hard.

I very enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed it.

Sorry, Jane is busy with cleaning up her room.
Sorry, Jane is busy cleaning up her room.

I want to know what is the matter.
I want to know what the matter is.

I think it will not rain tomorrow.
I don’t think it will rain tomorrow.

My father bought me a black small leather wallet yesterday.
My father bought me a small black leather wallet yesterday.

Zašto je „a black small“ nepravilno?
Raspored prideva prilikom nabrajanja je sledeći:
1.  Opinion (beautiful, silly, horrible, difficult…)
2.  Size (large, enormous, tiny, little…)
3.  Age (new, young, ancinet, old…)
4.  Shape (square, round, flat, rectangular…)
5.  Colour (red, green, white, black…)
6.  Origin (French, American, eastern, Greek…)
7.  Material (leather, wooden, metal, cotton…)
8. Purpose ( „sleeping bag“…)

Ukoliko vam neke od ovih (tačnih) rečenica zvuče nelogično i besmisleno, znajte da ponovo razmišljate kroz srpski jezik, koristeći engleski. Njima je tako normalno, a sve ostalo će im zvučati isto kao i vama ovo.

River

My name is Kate Connor. I am a river guide. I live in Colorado. Colorado is a state in America which takes its name from the long, wide, green river that runs through it. I live by the river. My job is to take groups of people along the river. Usually we use small boats or rafts. The people who I guide along the river come from the city. They are usually groups of businessmen who come from New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, places where they work all the time and never see mountains or

This year, the river has dried up. There is no water. I look out of my window every day and walk down to the river, or rather, I walk down to where the river used to be. There wasn’t enough rain this spring, and it has been a hot summer. The river is now just one thin, green trickle of water. You couldn’t sail a raft in this. You couldn’t even sail a child’s paper boat down this river.

The river is never what it seems. The river changes. Every day there is less water. Today I went down to the river and there wasn’t even the thin green trickle. There were just stones and dust at the bottom of where the river used to be.

I have always wanted to be by rivers. I grew up next to the river, where my father worked. When I was a child and other children wanted to be astronauts or football stars or supermodels, all I wanted to do was work on the river. I wanted to work on a tugboat on the Hudson or the Mersey or the Thames. I wanted to catch fish in the Loire or the Volga or the Rhine. I wanted to swim in the Ganges or the Amazon or the Mississippi. I wanted to take rafts across the wild white waters of the long, strong Colorado river.

Today, a man came to my house. I didn’t recognise him at first, until he reminded me who he was.
“I’m Joel”, he said. “Don’t you remember me?” I didn’t remember his face, though I remembered his name. He had changed a lot. I guess he changed because of what happened last summer.

Last summer Joel was one of a group of people who came to Colorado from Pennsylvania. The people were all colleagues from work. They came to the river to go rafting because they thought it would be a good idea. A week rafting on the white water of the river, they thought, would build up their interpersonal skills. It would make them work as a team. On the river they would get to know each other better. Then they could go back to their office in the city and work better together.

“It’s good to see you again!” said Joel.
“You look different” I said to Joel. He smiled.
“Better or worse?”
“Not better or worse. Just different.”

Last summer I took Joel and his colleagues down to the river for five days of whitewater rafting. Whitewater rafting is the most difficult thing you can do on the river. Usually people who have no experience of rivers just want to go camping, or perhaps fishing, or perhaps just swim in one of the places where the water is wide, tranquil and calm. These people wanted to do something dangerous, something that they thought would test them, and make them better people. Something which would make them work together better.

“What have you come back for?” I said to Joel.
“I came back to see the river” he said. I pointed to where the river used to be and smiled.
“It’s gone” I said. “There’s nothing to see.”
He shrugged.
“The river wasn’t the only thing I wanted to see again” he said.

There is no sound at night anymore. For all my life I have gone to sleep and woken up with the rushing sound of the water in my ears. Now I just hear silence, and the tiny sounds of the trees in the wind. I hope that the wind will bring clouds which will bring rain which will bring the river back to me.

The first day with Joel and his colleagues was good. The weather was clear and warm, the river gentle. I told the people all about the safety precautions they had to take. I made sure they could all swim well. I made sure they all had life jackets. I made sure they all knew what to do if there was an accident or an emergency. We spent a day learning how to use the rafts. We sailed them on slow, gentle water.

That night there was a big storm. We were all asleep in our tents, though, and there was no problem.

The next morning, on the second day, the sun was shining again, and everything looked fine. They all wanted to go out on the river again. I told them that this was not a good idea. I told them that even though the weather looked fine, a storm in the night meant that the water in the river would be stronger and faster. People who were not experts should not go out on the river on the day after a storm. Even if the weather looks fine, the river is still angry.

They insisted.
“We’re paying you!” said one woman. “You have to do what we tell you!”

We went out again on the dangerous, angry river. I made sure that everyone had their life jackets on. I made sure again that they knew what to do if there was an accident. At first it was exciting – everyone was laughing and shouting because the water was much louder and faster than the day before. There was so much noise, I couldn’t tell when the laughter became screaming.
“He’s gone under!” shouted one woman. “He’s under the water and he hasn’t come up again!” Joel had fallen off the raft. Usually, people come back up immediately, but not Joel. It was possible to see his body being pushed about by the wild angry river. His body moved from one side of the river to the other.

There was only one thing to do. I jumped into the water and pulled Joel onto the raft, then moved the raft to the solid bank of the river. I pulled him off the raft and on to the solid land. Joel was not breathing. I thought he was dead. I opened his mouth and gave him artificial respiration. He still did not breathe. I pushed on his heart and he breathed in and opened his eyes. He looked surprised to be alive.

Last night I lay awake listening to the silence where the river used to be. I listened to the trees in the wind. I didn’t know what to say to Joel. I didn’t know if I should tell him to go back to the city and his office, or ask him to stay here with me.

The wind grew louder. I heard the sound of rain falling. The sound grew louder.

This morning Joel came into my room.
“I came back here to see you” he said. “I came back here because you saved my life. I was dead, and then I was alive again.”
Outside the rain was pouring down. I could already hear the river. The river was alive again.

Joel didn’t know why I told him to go back to his job and his office in Pennsylvania. I didn’t need to tell him.

I live by the river, and just like the river, I can change too.

by Chris Rose

Eh, taj srpski jezik ;))))

Mnogi ljudi smatraju da su,  izrazito, pismeni. A, sta vi mislite o tome?

Da li vam se dize kosa na glavi ( na ostale delove tele necemo prelaziti ), i neki Vas iznerviraju svojom „pismenoscu“ ?  Tipa:

-  ja BI, a da li bBIH ti? ,

- dal , jel …. ,

- mi BI isli ,

-  JER  si bio/la ….,

- Za ovde ili ZA PONETI .

Ne ustrucavajte se u komentarima,  a za sva pitanja,  kao i za otvaranja pojedinacnih tema , samo kazite, i ja Vam izlazim u susret. Sve to radi lepseg izrazavanja, pisanja i sl.

Srdacno,

Milos Radovanovic.

Amelia Earhart

Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.
(Amelia Earhart)

Amelia Earhart was born in 1897, in Kansas, USA. Even as a child she didn’t behave in a convetionally ‘feminine’ way. She climbed trees and hunted rats with her rifle – but she  wasn’t particularly interested in flying. She saw her first plane when she was 10, and wasn’t impressed at all. But she was very interested in newspaper reports about women who were successful in male dominated professions, such as engineering, law and management. She cut them out and kept them.

During the Fitst World War she worked as a nursing assistant in a military hospital, and later started to study medicine at university. Then, in 1920, Amelia’s life changed. She went to an aviation fair with her father and had a 10-minute flight in a plane. That was it. As soon as the plane left the ground, Amelia knew that she had to fly.

So Amelia found herself a female flying teacher and started to learn to fly. She took all sorts of odd jobs to pay for the lessons, and also saved and borrowed enough money to buy a second hand plane. It was bright yellow and she called it ‘Canary’. In 1922 she took ‘Canary’ up to a height of 14,000 feet, breaking the women’s altitude record.

In 1928, Amelia was  working as a social worker in Boston when she received an amazing phone call inviting her to join pilot Wilmer Shultz on a flight across the Atlantic. The man who organised the flight was the American publisher, George Putnam. Amelia’s official title was ‘commander’ but she hersef said that she was just a passenger. But she was still the first woman passenger to fly across the Atlantic. She became famous, wrote a book about the crossing (called ‘20 Hours, 40 minutes’ ) and travelled around the country giving lectures. Geogre Putnam was like a manager to her, and she eventually married him in 1931.

Then, in 1932, Amelia flew solo across the Atlantic something that only one person, Lindbergh, had ever done before. Because of bad weather, she was forced to land in the middle of a field in Ireland, frightening the cows. She broke several records with this flight: the first woman to make the solo crossing, the only person to make crossing twice, the longest non-stop distance for a woman and the shortest time for the flight. Now she was really famous. She was given tje Distinguished Flying Cross (another first for a woman), wrote another book, and continued to lecture. She also designed a flying suit for women, and went on to design other clothes for women who led active lives.

Amelia continued to break all sorts of aviation records over the next few years. But not everyone was comfortable with the idea of a woman living the kind of life that Amelia led. One newspaper article about her finished with the question „But can she bake a cake?“

Whe she was nearly 40, Amelia decided that she was ready for a final challenge – to be the first woman to fly around the world. Her first attempt was unsuccessful (the plane was damaged) but she tried again in June 1937, with her navigator, Fred Noonan. She had decided that this was going to be her last long distance ‘record breaking’ flight.

Everything went smoothly and they landed in New Guinea in July. The next stage was from New Guinea to Howland Island, a tiny spot of land in the Pacific Ocean. But in mid flight the plane, navigator and pilot simply disappeared in the bad weather.

A rescue search was started immediately but nothing was found. The United States government spent $4 million looking for Amelia, which makes it the most expensive air and sea search in history. A lighthouse was built on Howland Island in her memory.

Amelia always knew that every flight could be her last. She left a letter for her husband saying that she knew the dangers, but she wanted to do what she did. People today are still speculating about what might have happened to Amelia and Fred Noonan. There are even theories that they might have landed on an unknown island and lived for many more years.
Whatever happened, Amelia Earhart is remembered as a brave pioneer fot both aviation and for women.

Amelia Earhart

by Linda Baxter

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Sigurno se, često, srećete sa skraćenicama koje su vezane za poslovni (engleski) jezik.
Evo nekih, poređanih po alfabetu.

a/c = account
AGM = Annual General Meeting
a.m. = ante meridiem (before noon)
a/o = account of  (on behalf of)
AOB = Any Other Business
ASAP = as soon as possible
ATM = automated teller machine (cash dispenser)
attn = for the attention of
approx. = approximately
cc = copy to
CEO = chief executive officer
c/o = care of  (on letters: at the address of)
Co = Company
cm = centimetre
COD = cash on delivery
dept = department
e.g. = exempli gratia (for example)
EGM = Extraordinary General Meeting
ETA = estimated time of arrival
etc = et caetera (and so on)
GDP = gross domestic product
GNP = gross national product
GMT = Greenwich mean time (time in London)
i.e. = id est (meaning:  ‘that is’ )
Inc = incorporated
IOU = I owe you
IPO = initial public offer
Jr = junior
K = thousand
Ltd = limited company
mo. = month
N/A = not applicable
NB = Nota Bene  (it is important to note)
no. = number
PA = personal assistant
p.a. = per annum (per year)
Plc = public limited company
pls = please
p.m. = post meridiem (after noon)
p.p. = per pro (used before signing in a person’s absence)
PR = public relations
p.s. = post scriptum
pto = please turn over
p.w. = per week
qty = quantity
R & D = research and development
re = with reference to
RSVP = repondez s‘il vous plait (please reply)
s.a.e. = stamp addressed envelope
VAT = value added tax
VIP = very important person

Memory – Remembering (Idioms)

English Idioms relating to MEMORY – REMEMBERING:

Bear something in mind
=  If someone asks you to bear something in mind, they are telling you to remember it because it is important.
Example: You must bear in mind that the cost of living is higher in New York.

Have something on the brain
= If you have something on the brain, you think about it constantly.
Example: Stop talking about golf. You’ve got golf on the brain!

Lose your train of thought
= If you forget what you were saying, for example after a disturbance or interruption, you lose your train of thought.
Example: Where was I ? I’m afraid I’ve lost my train of thought!

Rake over the ashes
= When people rake over the ashes, they discuss an unpleasant event which took place in the past.
Example: My grandfather’s business went bankrupt years ago but he still rakes over the ashes from time to time.

Refresh someone’s memory
= If you refresh someone’s memory, you remind them of facts they seem to have forgotten.
Example: Let me refresh your memory – you’ve already missed three classes this term.

Ring a bell
= If something rings a bell, it sounds familiar, but you don’t remember the exact details.
Example: John Bentley? The name rings a bell but I don’t remeber him.

It slipped my mind
= If something has slipped your mind, you have forgotten about it.
Example: Oh, dear! It has slipped my mind that the banks were closed today.

Brain like a sieve
= Someone who has a brain like a sieve has a very bad memory and forgets things easily.
Example: Oh, I forgot to buy bread – I’ve got a brain like a sieve these days!

The Wheels on the bus

e-books

Pronašla sam neke knjige u .pdf formatu,
nadam se da će biti od pomoći.

>> Basic English Grammar Book 1

>>  Basic English Grammar Book 2

>>  Longman English Grammar Practice

>>  Language and Writing for Theses and Reports

>>  English Language

>>  Contribution to English Syntax

Zarez (The comma)

Zarez se koristi pri razdvajanju pojedinih reči, fraza i klauza u rečenici.

Koristimo ga da razdvojimo tri ili više reči prilikom nabrajanja.

Na primer:
John played handball, hockey and football in high school.
(Džon je igrao rukomet, hokej i fudbal u školi.)

Zarez razdvaja dva ili više prideva, koji dolaze jedan za drugim, ako oni mogu zameniti mesta, a da se ne promeni značenje rečenice.

Na primer:

The sunny, cool day was perfect for lying in the dark green grass.
(Sunčano, toplo vreme je bilo odlično za izležavanje na tamno-zelenoj travi.)

Zarez razdvaja uvodni pozdrav (greeting or salutation) poruke, te se koristi u potpisu posle reči: „Yours truly“, „Yours sincerely“, „Best wishes“ itd.

Zarez razdvaja pitanje (question tag) od ostatka rečenice:

Na primer:
You locked the car, didn’t you?
(Zaključao si auto, zar ne?)

Zarez iza kog dolazi dopunski veznik (coordinative conjunction: and, but, or, for, nor, yet, so) razdvaja dve nezavisne klauze.

Na primer:
Ron wore cowboy boots, and Jeff wore tennis shoes.
(Ron je nosio kaubojske čizme, a Džef je nosio patike.)

Kada se zavisna klauza nalazi ispred nezavisne, odvajamo je zarezom.

Na primer:
When the meeting was over, the refreshment committee served coffee and cake before everyone went home.
(Kada je sastanak bio završen, osoblje je poslužilo kafu i kolač pre nego što su svi otišli kući.)

Zarezom se odvaja uvodna fraza, kao i izraz ubačen u rečenicu koji ne donosi neku presudnu informaciju:

Na primer:
On my way to school, I met three of my classmates coming out of the subway.
(Na putu prema školi, izlazeći iz podzemne sreo sam troje školskih kolega.)

Texans, as you know, are often the subject of jokes.
(Teksašani, kao što znate, su često predmet šale.)

Eddie will, in spite of my wishes, travel to Russia.
(Eddie će, uprkos mojim željama, putovati u Rusiju.)

Engleski jezik sa 21 akcentom!

Devojka se zove Amy Walker i govori engleski jezik sa 21 različitim akcentom. Zaista ima impresivne glasovne mogućnosti, pa poslušajte kako zvuči engleski jezik sa škotskim, nemačkim, ruskim i drugim akcentima.