Grammar help: When to use "are" / "is"?

[Endrik]

To our British counterparts I want to let you know that all the Americans did was to take the Queens english and mold it into a language that people could understand .. thanks for the basics!!

:ROTF:

[jackson1]

Endrik, i know where you're coming from. I've learned a lot from the medias too. And i'm having a hard time de-coding myself again, to weed out some of the ugly english that's has been pounded into my brain again again - by the medias.

In fact, i deleted stuff from my previous post, because it was off topic, but it addressed this very issue: ugly fuckin' english

Take a look at the youngsters here in Europe. Most of them are surprisingly good at english. In spoken words. They sound almost like native americans. They learn english from listening to music and watching TV and movies. Not by attending school. So they sound pretty much like the typical rap or movie stars: -fuck you, suck my cock, Hey dude, your mom is a slut, Holy fuck, gimme that shit you prick or you're dead meat, etc.

I like ugly language once in a while - but i'd like to be able to balance it with normal, decent english.

If this is the foundation, if the music and movies are the primary platform for mastering the english language, man are going to insult or put off people down the line - without even knowing it. Cursing and swearing and laughing at the same time.

I sound anal about this - i'm not! Peace!

[pott]

You're learning English from Americans??

Eh that's what I did and I'm pretty happy with my English level for now

At least I never do the apostrophe mistakes...

'it's strings are broken' GAAAAH!!! I once saw a mistake like this in a marketing lecture, I tried hard not to point it out. I hate when there's a language SO EASY, as English is, and people still don't make the efforts.

Possession = its
It's = verb = it is

Same for where/were/we're
Where = location
We're = verb = we are
Were = verb = 'if I were' (not was), 'we were', 'they were' = past tense of 'to be'

[Snoogans]

Oh God, don't get me started on The Aberrant Apostrophe!
That's common practise over here. I've even seen it on TV adverts. Makes my frickin' blood boil! What's even worse are the Dumbfucks who say things like "I don't know why you're getting so annoyed about it... (...because I'm a fucking illiterate lazy-assed retard who didn't notice until you pointed it out)" AAAAAGH!!

I'll just go and lie down for a little while....

[jackson1]

Kev, thanks!

I realize reading the JCF is a win-win for me. I learn about guitars AND english spelling. What a combo! And it's for free!

[RacerX]

Yahoo! My brothers, pott & Snoogans! Sounds like we need a rant thread.

[dg]

All of you European bros amaze me with how well you do with your English. One strange thing I've noticed WRT to is/are is how Americans refer to bands in the singular and Brits tend to refer to them in the plural. For example, in the U.S. we say "Bush is a shitty band, but Megadeth kicks ass." In the U.K. they say, "Bush are a shitty band, but Megadeth kick ass."

[Guyver1]

To our British counterparts I want to let you know that all the Americans did was to take the Queens english and mold it into a language that people could understand .. thanks for the basics!! :ROTF:

yaaahh dude .. totally, like i'm totally here for a while, like ya know, gnarly....

[~K~]

Guyver .. here's the funniest part..

Here in the states there is such a difference in accents it's astounding.. For instance those up here in New England don't pronounce their R's..

Car sounds like Cah ...

Now the reason I find this funny is because my mother in law being a Brit I understand that you have the same difference there.. But when I was there damned if all the brits I spoke too sounded EXACTLY the same .. and to make matters worse they all spoke way to fast for me.. same basic language and it may as well have been german to me because I couldn't undertstand a damn thing they were saiyng ..

[Fragle]

by the way, last month i spoke to an australian girl, and she told me that there are very few if any accents in australia. basically, they're all speaking the same australian english, which i think is amazing, seeing how large that country is. for example, germany is a lot smaller, but we've got shitloads of accents, especially in rural areas. if i'm talking in my hometown's accent, it's very likely that even people from the next town which is like 1 mile away can't understand one single thing, and vice versa.
as for british english vs. american english, i think american english wins hands down. to my ears, the british pronounciation is just GAY seriously, i can listen to that NY accent all day long (think of juliya or however her name is spelled, the girl from fuse's metal asylum...damn, even her accent is sexy :drool: ), but i HATE that oxford english kinda thing...and don't get me started on cockney maybe it's because most of the movies i'm watching are american movies, or all the other audio interview stuff with bands etc, i guess i kinda got used to that.
"
It's pretty easy to add "COOL!" or "NICE PICS!" to the threads here, but when it comes to complex matters, like politics, hidden messages in jokes, arguments, it gets real hard as a european (to me anyway) to add clear input, because there is so much history and culture inherent in the comments made by the native"
+1 yep...talking about gear isn't too dificult (which doesn't mean that i don't make mistakes ), but once you get to more "serious" topics like politics etc it tends to be rather difficult at times.

but then again, one of my 2 A level subjects is english, so go figure....

[Guyver1]

Guyver .. here's the funniest part..

Here in the states there is such a difference in accents it's astounding.. For instance those up here in New England don't pronounce their R's..

Car sounds like Cah ...

Now the reason I find this funny is because my mother in law being a Brit I understand that you have the same difference there.. But when I was there damned if all the brits I spoke too sounded EXACTLY the same .. and to make matters worse they all spoke way to fast for me.. same basic language and it may as well have been german to me because I couldn't undertstand a damn thing they were saiyng ..

depends where you went in the UK m8, I'm welsh so i have a REALLY strong accent, but even in Wales (which is a TINY country really) theres at least 4-5 distinctly strong and VERY different accents.

On the Austrailia note, Yes it is a big country, but 90% of it is totally uninhabitable, plus the language base there is based on a VERY small demographic of Convicts from the UK, so its not really that suprising that they really only have the one 'accent'.

America on the other hand has so many local accents because the original 'pioneers' came from so many different european countries that the 'accents' probably developed from smatterings of other european languages/slang/phrases etc and developed into their own regional dialect/accent.

[Monster]

i dont worrie about grammer on any forums. not my strong point.. in high school i was more into playing my guitar then anything..

i am better at grammer in person or on paper then i am on the internet, cause my brain works faster then my fingers typing...

[jackson1]

Guys, wonderful info from all of you. Quite informative.

Back to school for a moment. Please read the following and tell me if i pass:

..if anyone is interested (anyone=single=is)
..if Ruth and Gordon are interested (R+G=plural=are)

..Is this correct?
..Are these steps correct?
..Am i a jerk? :ROTF:

[Fragle]

sounds fine imo....

[toejam]

I dont worrie about grammer

We see that.