Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 08:36:24 +0100 (CET) From: Oliver Fromme <olli@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/share/man/man5 sysctl.conf.5 Message-ID: <200001170736.IAA99539@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de> In-Reply-To: <85ta0f$1fkh$1@atlantis.rz.tu-clausthal.de>
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G. Adam Stanislav <redprince@redprince.net> wrote in list.freebsd-chat:
> At 09:31 16-01-2000 -0800, Eugene M. Kim wrote:
>>No, they (including me and my friends) are not confused if contractions
>>aren't used. In almost all English classes (as a second language) they
>>first teach `you are' then explain briefly about its contracted form
>>`you're', not the opposite way.
>
> FWIW, as a native Slovak speaker who studied English in Slovakia, I was
> taught to use contractions in spoken English, while the full form in
> written English.
I'm German, and learned English as 2nd language at school. We
learned both forms ``you are'' and ``you're'' etc. at about the
same time, at the very beginning.
We were taught that the non-contracted form is often used to
indicate emphasis, or to stress that part of the sentence.
I.e. ``You are'' is more emphasized and "stronger" than the
contracted form ``you're''. Compare the following two
conversations:
1. A: ``Where am I?''
B: ``You're at the airport.''
2. A: ``How do I get to the airport?''
B: ``You _are_ at the airport.''
The sentence of person B is the same, except for emphasis and
accentuation. (I've aded underscores to indicate this.)
In the second conversation, it is not possible to use the
contracted form without breaking the emphasis. Although the
the non-contracted form could have been used in the first
example, but I think that's not very common.
But then again, I'm not a native English speaker, and maybe my
English teachers and books were clueless. :-)
Regards
Oliver
--
Oliver Fromme, Leibnizstr. 18/61, 38678 Clausthal, Germany
(Info: finger userinfo:olli@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de)
"In jedem Stück Kohle wartet ein Diamant auf seine Geburt"
(Terry Pratchett)
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