How do I learn English? ! English sentences, 30!

Writing, speaking and examination are three different things, each with its own learning methods. What I want to talk about here is how China people learn to write English. Don't make mistakes.

There are three important differences between Chinese and English in learning writing: vocabulary, verbs and sentence structure. Let me talk about these three items. Remember, my suggestion is to start with the differences between China and Britain.

Reading vocabulary ..

English is difficult to learn mainly because vocabulary is difficult to learn. There are three reasons. The first reason is that there are many English words. In terms of words commonly used by an intellectual, English is one to two times that of Chinese, and a translated English word is translated into about two Chinese characters. Chinese is made up of monosyllabic words, and change is made up of single words, but many English words are made up of roots. There are not many radicals used in Chinese (beside the golden character, beside the water character, etc.). With a large vocabulary and strong expressive ability, it is easier to express ideas, but it is much more difficult to learn.

I met Harriet on 1967? Johnson, the economist who writes fluently and publishes the most articles. I asked him, "Harriet, how can you learn to write English well?" He responded without thinking: "Learn vocabulary, learn vocabulary! Let's not talk about anything else. This is the experience of English writers.

China's second difficulty in learning English vocabulary is that there is generally no undifferentiated Chinese translation of English words except nouns. For example, the translation of the word "apple" is absolute, but how to translate "handsome", "beautiful", "gorgeous" and "neat"? These all stand for "good-looking", and the meanings in English are very different. We often have to look at the above reasons to determine the author's meaning. There are many words, whether adjectives or verbs, and seemingly synonymous words in English, which have subtle differences, often by a hair's breadth. So there is an English proverb: Use the right words in the right place. Yes, in English-Chinese dictionary translation, the translated articles generally don't know what they mean. Except nouns, most English words rely on tacit understanding.

Give an example of subtle differences in English vocabulary. More than twenty years ago, my nephew, a student of biology (he is a famous doctor today), wrote a doctoral thesis. The results of the two experiments were similar, but uncertain. He tried to describe it with the words "approximate" and "rough", but neither of them made any sense. Come and ask my uncle. I have carefully read the above, and I suggest using it in the community. It is suitable.

The third difficulty in learning English vocabulary, generally speaking, knowing how to interpret a word and how to use it are two different things. This is very different from Chinese. Chinese characters are generally understood and how to use them is known. Apart from nouns, if you know something, but you don't know how to use it, you don't understand it. Yes, what did you take for TOEFL, SAT, GRE, etc. If you score 100 in English vocabulary, you may not be able to write decent English sentences.

My method of learning English vocabulary is very simple, but let's assume that you have graduated from Secondary Five in Hong Kong English, or you can get about 580 points in TOEFL. The method is as follows:

(1) Prepare an English dictionary and an English-Chinese dictionary. Paperback, small and light, but the words are big and the pinyin notes are clear. If it's hardcover and it's too heavy to read, cut off the hard cover. This is because you should always look up. If you don't turn fast enough or feel uncomfortable, you don't want to look up more.

(2) Find some books about the items you are interested in reading and write them in English. This book selection is very important. You should ask more friends or English teachers to help you choose. Based on about 500 words per page (also choose large edition), you should choose two or three books, which add up to about 600 pages.

(3) Sit down and read, page by page. Look up every slightly unclear word in the dictionary immediately. Don't think that you are used to seeing a word and don't look it up if you know it. Check everything in doubt carefully until you fully understand the solution of every word in a sentence. Don't lie to yourself.

(4) Check the English dictionary first. If you understand it clearly, you don't need the English-Chinese Dictionary. English-Chinese dictionaries are only used when English dictionaries can't fully explain doubts.

(5) Never leave a note beside the page. You can't remember a word if you look it up once. When you see this word again, it's a little unclear. You must look it up again. It's a little unclear. The same word appears once and for all. Generally speaking, you can remember a word clearly and learn to understand it after looking it up three or five times.

(6) To understand the sentence clearly, you should read it clearly. Don't read self-evident sentences, only those that have been looked up in the dictionary. This is why it is important to have a good phonetic dictionary.

The above method of learning English vocabulary is to learn how to use it together when learning the solution of words. The same word often has different meanings in different sentences, so don't leave notes beside the pages. Don't fix the meaning of a word. If a word you don't fully understand appears, look it up in the dictionary once until the word appears again, so you don't have to look it up again.

My own experience is that this vocabulary learning method is based on a thorough understanding of the content of words. At first, there were more than 20 words to look up on each page, and it took more than an hour to finish reading a page, but it quickly entered the state. After reading about 100 pages, the number of words to be searched per page dropped to five or six, and by 200 pages, only three words were searched per page. About 400 pages are close to zero, while 600 pages are graduation.

According to the above method of learning English vocabulary, if your talent and memory are moderate, my estimate is that you can graduate in 400 hours. Concentrate on reading and checking for two hours every day, not more.

Remember, regardless of nouns, learning English vocabulary is not learning Chinese translation, but learning English itself. Mainly to learn how to use a word. If you know how to use it, you will know how to use it. If you know how to use it, you usually don't know how to use it. This is a key point for China people to learn English.

It is more difficult for China to learn English verbs and make sentences. It is not difficult to learn, but it is not easy to speak clearly enough. Countless books teach English how to use verbs and how to make sentences, that is, teach foreigners how to learn. Many good books can be consulted, especially some classic norms of Newton University and University of Chicago. I especially like a short book by E.P. White called Elements of Style. I read it again and again more than 30 years ago and gained a lot.

I am not qualified to compete with the classics of these experts. Although these classics are taught to Japanese, China people should also read them. What I want to say is that because Chinese and English are completely different, China people have special difficulties in learning English verbs and making sentences, so they focus on different emphases of verbs and making sentences in two different cultures. Focus on the important differences, mainly to help people who know Chinese or are good at writing Chinese to switch to English more easily.

Two simplified verbs

Chinese verbs and words themselves have no timeliness. We should use additional words to represent the past or the future, such as Zeng, Jiang and Liao. English verbs and words have their own temporality, such as "add -ed" or "go", "got" and "gone". However, the perfect tense in English has changed so much that some books have nine or twelve verb tenses. It is too complicated.

As a native of China, I learned English verbs and came up with two simplifications. First, English verbs have a past, a present, but no future. For example, will and peace, should and should, possible and possible, can and may all be present or past, and there is no "future". The verbs used in English are: now saying that the future is the present, and the past saying that the future is the past.

When using English verbs, the first thing to decide is to say the present, the past, or "it doesn't matter, both can do." Use the present tense now and the past tense in the past. You can choose either one, but you can choose the present tense and the past tense. You can't turn around. In other words, you can have both. After choosing one, you should keep a tense. This is the best way to deal with the introduction or conclusion of the article. Usually, the present tense is better than the past tense.

Besides the present or past, English verbs have three tenses: simple tense, continuous tense and perfect tense. In my humble opinion, China people should not show off their skills in writing English, but keep their verbs simple. You can use the simple present tense (such as I went) or the simple past tense (such as I went). In fact, simple and dynamic words are the most powerful, although sometimes dynamic words such as "continue" and "finish" are necessary.

The progressive tense refers to adding -ing, which is simple and clear, needless to say. But the perfect tense is not easy. I will use the perfect tense (have, had, has, etc.). ) use the second simplification, that is, the time dimension of completion, which Chinese verbs do not have. The simple tense of English is a moment of time, the past is the past, the present is the present, and there is no time for a period; The continuous tense is also a moment-a moment that went on in the past or now, and there is no time. I have forgotten now, I have forgotten before, I am forgetting, I have forgotten from the past to the present-I don't know when to forget, but I still forget now.

"Time" is difficult to explain, and the word "when completed" is a bit confusing. Readers who don't understand should think from a moment of time and a moment of overtime-the latter is sometimes, or remember that every sentence with the word self or its meaning is sometimes.

There are many books teaching English verbs, most of which are correct. But at that time, I found verbs difficult to learn and books didn't help much. Later, I came up with the above two methods: one is to decide whether it is "past" or "present"; The second is to decide whether to express time-whether to give time a ride.

Sentences are made up of conciseness.

There are no punctuation marks in China's writing tradition. There are almost no sentences here. We read ancient Chinese today because later generations added a circle and cut off the text to read. This development has led to different sentence patterns in Chinese and English today. Chinese punctuation, clauses and paragraphs are not as particular as English. Many people in China write English, and when they meet ghosts, it's always a bit inappropriate to be so "particular". I have been writing English since I was an undergraduate. Later, I decided not to ask for merit, but to ask for nothing, and my English began to be decent.

The important starting point is that English long sentences are connected by short sentences. To learn to make sentences in English, we must first make short sentences well. Learn to make short sentences, and the fewer words in each sentence, the better. Use simple tenses and a few words for verbs, don't be gaudy, just write them out. If you understand, just stop. In this way, I will fail the English composition exam, but that's how I learn English. Today, no matter how long my English sentences are, the structure is mainly short sentences, which are changed together. There are short sentences written clearly and directly, and there are also short sentences written clearly and directly together. Some people think that you can't get home without showing off, but I have no intention of being a writer and dare not dance on the tightrope. I just want to be clear-headed, logical and fluent in reading, that's all.

Many books teach short sentences and long sentences together, and teach them well. Punctuation is very important and books are well taught. The position of verbs is also well taught in books. What is less taught in the book is that important words should be placed at the beginning or end of a sentence, and try not to be placed in the middle. The method of segmentation is also well taught in books. What is less taught is that the first sentence and the last sentence of a paragraph should not be too long, and it is very powerful to read with short sentences. It is not obviously short, but has a short sense of strength.

As I said, no matter in Chinese or English, articles should be literary, and literary spirit is the easiest thing to learn by reciting predecessors' masterpieces. When I was a student, I liked to recite the Genesis in the Bible. The wonderful articles on the first day of creation are recorded as follows:

At first, God created heaven and the earth. The earth has no form and emptiness; Darkness hangs over the deep sea. The spirit of god runs on the water. God said, let there be light, and there will be light. God saw that light was good, so he separated light from darkness. God called light day and darkness night. Night and morning are the first days.

Did you see it clearly? The style is like a rainbow, all short sentences are written directly, all are simple tenses, staying in one tense! This is the ideal English foundation. /