Tim was kind enough to point out my English mistakes and explain about them in details.
(Thank you, Tim!)
One of them is the following.
http://sandfriend.blogspot.com/2010/08/current-situation-of-my-job-hunting.html
It's very detailed explanation, isn't it?
I've always thought that possessive case is used TOO often in English sentences, such as "She took HER glasses off", "He divorced HIS wife", "The children are enjoying THEIR English class."
In Japanese language, using a possessive case like those is very strange.
But I thought I got used to using possessive too often in English. I have picked up the habit of adding possessive case when I speak English.
However!!
Tim taught me that people say "have a future", not "have one's future." Ohhh!
I guess there are other more expressions which you shouldn't add possessive case.
That's good to know, but I have no idea what expressions I should add it or not. It can't be helped.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
That's a very good question!
And that is a sentence you will often hear when the person saying it doesn't know the answer.
Well, I don't really know the answer!
I should tell you that I am not a trained teacher, but I am a native English speaker, and I have had to write clear, correct English in my job. I have quite a few English-learning friends whom I have helped in the past. That activity has had the valuable side-effect of making me think about my own language from a different perspective, and even caused me to do some revision of my knowledge of English grammar. I am conscientious about giving advice, and I will only do it if I am sure.
Having said all that, I think the advantage I have is that I am very knowledgeable about English usage. I know what is "right", even though I don't always know why. But "right" is a difficult idea in relation to language, and especially so for English, because there are so many varieties of "correct" English around the world.
As for your question, I have been thinking about it, and I will think about it some more. I also tried to find some guidelines on the web. There is plenty of information on possessive pronouns at a simple level, but it is difficult to find anything on the exact topic of your question.
My thought so far is that the possessive pronouns are used when something truly belongs to someone or is part of them. For grammatical purposes, wives belong to husbands, husbands to wives, children to their parents, etc., even though it is not "politically correct". In the two examples, with the words "future" and "chance", those abstract things are not true possessions in a direct way. Maybe that is the distinction.
Well, I will think of some more examples, and try to work backwards to a rule or guideline. I'm interested to discover the answer too.
Thank you, Tim!! I really appreciate your detailed comment!!!
Yes, it's easy for native speakers to say the correct answers about their mother language, but it's difficult to explain "why."
Thank you that you thought about my question deeply!
Post a Comment