Questa sezione serve per aprire una discussione su qualsiasi aspetto della lingua inglese o semplicemente per allenarsi su un argomento qualunque.
Le discussioni vanno avviate direttamente nei commenti qui sotto.
Your comments are always very welcome.
Ingliando 
Hi Tony! Here the sentence in Italian:
Eravamo al campeggio ieri, ma ci siamo resi conto che non avevamo portato con noi le coperte imbottite per il freddo. Avevamo intenzione di comprarle, ma non abbiamo più potuto farlo.
My version;
We were at the campsite yesterday, but did realise that we hadn’t taken the padded blankets for the cold. Then we would want to buy them, but we wouldn’t.
or
Then we were going to buy them, but we weren’t.
That’s ok for you? Thanks!
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Sorry: but realised we hadn’t brought the padded blankets…. at the end, but we couldn’t
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I think my version would be something like this, Gaetano:
“We were at the campsite (we went camping) yesterday, but we realised that we hadn’t brought any padded blankets for the cold. We had meant to buy them, but hadn’t been able to.”
I have a feeling that your attempt to create a “future in the past” situation has not been totally successful here.
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Hi Tony and have a nice Sunday! I tried to change my sentences. How about these?
“We were going to go camping yesterday, but since we hadn’t been able to get any padded blankets to keep us warm, we had to give up.”
(Something that was planned cannot be done anymore)
“I thought we would go camping tomorrow if we got any padded blankets to keep us warm.”
(“Would” can be used as the past tense of will in promises or offers, right?)
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Your first example here is much better, Gaetano. However, there’s no need for the past perfect in the middle part: “…we weren’t able to get…”
The second example doesn’t really work because you’re not in the past, you’re projecting from the present to the future. You could say, “I thought we could have gone camping tomorrow if we had had some padded blankets.”
If you want an example of “would” as the past tense of will for promises or offers, you should use an example like this:
“He said he would help us, when he got home.”
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Gentile professore, ho un dubbio sull’espressione this kind of.
Durante un esercizio, che consisisteva nel commentare un’immagine, ho scritto: this kind of sport needs training and experience. Un madrelingua mi ha corretta dicendo che kind of richiede solitamente, non sempre, il sostantivo al plurale. Tuttavia lo vedo di frequente usato con i sostantivi al singolare. Potrebbe chiarirmi le idee?
Grazie mille e mi scusi se mi sono dilungata.
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Ciao Rachele, tutto dipende se stai parlando di un solo tipo o di più tipi di qualcosa.
“This kind of sport needs training and experience” si riferisce ad uno solo sport, per esempio judo.
“These kinds of sports need training and experience” si riferisce a più sport dello stesso genere, per esempio, le arti marziali.
Quindi può essere singolare o plurale; dipende da quello che vuoi dire.
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Grazie
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😀👍
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Carissimo Tony, ho trascritto correttamente l’esercizio di ascolto e sono contentone… Peccato che non riesca a tradurlo 🤣 There’s a lot more to this than meets the eye
Can you help questa pecorella smarrita?!
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Quando una situazione è alquanto torbida è non arriva all’occhio (per vederci chiaro) tutto quello che ci sta sotto.
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🙋 Dubbio esistenziale, sorto dopo la correzione DTE odierna: nella lingua parlata, il genitivo sassone di Chris’s si “sente”? Cioè, quella ‘s viene pronunciata distintamente? 😅
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Si, si sente! “crisiz”.
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Grazie mille Boss 💪
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😀👍
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Hai messo due “can” nella tua frase, Carlo. Il secondo dovrebbe essere “with”.
“Can”, quando non è accentato (affermativo quasi sempre e interrogativo molto spesso) diventa “cn” – la vocale scompare.
Puoi esercitarti qui: https://ingliando.net/pronunciation/esercitazione-con-le-weak-forms/
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Se mi togli la vocale sono perso 🤣 sì, il secondo è with, per fortuna quello l’ho sentito ma ho sbagliato a digitare 😇
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Nelle cosiddette “weak forms” sono proprio le vocali a subire le maggiori ingiustizie!
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With just… Errore nel digitare… Mi interessa la pronuncia di See if you can… Scusami
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La forma con “could” non è in realtà la forma migliore qui, Carlo. Il tuo semplice “Did you feel…?” ci starebbe benissimo o, volendo inserire quel senso di “essere in grado”, si potrebbe anche dire, “Were you able to feel…?” (capacità + azione).
Ma “Did you feel…?” mi convince molto di più. 🙂
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Tutto chiaro grazie! Ho bisogno di qualche punto fermo 🎨
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😀👍
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It’s using “thought” in the sense of “considered” which allows for that construction:
“Come quasi tutti, consideravo viaggiare un’avventura quando ero piccolo…”
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Come farei senza di te? Grazie! 😉
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😉👍
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If we speak Italian, you won’t be able to understand. (If + present + future = standard 1st conditional)
“I don’t think” is a sort of “inciso” which doesn’t have any influence on the sentence construction.
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Comincio ad avere un dubbio… Non so l’inglese e non so l’italiano 🤣
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La consapevolezza è sempre un buon punto di partenza. 😂😂😂
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The best answer I can find (there is a lot of debate) is this:
“…to make a cross inside the croft (piccola fattoria) with one ‘stick of bent’ (stelo di erbaccia) and another ‘stick of broom’ (stelo di ginestra). These two reeds (canne) had great spiritual power to the pagans. After the christians had their way, the pagan ways were subverted to christian uses. The cross of bent and broom would keep the devil out of the house.”
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And finally an explanation! 😂 I like medieval ballads a lot! My other favourite ones are Lord Randall and Edward.
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It’s certainly a fascinating period both culturally and linguistically!
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Ciao Giuseppe. Scusami se non ti ho risposto prima. Ho letto il messaggio e volevo prendere tempo per pensarci e poi l’ho dimenticato! La questione ti interessa ancora o hai già deciso?
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Salve, si figuri, tanto prima di comprarlo ho deciso che studio bene cosa metterci dentro…alla prossima
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Potresti pensare ad opzioni come:
Can you beat Darwin?
Beating Darwin
The Darwin Challenge
Darwin’s Challenge
Up Against Darwin
…
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I agree with you, Giuseppe; I would say “career talks” and “career fairs”.
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Hi Tony, I need some information about information! 😂 I have always known information is a plural word meaning informazioni and to make the singular we say a piece of information, but in a sentence I found information with is. Shouldn’t be are if the meaning is plural? Besides on wordreference they say that in English information is always singular. I’m a bit confused!
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Information is NOT plural, Giuseppe, it is uncountable; that’s why it alway takes a singular verb. An uncountable noun is always singular because it is a single concept. It cannot, however, be made plural.
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So when I say some or further information, it has a singular meaning? If so, when can I say a piece of information?
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I mean, when I have to translate informazioni (plural in Italian) I use information, and a piece of information for informazione (singular). Am I right?
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You can use the uncountable (singular) “information” to translate both “informazioni” and “informazione”, Giuseppe, unless you really need to underline that it is one specific “piece of information” that you require.
Desidero un informazione sull’orario dei pullman.
I would like some information about coach times.
This piece of information is going to be very useful in the future.
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Ok! Thanks!
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🙂👍
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…gli alunni generalmente tornano dai tirocini più maturi e con maggiore fiducia in se stessi – e i giovani che erano già più bisognosi di un’esperienza del genere, tipicamente ne usufruiscono di più.
La frase non è tanta felice in inglese e non so se sono riuscuito bene a renderlo in italiano. Fammi sapere.
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I think that’s it! So the sentence didn’t sound wierd to me only! 😂
Thanks!
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🙂👍
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C’è anche questo uso del verbo essere (+ infinito completo) con il senso di dovere, un po’ “formale’ a dire il vero. Io non lo insegno normalmente ma prima o poi la si incontra. So for example you can have a sentence like:
“Charles Foster is to play the lead role.”
“You are to leave your bags here.”
Nel caso tuo è al congiuntivo perché introduce un ipotesi di 2° tipo.
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Grazie Prof, I got it !
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🙂👍
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Hi Tony, me too have some doubts about the meaning of sentences using this construct. For example, in sentences like: I was to phone you, and the committee is to launch an inquiry, is the meaning dovere in both cases or can it also be translated as stare per?
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“Dovere” in both cases, Giuseppe. You could convert it to “stare per” by adding “about”: I was about to phone you. The committee is about to launch an enquiry.
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N.B.
Hi Tony, I too have some doubts… (“io” è soggetto del verbo qui)
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The teacher carried out an “assessment”, not a qualification. The assessment is called “A Language in Common” and it was designed by the QCA, so the – ‘s – is actually a saxon genitive.
Un insegnante responsabile per la gestione della mobilità degli studenti esegue una valutazione “Una Lingua in Comune” della QCA (Autorità per le Qualifiche ed il Curriculum) e condivide l’informazione con gli insegnanti delle altre materie.
That’s the best I can do!
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Ok thanks a lot! 😁
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Generally the two “typical” answers are:
“Yes, please.”
“No, thanks.”
It would be possible to say: “Yes (piccola pausa). Thank you.”
But “Yes, thanks” is not really used.
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Ok, thanks a lot! 😁
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🙂👍
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Hi Giuseppe.
Yes, in the first part you can say either:
• He would have made a great emperor…
• He would have been a great emperor…
Both versions are equally good.
If you use “if” in the second part, then you have re-invert the subject and verb and say: “…if he had gotten the chance.” (I don’t like “gotten”, it’s very American. I would prefer: “If he had had the chance.”)
When you remove “if” you have to invert the subject and the verb as though it is a question:
“He would have stopped had he seen the dog.” (He would have stopped if he had seen the dog.)
The version without “if” is a fairly literary style and isn’t used much in spoken English.
With regard to your second question, it should definitely be “past simple” and not “present perfect”.
I suspect there has been a bad translation in this case.
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Grazie!
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🙂👍
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