ANMI English Tips & Tools

2009-12-18

Christmas Necklace

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here are today's English bloopers:

Original English:

1. My wife wants necklace.
(私の奥さんはネックレスが欲しいです。）

2. I will buy one to Christmas present.
（クリスマスプレゼントとしてネックレスを買いたいと思います。)

Can you find the mistakes? How would your rephrase these sentences?

1. My wife wants necklace.
※ 「necklace」は数えられる名詞です。数えられる名詞の前に必ず定冠詞の「the」また不定冠詞の「a」、「an」、「some」をつけてください。

→ My wife wants a necklace.

2. I will buy one to Christmas present.
※　「buy ～ to + 名詞」は間違っています。　「buy ～ to + 動詞」ならOKです。
例：　I will buy one to give (to) her for Christmas.
例：　I will buy one to give (to) her for her birthday.

※　「buy ～ + for」 + 「何のため」をお勧めします。
例：　I will buy one for her Christmas present.
例：　I will buy one for her birthday present.

→　I will buy one for her Christmas present.

Extra tips:

×　My wife wants necklace. I will buy one to Christmas present.

◎　My wife wants a necklace. I will buy one to give her for Christmas.
◎　My wife wants a necklace. I will buy one for her Christmas present.

⇒　Since my wife wants a necklace for Christmas, I will buy one for her at Tiffany's.
⇒　My wife wants a necklace for Christmas, so I will try to buy one for her online.
⇒　My wife said that she wants a necklace for Christmas, so I will go shopping for one at Macy's Department Store this weekend.

Do you have any questions or comments regarding today's bloopers? Do you have any questions or comments about my suggestions? (Did you find any mistakes in my Japanese?) Please send me email, leave a comment below, or ask me in class!

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.1 Japan License.

アンミ英会話教室
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2009-12-16

English Bloopers: Fun Days, Snorkel, Fishes, Regret

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here are today's English bloopers:

1. It was very fun days.
→ 楽しい日々でした。
2. We did a snorkel.
→ シュノーケリングしました。
3. Many fishes swam the sea.
→ たくさんの魚が泳いでいました。
4. We bought many things without our regret.
→ 後悔しないようにたくさん買物をしました。

How would your rephrase these bloopers? Here are some suggestions:

1. It was very fun days.
※ It + days は間違っています。

→ It was a very fun trip.

⇒ I went to Hawaii on a fun trip.
⇒ I went on a wonderful trip to Hawaii!
⇒ I had an exciting vacation in Hawaii!
⇒ I went to Hawaii and had a good time!
⇒ I had a good time in Hawaii!
⇒ I went to Hawaii and had a wonderful vacation!

2. We did a snorkel.
※　do (did) + snorkel は間違っています。

→ We did snorkeling.
→ We snorkeled.

⇒ We went to the beach and enjoyed snorkeling.
⇒ We had fun snorkeling.
⇒ We went to the beach to enjoy some snorkeling.

3. Many fishes swam the sea.
※　fishes は間違っています。（２種類以上をさすときは fishes）

→　Many fish swam in the sea.

⇒　There were many beautiful fish swimming around us.
⇒　We were surrounded by many schools of fish.
⇒　We enjoyed the sight of schools of fish swimming around us.

4. We bought many things without our regret.
※ without + our (your/my/his/her/etc.) + regret は不自然です。

→　We bought many things without regret.

⇒　We bought many things that were cheaper or unavailable in Japan
⇒　We bought a lot of things that we were sure we wouldn't be able to get in Japan or were not as cheap.

・・・

Do you have any questions or comments regarding today's bloopers? Please send me email or ask me in class!

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.1 Japan License.

2009-11-09

One Space vs Two Spaces

Photo by Carlos Paes (Link)

In junior high school, we were taught to add two blank spaces after every period in typewriting class. This was primarily due to the fact that typewriters had monospaced typefaces. Using two spaces made it easy to see the end of a sentence. For example:

Monospace font (Courier) with two spaces after the period:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi non ante sit amet purus facilisis imperdiet. Sed varius ante ut mauris iaculis et venenatis sapien condimentum. Phasellus ultricies, felis et mattis vulputate, erat felis feugiat libero, vitae interdum risus elit vel nisi.

However, since the mid-nineties, I haven't used a typewriter. Using a computer and word processing software, we can choose to use proportionally spaced fonts. Using proportionally spaced fonts, there is not need to add the extra blank space after the period. For example:

Proportionally spaced font (Times) with one space after the period:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi non ante sit amet purus facilisis imperdiet. Sed varius ante ut mauris iaculis et venenatis sapien condimentum. Phasellus ultricies, felis et mattis vulputate, erat felis feugiat libero, vitae interdum risus elit vel nisi.

Basically, I feel that adding the extra space is non-standard in the 21st Century. It is a waste of effort and over the long run, a waste of paper for exceptionally long documents. Finally, it is distracting. A good writer doesn't want to have anything distract his or her readers from the writing. So, in a nutshell, just add one space after each period. At ANMI Eikaiwa, we basically advise our students to use one space.

Jacci howard Bear at About.com¹ wrote on this topic and offers some excellent justifications for one space after the period. My favorite style manual, The Chicago Manual of Style,² also offers some reasons for the single space.

1. Use One Space Between Sentences; Desktop Publishing Rules on Spacing After Punctuation by Jacci Howard Bear, About.com
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a/onetwospaces.htm
2. The Chicago Manual of Style Online, 15th Edition
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/OneSpaceorTwo/OneSpaceorTwo03.html

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