The English Topic

That’s true ! ^^ I knew this one 😛

hehe.
It isn’t antonymous is it?

btw, when would you say it isn’t and when is it’s not more appropriate?

I discussed this today at lunch with a couple of friends: an American, an English and an Australian.

They tend to think that « it’s not » is used when one wants to emphasize the negation.

Google clearly votes in favor of « it’s not » (144,000,000 results) rather than « it isn’t » (35,300,000).

« ce n’est pas » is correct, « c’est pas » isn’t. It’s not the same thing. 😛
And why do you write « it’s » without the apostrophe? This is the most common mistake I see, in magazines, books and on the internet. Did you do that to save a keystroke?

nope, not me. I forgot to mention where I was (I’m actually holding the camera).

Effisk, you will find that a lot of english speaking/writing people dont put in commas, apostrophies (??? see, dont even know how to spell it)!! etc because when we read english we dont even see those any more and dont really need them to understand the word. So we are just lazy and dont put them in any more, I type really fast and find it a pain in the ass to take time out of my rythem to put in grammer stuff. But thats just my personal lazy case.

Ps, Im sure effisk is young too and not retired at all but just wrote « retired » in his profile so that we wouldn’t all find out that he is in fact an elephant trainer by day and a nude model for art class to make ends meet at night to pay for his surfing trips!! 😆 ha ha, we have found you out now effisk!! 😆

you don’t have time to put in apostrophes but you still find time to add extra characters 😆

I understand you can be tempted to bypass apostrophes when you’re writing on a messageboard. However, when you see that mistake at random in a newspaper column, it is a mistake, plain and simple.

hehe, what’s your next message gonna be? You’re taking up night art classes?

There arent any hooligans in Rugby, you must be confused with Football or Soccer!!! 😛

I guess you must mean your looking forward to seeing some typical ozzie « yobs » at the rugby match. YOBS meaning typical aussie men, drinking beer, shouting insults at players/coach/umpire, with their bellies hanging over their pants and butt cracks showing a go-go. Half looking at the match and half looking out for some hot « shelias ». (girls)

You’ll get plently of those just walking around the streets even if you dont get to go to a match! 😆

🙁 Effisk hasn’t been back since our grammer discussion, it must have made him feel sick reading my terrible posts!! 😛

Note the effort I’ve made in today’s post though thank you very much! 😛

Ah come on, it’s not THAT empty!! There’s you, and well, me, and um um, you and me, and me and you, and there’s me, and you. 😛 😆

I guess they are able to make themselves understood but they’re not confident enough to discuss in English on a forum. Plus it’s a bit awkward to discuss in English when you know all interlocutors are fluent in French.

I was not comparing English writing and speaking skills; I was just stating the fact that it is easier to write in French than in English when discussing on the messageboard.

😛 I think your all taking things a little too seriously!!

M@d, I didn’t actually choose to come to France, I arrived in 92 at 17 with my whole family because of my fathers job in a big french company; am I allowed to say brand names here; oh what the heck, because of L’oreal.

My older sister wasn’t happy here so she went to live in London for a year but then decided to return to Sydney and my parents moved on for work again to Austria and then India and I decided to stay here.

I used to teach english in primary schools over here but since now having two children I am on a congé parentale. I am quite happy living here in France even though on birthdays, christmas etc I get a little blue and get home sick and miss the family. It’s funny, it’s more my husband who wants to go and live in Australia. I don’t mind. I’m happy anywhere.
I am lucky, I live near Disneyland so lots of english speaking people around here at the shops etc and in the town where I live there is even a huge residence for all the ex pats who work at Disney so I hear english still alot and of course I have a satellite dish to get all the english channel like BBC etc.

NB Effisk, note the effort again 😆 😛

Hi Oz Boy and Tadpole, I’m back too, when I’m not busy with my Bed & Breakfast/chambre d’hote.

Well said, Tadpole. I wondered this too…. my recommendation for Frenchies would really be to practice here before you arrive in Australia, because English could be more difficult than you expect, and any practice beforehand will surely help (like I do with my French every day and get a lot of benefit from)

Every new lot of guests I have in my B & B just make me want to visit France right now instead of waiting until May…. but at least next week I will be on a camping holiday on the way to Sydney 😀

Kate

😆

good luck for your interview 😉