the only thing I can do now is to pray and hope that tomorrow my supervisor will be more then kind wit' me!
Actually, it's not wrong to include the word "to". It only sounds unusual to us because speakers generally tend to drop it, but grammatically it's OK.
And now my input for Iahim:
Give me a call even in this week-end for set up a meeting.
"In" is unnecessary. "For" should be replaced by "to", because we are dealing with an infinitive: to set up. I'm also having some difficulty accepting the expression "to set up", for two reasons:
1. "To set" would be quite enough: you can set a date, a meeting, an appointment.
2. "To set a meeting/an appointment" sounds too formal for two friends meeting. Here's what I'd say:
Give me a call this weekend so we can meet.
There is more than a simple files transfer.
"There is" expresses existence. A word-for-word translation would sound like this:
Exista mai mult decat un simplu transfer de fisiere.
Obviously, we mean "este mai mult", as in "it is", not "there is". So:
We don't need the plural form "files", even though we might mean that more than one file is to be transferred. No need to go into the theory, but the singular form is the right one in such cases: a file transfer, a car dealership (where, obviously, many cars are sold), a computer store (where you can find many computers), and so on.
So:
It's more than a simple file transfer.
or
This is more than a simple file transfer.
As a suggestion, I would recommend you also some Cambridge preparation books because are a higher level than IELTS and in my opinion are more explicit and useful than IELTS training materials.
"Also" usually comes either:
- right before the main verb
or
- at the very beginning of the sentence (see my next sentence).
Also, a verb always needs its subject by its side: "they are", not just "are". Sometimes you can get away with mentioning the subject just once (e.g., "They came and then left again"), but not if that verb is "to be". To be safe, always mention the subject (e.g., "They came and then they left again" - nothing wrong with saying "they" twice).
So:
I would also recommend [...] because they are [...]
I will left a pm with my personal cell number.
"Left" is the second form. You could say "I'll leave", or even better:
I'll send you a PM [...]
One more remark and I'm off. Language use doesn't have to be 100% correct. It has to be unambiguous and effective. We don't use language to make grammar exercises, but to express ourselves and to understand others. The good thing about IELTS is that it tests your ability to function in English, not your knowledge of grammar. So if you've still got some grammar issues, don't let them discourage you. As an example, do you know Caesar (the Dog Whisperer)? All those years in the US, and he still can't make past tense questions properly. That hasn't stopped him from becoming famous though.
Whatever mistakes you make, if they don't make communication difficult or unclear, they're not that important.
My advice to anyone looking to improve their language: find short texts and learn them by heart. They can be songs (but not hip-hop, hehe), short stories, poems (but not Shakespeare; choose something from our times), dialogues from movies, anything. Language is learned by imitation - or at least that's how we learn our native language). Most language courses fail because they try to discard imitation in favour of logic - and that's exactly why our foreign language skills are almost never as good as our native language skills. So choose texts that have short sentences and just learn them. Do this with about 30-40 texts of 300-400 words each and you'll be amazed at the results.
Welcome Guest , please login or register
