I wish become good at my English.

[Sumi]

jinksys wrote:
alot of it is pointless if you live in the south.

Are you talking about America?! Well, I must say that I can't even understand the most southern accents.

[TrilinguisT]

howdy partner! ^

[richvh]

While "it's" is the proper contraction of "it is", I think you're right; after hearing "a lot of it[']s", I'm expecting a noun-subject, not a predicate, so the contraction "it's" doesn't fit, but the possessive pronoun "its" is certainly not correct. Other opinions? Or shall we let this thread (which is over a year old) go back to sleep?

[Rounin T]

Rich and TrilinguisT are correct. In order to contract 'it' with 'is', the 'it' has to be the subject of the grammatical construction in which 'is' is the verb. In this case, the 'it' is the object of a prepositional phrase that modifies 'a lot', which is the subject that actually goes with the 'is' in question. If we diagrammed the sentence, the 'it' would be on a completely different level from the 'is'.

So you could say "English grammar is hard and a lot of it is pointless" (as TrilinguisT suggested) or you could say "English grammar is hard and it's pointless."

Grammatically speaking, of course. In practice, you're welcome to say whatever the heck you want.

[gconyers]

I am looking to become better at Japanese, so maybe we can have a trade off? I can help with the English, if you guys will help me become better at Japanese.

[ButterFli]

TrilinguisT wrote:
howdy partner! ^

Hey, what's that supposed to mean? I'm from Texas.

[Infidel]

In Texas I never heard anyone say Howdy partner except non-Texans pretending to speak the lingo. Anyone that says Howdy, like me, only says Howdy.

And BTW, you responded to a 6 month old thread.

[ss]

Once upon a time, I was in flash chat and someone came in and ....

YY: Howdy?
SS: ......... (thinking real hard) I'm fine, thank you. Howdy?
YY: I'm doing fine too ...

So, I guess "howdy" is "how are you" ?? I don't know .... ^^;

[Infidel]

Its origin is a contracted "how do you do" But its usage is often just "Hi"

Howdy as you pass someone on the street = hi.
Howdy as you meet someone = how do you do?

[ss]

Thank you Infidel-san. Now I know what is "Howdy" :p

[paulrowe]

SS wrote:
Thank you Infidel-san. Now I know what is "Howdy" :p

Different areas will slur it differently and it will sound awkward if you pronounce it as written. Also, my grandmother would say, "Hi-doo," instead of, "Howdy."

[AJBryant]

And then there was Wilson who always said, "Hidy-ho, neighbor Tim!"


Tony

[Chris Hart]

Capparapha wrote:
Right you're, grammer english pointless is.

Well put, Yoda.

I'm off to find another long since dead thread to resurect.

[ss]

I think it's also very important that we learn to speak and write Standard English in the first place. Not saying all of them are improper, but each person has his or her own cultural origins, background, upbringing, personality, interests, needs and wants.

Standard English is the form of English that is most acceptable to the largest number of people. I think it is the form that is most appropriate for almost every purpose, audience and context.

Yet, we should also strive to respect another person's point of view even if we do not understand at that moment.

[SmoochesToYou]

こんにちは！

I'm not very good..