Hi, I’m not really a native speaker of English and have been confronted with this slightly puzzling question today while having to work with two documents that use the same term, but apparently in different meanings …
I have been using the term “bi-annually” for as long as I can remember now (I’ve been speaking English from a very early age …) as meaning “twice a year”, whereas “bi-weekly” seems to be widely accepted to mean “every two weeks”. I also used both terms in these respective meanings and it never occurred to me that there’s a slight logical flaw here. :s Reading through a set of documents today I stumbled across one instance of use of “bi-annually” in the sense of “every two years” … most dictionaries I consulted supported the “twice per year” interpretation (as well as the “every two weeks” meaning for “bi-weekly”), but one stated “every two years” … ‘proper’ native speakers in the office are also confused and started googling frantically …
Any experts out there who can solve this problem? Thanks, Xpet.
Ah, memories of my 8th grade Engish class!! Mr. Dunkum, my teacher (yeah, I’ll never forget him. What a character!), stressed that, in conjunction with “weekly”, “monthly” and “annual/ennial”, “bi-” means “every two” and “semi-” means “twice per”.
But there’s so much confusion among native speakers of English that these terms should be avoided altogether.
Hi BFM, and thanks for your reply, you’ve helped me a lot! I have bookmarked the dictionary.com site, I’m in the habit of mostly using bi-lingual resources, an English-English Dictionary/Thesaurus seems to dig deeper at times … thanks!
I’m a teacher and a daddy who lives out in the boonies. I seldom see other foreigners. So… please help me remember…
Time: Next week, next year, etc. I use English in talking to my wife and other Taiwanese friends. I always get into trouble with next week. etc.
I thought next week means same day just seven days later. I’ve missed an appointment where they said… Come here next week and they meant Monday, not Tuesday. I assume unless otherwise stated, next year means the same calendar date of the following year. .
Now as a Daddy: In my classes I always stress that my students should learn the contracted form of every day expression I.e.: He
“Next week” just means the week after the current one. Not necessarily to the day though - if it’s Wednesday and someone says they’re doing something “next week” it could be any time from the coming Sunday/Monday (depending how they define the start of the week) through to the end of that week.
I’ve never heard of “next week” meaning “exactly seven days from now”. I woul d have thought “in a week” would suffice for that.
You realize that many calendars in Taiwan start with Monday and end with Sunday. Probably from the Chinese language where Monday is “Week_1”, etc. US and maybe other calendars start with Sunday. Perhaps there’s a Christianity-related influence there. To me, “next week” means “any time from Monday to at least Saturday of the following week”. Sunday may cause problems, but look at the context. If I visit X city every weekend and I say “next week”, that means “the next time I go to that place”. I think it’s unlikely that someone saying “next week” on Sunday would mean “perhaps tomorrow”. They’d probably mean “at least a week from now.” Another thing to consider: was it a Taiwanese person using “their” English to say “next week” to you?
CONTRACTION PROBLEM:
Don’t quite understand the problem. Are you saying the child will say “He’s a boy’s”??? Maybe some examples would help. I can’t guarantee that I can help you with children, though. I was the youngest in my entire extended family and I’ve never even “held” a child before, even though I’m 34!!! The only thing I know about “children” is how to spell it. Give some examples and maybe me or someone else can help you out.
[quote=“Taiwan_Student”]Now as a Daddy: In my classes I always stress that my students should learn the contracted form of every day expression I.e.: He
Perhaps there is. Maybe this whole seven days in a week thing has something to do with the creation story? You know, on the seventh day God rested and all that? Sunday, the day of rest, the day people go to church, could actually be the seventh day for a reason. Astounding. I think you’ve just figured out why it’s harder to do fun things - like buy drinks - on Sundays in Christian countries. It’s all those christians insisting we ‘honour the sabbath’.
While we’re on the subject, can anyone tell me why this is the year 2005 and not some other random number? Don’t tell me there’s a Christian influence there too!
In Germany the week starts on a Monday, in Malaysia it depends in what state you are (or rather which party controls it): the West side mostly follows so-called Western practice (Monday to Sunday) while in the North-East the Friday is the Sunday.
It’s the year 94, not 2005. Time to brush up on your Taiwan history …
[quote=“Loretta”]Perhaps there is. Maybe this whole seven days in a week thing has something to do with the creation story? You know, on the seventh day God rested and all that? Sunday, the day of rest, the day people go to church, could actually be the seventh day for a reason. Astounding. I think you’ve just figured out why it’s harder to do fun things - like buy drinks - on Sundays in Christian countries. It’s all those Christians insisting we ‘honour the sabbath’.
While we’re on the subject, can anyone tell me why this is the year 2005 and not some other random number? Don’t tell me there’s a Christian influence there too![/quote]
More than you ever expected to learn about calendars and how they work:
I’d like to address the OP’s Daddy question. Please don’t worry too much about your daughter’s language skills at this time, she’s learning two or three languages at the same time and I bet she’s doing great!
But it’s my guess that she may be pluralizing everything. This is actually a common thing even amoung kids only learning English. Once they grasp the “s” concept, they have to spend some time figuring out when it’s used and when not. She may not understand that it’s a contraction.
I suspect this because in Mandarine there is no such plural form as adding an “s” sound. I don’t think so in Taiwanese, either. Just my 2 NT$.
I surmise that the 7-day-week tradition has pre-Judeo-Christian roots stemming from the phases of the moon, e.g. there are seven days from new moon to first quarter, etc.
That said, the Chinese traditionally divided their months into three ten-day segments.
Yes, exactly. As a native speaker of English, I’ve never heard of “next week” meaning “next Tuesday if today is Tuesday”. To me, if today is any day between Monday and Saturday inclusive, “next week” means any time from the following Monday to the Saturday after that. I exclude Sunday because its position at the cusp of neighboring weeks can cause confusion, as can its varying status as either the first or the last day of the week.
Side note: I have always considered Monday to be the first day of the week because that’s when schools and businesses start their weeks. Also, Sunday is part of the weekend.
[quote=“Taiwan_Student”]
Now as a Daddy: In my classes I always stress that my students should learn the contracted form of every day expression I.e.: He
[quote=“Taiwan_Student”]Now as a Daddy: In my classes I always stress that my students should learn the contracted form of every day expression I.e.: He
Reading lots of books to young children helps them learn the rules of language. Dr Seuss or other books that highlight singular/plural differences through rhyme and repition are really helpful.
“Over Chinese New Year, I watched a Japanese TV series all week long, all the while not noticing time flying by.”
Two V+ing in the sentence, is that right?
I doing the noticing is the main subject
time doing the flying is the what?[/quote]
“Time” is the direct object of the verb “noticing.” There are two direct objects in your sentence (the other being “a J. TV series”), which is OK because there are two clauses.
