Improving my English

[Premium]

Originally Posted by Perikles

A confusing statement, because you have given German as your first language.

You could say "unlike in" (colloquial)though Rusty's correction is the best.

At first, i learned Albanian and Serbian. I learned German when i attended school. I only speak Albanian and Serbian at home, so i mostly speak German after all.
I wasn't sure if i should state three languages as my native language, as i know German the best. I never had any Albanian or Serbian lessons, if you would ask me something regarding grammar or such, i couldn't give you an answer.
So, i thought i'd state German as my native language.

[Awaken]

Originally Posted by wayfarer

Hello Rusty,
thanks for your kind reply. I remember that you also corrected me some my Spanish when I was starting to learn it in the summer of 2011. The mistakes you found suggest that I still have some way a ways* (see note below) to go in perfecting my english,. we never know foreign languages well enough. Every time I will take note of the mistakes users will point out, so that I won't repeat them in the future.

Note: "a ways" is an informal item used in American English that is grammatically incorrect, but is used in common speech. I do not know if the phrase is used in British English. I only used it to maintain the original meaning as closely as possible.

You could rephrase the sentence as: " I still have some work to do in perfecting my English."

Good luck! I will try to help as often as I can.

[wayfarer]

Thank you Awaken, during the last year I often frequented* a British chess website and so my present English is probably more British than American :-) I didn't know the expression "still have a ways to go", on Google there are millions of occurrences either of that expression and of the expression "still have some way to go". So they are both used very often, probably the first is American, and the second is British.

*Is the expression "frequent a website" correct? In Spanish and Italian frecuentar/frequentare is used, but in English I'm not sure.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by wayfarer

Is the expression "frequent a website" correct? In Spanish and Italian frecuentar/frequentare is used, but in English I'm not sure.

Yes, it's correct. We don't use it as much as 'I visit ... a lot', though.

[Awaken]

Originally Posted by wayfarer

Thank you Awaken, during the last year I often frequented* a British chess website and so my present English is probably more British than American :-) I didn't know the expression "still have a ways to go", on Google there are millions of occurrences either of that expression and of the expression "still have some way to go". So they are both used very often, probably the first is American, and the second is British.

*Is the expression "frequent a website" correct? In Spanish and Italian frecuentar/frequentare is used, but in English I'm not sure.

I hear it used sometimes, and it is certainly correct as a statement. However, "I go to a chess website" or "I visit a chess website" are both more common.

[captainwireman]

"For us Italians, it is not excessively difficult to learn Spanish."

You did ask sir!