LL-L "Idiomatica" 2005.02.28 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 28.FEB.2005 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Idiomatica" 2005.02.27 (06) [E]

Rikus wrote about his good memories of foreign language teachers at
secondary school, who gave him some study aids.
In the Netherlands at secondary school normally English, German and French
are taught as foreign languages, together with -of course- Standard Dutch.
Possibily Rikus and I, and maybe Arend V as well, even visited the same
school, because we all went to school in Hoogeveen, Drenthe.

I liked those language classes very much too.
But there is one thing I never learned properly in English:
the differences between the (past) tenses.
Because I think in Dutch they are used not the same as in English.

Dutch has:

ik kocht boeken        lit.  I bought (some) books
and
ik heb boeken gekocht  lit.  I have bought books

but the latter - the construction with 'hebben' is the usual tense.
In English I think 'I bought that book' is more frequent.

And what's more, English has in addition to these two:

I was buying books,       and
I have been buying books

of which in Dutch the lit. translation would be:

ik was boeken aan het kopen,   and
ik ben boeken aan het kopen geweest

My problem is that in Dutch -and Dutch Low Saxon- I can immediately 'feel'
which form should be used, and when I speak/write English or another
language, I tend to translate it literally. But I become a bit insecure
because of that. Is there someone who can give me some very simple rules?
if there are...

Ingmar

>Rikus K. has written/wrote:
>From: Rikus Kiers <kiersbv at tiscali.nl>
>Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2005.02.27 (02) [E]
>>Dear Heather,
>I remember the plaissance I developed from the aids to memory my teachers
in
>French, English and German used to vitalize the rules and exceptions.
>P.e. Why do the french always say when they mean no : ne....pas. It had
>something to do with the roman soldiers having their influence on french
>They were expressing no and not one step further.Step=pas
>All the aids I do not remember anymore, but what I remember is  a growing
>interest in languages because they were all explaining something of the
>history in the developiment of language.
>So I remember my English teacher who made us say many times behind
eachother
>the word horse. If you do it very quick and very often you get an old
dutch
>word Ros, which is also urgermaans for horse.
>These aids helped me often more than all grammar and idiom.
>By using some of these aids, together with looking for the resemblance
with
>drents,fries,english and german I could when I was in Sweden easily read a
>Swedish paper, without knowing Swedish
>Groetjes
> Rikus Kiers

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