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Babylon 8 + Patch + Famous Glossaries

digitalenglish — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:51:18 GMT

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Glossaries and Dictionaries

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (4th ed) ****

MacMillan English Dictionary V1.1 - American ****

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 7th Edition ****

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary ***

Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary ***

Oxford Collocations Dictionary ***

Concise Oxford Thesaurus **

Concise Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford Talking Dictionary

Merriam-Webster Collegiate^® Thesaurus

Merriam-Webster Collegiate^® Dictionary

Babylon English-English

Microsoft Computer Dictionary

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

CIA World Factbook 2005

Persian Dictionaries

Discourse Makers

digitalenglish — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:57:56 GMT

Discourse Makers

Discourse means 'pieces of language longer than a sentence'. Some words and expressions are used to show how discourse is constructed. They can show the connection between what a speaker is saying and what has already been said or what is going to be said; they can help to make clear the structure of what is being said; they can indicate what speakers think about what they are saying or what others have said. There are a large number of these 'discourse makers', and it is impossible to give a complete list in a few pages. Some discourse makers are mostly used in informal speech or writing. Note that a discourse maker usually comes at the beginning of a clause.

Contents
1   focusing and linking
2   balancing contrasting points
3   emphasizing a contrast
4   similarities
5   contracting
6   concession and counter-argument
7   dismissal of previous discourse
8   change of subject
9   return to previous subject
10   structuring
11   adding
12   generalizing
13   giving example
14   logical consequences
15   making things clear; giving details
16   gaining time
17   showing one's attitude to what one is saying
18   persuading
19   summing up
20   referring to the other person's expectations

Forming Comparatives and Superlatives

digitalenglish — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:02:37 GMT

A. Regular Comparisons of Adjectives

I. For one-syllable adjectives and some two-syllable adjectives the structure adjective + -er / -est is used:

ADJECTIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
bright	brighter	brightest
narrow	narrower	narrowest
shallow	shallower	shallowest
slow	slower	slowest
smooth	smoother	smoothest

II. For most other adjectives of two or more syllable the structure more / less / the most / the least + adjective is used:

ADJECTIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
beautiful	more beautiful	the most beautiful
confident	more confident	the most confident
careful	more careful	the most careful
expensive	more expensive	the most expensive
important	more important	the most important
sensible	more sensible	the most sensible
violent	more violent	the most violent

III. For some adjectives either structure can be used:

ADJECTIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
common	commoner / more common	commonest / most common
cruel	crueler / more cruel	cruelest / most cruel
deadly	deadlier / more deadly	deadliest / most deadly
friendly	friendlier / more friendly	friendliest / most friendly
handsome	handsomer / more handsome	handsomest / most handsome
happy	happier / more happy	happiest / most happy
likely	likelier / more likely	likeliest / most likely
lonely	lonelier / more lonely	loneliest / most lonely
lovely	lovelier / more lovely	loveliest / most lovely
pleasant	pleasanter / more pleasant	pleasantest / most pleasant
polite	politer / more polite	politest / most polite
quiet	quieter / more quiet	quietest / most quiet
sincere	sincerer / more sincere	sincerest / most sincere
stupid	stupider / more stupid	stupidest / most stupid
true	truer / more true	truest / most true

B. Irregular Comparisons of Adjectives, Adverbs, and Quantifiers

ADJECTIVE	ADVERB	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
bad	badly	worse	worst
far	far	farther/further	farthest/furthest
good	well	better	best
little	little	less	least
many/a lot of	-	more	most
much*/a lot of	much*/a lot	more	most

English is a difficult language .... for some

digitalenglish — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:03:18 GMT

English is a difficult language ...... for some!
This is a true story from the Japanese Embassy in US!!!

A few days ago, Prime Minister Mori was given some Basic English conversation training before he visits Washington and meets president Barack Obama...

The instructor told Mori Prime Minister, when you shake hand with President Obama, please say 'how are you'. Then Mr. Obama should say, 'I am fine, and you?' Now, you should say 'me too'. Afterwards we translators, will do the work for you.

It looks quite simple, but the truth is…

When Mori met Obama, he mistakenly said 'who are you?' (Instead of 'How are you?'.)

Mr. Obama was a bit shocked but still managed to react with humor: 'Well, I'm Michelle's husband, ha- ha…'

Then Mori replied 'me too, ha-ha…'

Then there was a long silence in the meeting room.

Verb (+ Object) + Gerund/Infinitive

digitalenglish — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:46:18 GMT

Contents

Common verbs that can be followed by infinitives
Common verbs that can be followed by bare infinitives
Common verbs that can be followed by object + infinitive
For-structure: for + object + infinitive
Common verbs that can be followed by gerund
Verb + object + -ing form
-ing form with passive meaning
-ing form or infinitive

An Interesting Pronunciation Note

digitalenglish — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:48:25 GMT

A few adjectives ending in -ed have a special pronunciation: the last syllable is pronounced / ɪd; əd / instead of / d / or / t /.
aged / `eɪdʒɪd /
beloved / bɪ`lʌvɪd /
blessed / `blesɪd /
crooked / `krʊkɪd /
cursed / `kɜːrsɪd /
dogged / `dɔ:gɪd /
learned / `lɜ:rnɪd /
naked / `neɪkɪd /
ragged / `rægɪd /
rugged / `rʌgɪd /
sacred / `seɪkrɪd /
three-legged / ,θri`legɪd /
wicked / `wɪkɪd /
wretched / `retʃɪd /

Weak Forms

digitalenglish — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:47:18 GMT

In the phonology of stress-timed languages, the weak form of a word is a form that may be used when the word has no stress, and which is phonemically distinct from the strong form, used when the word is stressed. The strong form serves as the citation form. A weak form is a word as an unstressed syllable, and is therefore distinct from a clitic form, which is a word fused with an adjacent word, as in Italian mangiarla, 'to-eat-it'. A word may have multiple weak forms, or none. In some contexts, the strong form may be used even where the word is unstressed.

In English, most words will have at least one stressed syllable, and hence no separate strong and weak forms. All words which do have distinct strong and weak forms are monosyllables, and are usually function words or discourse particles. For most of these, the weak form is the one usually encountered in speech. As the extreme example, the strong form of the indefinite article a is used only in the rare cases when the word is stressed: naming the word, or when emphasizing indefiniteness. For instance:

Question: "Did you find the cat?"

Answer: "I found a [eɪ] cat." (i.e. maybe not the one you were referring to).

Otherwise (unless one is risking pomposity) the weak form [ə] is used for a.

The main words with weak forms in Received Pronunciation are:

a / weak ə, strong eɪ /
am / weak (ə)m, strong æm /
an / weak ən, strong æn /
and / weak (ə)n, ənd, strong ænd /
are / weak ər, strong ɑːr/
as / weak əz, strong æz /
at / weak ət, strong æt/
be / weak bɪ, bi, strong biː/
been / weak bɪn, strong biːn /
but / weak bət, strong bʌt /
can / weak k(ə)n, strong kæn /
could / weak kəd, strong kʊd /
do / weak d(ə), du, strong duː /
does / weak dəz, strong dʌz /
for / weak fər, strong fɔːr /
from / weak frəm, strong frɑ:m/
had / weak həd, əd strong /hæd /
has / weak əz, həz, strong hæz /
have / weak əv, həv, strong hæv /
he / weak (h)ɪ, strong hiː/
her / weak ər, hər, strong hɝː /
him / weak (h)ɪm, strong hɪm /
his / weak (h)ɪz, strong hɪz /
is / weak z, s, strong ɪz/
just / weak dʒəst, strong dʒʌst /
me / weak mi, strong miː /
must / weak m(ə)s(t), strong mʌst /
of / weak əv, strong ɑ:v /
our / weak aʊr, ɑːr, strong aʊɚ /
saint / weak s(ə)nt, strong seɪnt /
shall / weak ʃ(ə)l, strong ʃæl /
she / weak ʃɪ, strong ʃiː /
should / weak ʃəd, strong ʃʊd/
sir / weak sɚ, strong sɝː /
some / weak s(ə)m, strong sʌm /
than / weak ð(ə)n, strong ðæn/
that / weak ð(ə)t, strong ðæt/
the / weak ðə, ðɪ, strong ði /
them / weak ð(ə)m, strong ðem/
there / weak ðər, strong ðer /
to / weak before consonants tə, ţə, weak before vowels tu, tʊ, strong tuː /
us / weak əs, strong ʌs /
was / weak wəz, strong wɑːz /
we / weak wɪ, strong wiː /
were / weak wɚ, strong wɝː /
who / weak hʊ, strong huː /
would / weak əd, wəd/, strong wʊd /
you / weak jə, jʊ, strong juː /
your / weak jə, strong jʊr, jɔːr /

Other dialects or accents may have others. Many varieties have a weak form [jɚ] for your, which can, for example in dialogue, be spelled "yer". In some British regional pronunciations, such as Hiberno-English, there is a weak form [mi] for my, often spelled "me". A greater difference between strong and weak forms, and a more widespread use of weak forms, are associated with less formal registers, and may be indicated in writing by eye dialect spellings, such as ’em for them [əm]. The most formal register in this sense is singing, where strong forms may be used almost exclusively, apart (normally) from a.

In deriving weak forms from strong forms, the vowel is usually more central and may be shortened, sometimes merging to a syllabic consonant with any following [l], [m] or [n]. Changes to consonants are less frequent: an initial h is dropped unless the word is at the start of an utterance, and dental consonants may be elided at the end of the word. For example:

The word and has strong form [ænd] and weak forms [ənd], [ən], [nd], [n].
The word to has strong form [tuː], weak form [tʊ] before vowels, and weak form [tə] before consonants (or even before a vowel, inserting a glottal stop in between).

The 'em form of them is derived from the otherwise obsolete synonym hem: an unusual form of suppletion.

Some weak forms have restricted usage. For example, in RP usage:

Dropping the [h] of her is common in "I saw her yesterday" but not in "I saw her mother" (possessive her).
Demonstrative that uses the strong form even when unstressed. "I like that colour" (demonstrative, strong), as against "I like that you like it" (conjunction, weak).
Stranded auxiliaries and prepositions use the strong form. "I found what I'm looking for." (stranded for, strong) as against "I'm looking for money" (for before noun, weak).

Exclamation Mark

digitalenglish — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:16:18 GMT

When to use the Exclamation Mark - the Rules
The Exclamation point should be sparingly used, particularly in prose. Its chief use is to denote emotion of some kind. When to use this type of punctuation with examples:

It is generally employed with interjections or clauses used as interjections: "Alas! I am forsaken." "What a lovely landscape!"
Expressions of strong emotion call for the exclamation: "Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on!"
When the emotion is very strong double exclamation points may be used: "Assist him!! I would rather assist Satan!!"

Question Mark

digitalenglish — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:14:18 GMT

When to use the Question Mark - the Rules
The Mark of Interrogation is used to ask or suggest a question. When to use the Question Mark with examples:

Every question admitting of an answer, even when it is not expected, should be followed by the mark of interrogation : "Who has not heard of Napoleon?"
When several questions have a common dependence they should be followed by one mark of interrogation at the end of the series: "Where now are the playthings and friends of my boyhood; the laughing boys; the winsome girls; the fond neighbors whom I loved?"
This is also often used parenthetically to suggest doubt: "In 1893 (?) Gladstone became converted to Home Rule for Ireland."

Color Picker

digitalenglish — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:10:18 GMT

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