В прошлой статье я поделился свои опытом общения с искусственным интеллектом — на примере диалога с Волан-де-Мортом. Сейчас покажу другой разговор, уже с преподавателем (ботом) английского языка. Поделюсь тем, что подметил.
Разбор грамматики
Alexander — я, English Teacher - бот.
Alexander: Hi there. I run a blog about learning English. Could you do give some pieces of advice to my subscribers to improve their English?
English Teacher: Sure. For intermediate and advanced English learners:
1. Practice using the language every day.
2. Practice is the key to improving your English skills.
3. Spend time each day speaking, reading, listening, and writing in the English language.
4. Practice with different types of content to improve all of your skills.
5. Try different ways to study the language to find the way that is best for you. You can use books, podcasts, TV shows, YouTube videos, etc.
6. Always be kind to yourself. Practice and effort over time will help you reach your goals.
Alexander: Thanks! Another request for you. Check this sentence, "Could you do give some pieces of advice to my subscribers to improve their English?" Is it grammatical okay?
English Teacher: Here is a corrected version of that sentence:
“Could you give some advice to my subscribers to help them improve their English?”
Alexander: Could you explain what kind of mistakes I've made?
English Teacher: It's a minor issue.
"Do" is a supporting verb. In this sentence, "do" is not necessary. You can keep or remove "do" in the sentence, it will make no difference to the meaning of the sentence. But, it's better to avoid unnecessary words in your writing to sound more natural.
Some native speakers make this same mistake when they speak. Is this clear?
Alexander: Yes, it is. But besides the using of the word "do", you also changed my sentence a little. Why?
English Teacher: To make it sound more natural. Your sentence was correct. It was a good sentence. But, I wanted to give you another way you can express the same thing.
This way you can see the difference in how a statement can be expressed using slightly different phrasing. This is very popular in English. You will notice this as you read more and listen to others and practice your English skills.
Примечательно то, что преподаватель не просто убрал слово "do" как лишнее, но и в целом немного изменил структуру предложения, сделав его более естественным.
Но не всё идеально
Внезапно English Teacher меня не понял, и на простой вопрос «В чем разница между used to и would?» начал выдавать всё, что знает по этой теме:
Но я ещё раз объяснил свой вопрос:
Alexander: But the sentence "I would always run every morning when I was younger" has the same meaning If I used the "used to construction"?
"I would always run every morning when I was younger" means that I run every morning, but now I don't do it.
English Teacher: Yes, it has the same meaning as "used to". Many times in English we have two different ways to describe the same situation.
You can use "would" or "used to." But you must understand that when you use "used to," the situation you describe is a fact about your past.
When you use "would," the sentence you make is about a hypothetical experience in your past.
Do you understand?
И здесь я заметил противоречия в его словах. Как будто он одновременно объясняет две темы, не связанные между собой: описание действия в прошлом и использование условных предложений (conditionals). На что и указал:
Alexander: I think you mix two different topics: "used to/would" for describing actions in the past, and "would" as second conditional.
И преподаватель меня понял!
Как видите, договориться и найти общий язык можно с кем угодно. Даже если ваш собеседник — Artificial Intelligence, попробуйте сами :)
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Читайте в этой подборке темы, связанные с грамматикой английского языка.