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Why is my English so poor?
Hsin-hao Su
December 2, 2008
Hello!!!
各位同學你們好。
。好們你學同位各
How are you, everyone?
各
位
同
學
你
們
好
。
Hello!!!
各位同學你們好。
。好們你學同位各
How are you, everyone?
各
位
同
學
你
們
好
。
Direct Translation: Word by Word
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
一顆蘋果一天保持一個醫生遠。
Meaningful Translation
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
一天一顆蘋果能使你遠離醫生。
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
一顆蘋果一天保持一個醫生遠。
Direct Translation: Word by Word
一天一顆蘋果能使你遠離醫生。
A day an apple can let you away the doctor.
一天一顆蘋果能使你遠離醫生。
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Common Mistakes
•
•
•
•
•
He/She
+s or not +s
much or many
Miss articles : A/An/The
Verbs : Past tense
He/She
•
•
•
•
100 years ago, there is no “she” in Chinese.
He/She  他
Now, Chinese uses 他/她 for He/She.
But, the pronunciations of 他 and 她 in
Chinese are exactly the same.
• Therefore, we often call our mom/wife, he.
+s or not +s
•
•
•
•
•
In English, a noun +s means many of them.
For example, cars = two or more cars.
In Chinese, we don’t change the noun itself.
For example, car = 車子; cars = 車子們.
But, two cars = 兩輛車子
much or many
• In Chinese, we don’t distinguish a countable
noun and a uncountable noun.
• Basically, in Chinese, there is only “a lot
of”.
• For example, many cars = 很多車子
• A lot of information = 很多資訊
• Much love = 很多愛
Miss articles : A/An/The
• You saw examples before that articles in
Chinese looks like 一X where X depends on
the following noun.
• For example, 一輛車子 = a car
一顆蘋果 = an apple
一本書 = a book
Miss articles : A/An/The
• Since we use adjectives instead of articles,
we used to miss a or an in writing English.
• Or, we just use “a” or “the” instead. Even
we don’t mean “the”.
• For example, we use to write:
Give me a apple. Or, give me the apple.
給我一顆蘋果。
Verbs : Past tense
• The nightmare for a Chinese native speaker
in writing English is the tense.
• In Chinese, we use only adverbs to tell time.
We don’t change the verb itself.
• Therefore, in writing English, we forget to
convert the verb into past tense all the time.
Verbs : Past tense
• For example,
–
–
–
–
–
I went to eat lunch.
= 我剛去吃午餐
I go to eat lunch.
= 我去吃午餐
I will go to eat lunch = 我將要去吃午餐
I am going to eat lunch. = 我正要去吃午餐
I have gone to eat lunch. = 我已經去吃過午餐
Verbs : Past tense
• For example,
– I went to library yesterday. = 我昨天去圖書館
– I go to library today.
= 我今天去圖書館
– I will go to library tomorrow. = 我明天去圖書館