How would you rate your English?

An easier way that trying to remember what grammatical objects are is to simply take the other person out of the sentence and see if it sounds right.

"xxx and I went to the shop" "I went to the shop".
"A dog chased xxx and I" "A dog chased I".

The second sounds rather silly.

But if memory serves, the subject is the one doing the action, and the object is the one receiving it. In the first, 'I' is the subject, and 'shop' is the object. In the second, 'dog' is the subject, and 'me' is the object.

 

I rated myself a ten. It drives me bonkers when no one can tell the differences between your and you're, and here and hear are also nitpicks of mine.

I'm not saying that there's no one better than me, heck, in looking at my postings here I occasionally find myself with a run-on sentence an entire paragraph long! I use commas when in fact sentences should be separated, among other transgressions against the language.

I'm also from the US, which many people tell me isn't proper English to begin with!

 

Considering I made a perfect score on the English section of the ACTs, I'd say somewhere near 10.
(*toot toot*)

 

The way I was taught was to take Rachel out (of the sentence), thus leaving "The professor gave the pencil to me," better written as "The professor gave me the pencil." The placement of the "I" makes it seem pompous and it would cause me to stop and read it again.

---------- Post added 14th Jun 2014 at 12:40 PM ----------

Downright impressive.

 

@Tightrope and Hexagon. I believe that taking out the additional pronouns is the standard way of teaching that lesson in school. The hard part about keeping up with grammar rules is not identifying the mistake as much as remembering to abide by them in casual settings.

I don't blame her for quitting though. Most of these rules are unnecessarily tedious. I was actually never scolded for my lack of semicolons in essays until halfway into secondary school.

 

I believe it's called thinking before you speak.

 

Hmm. Well, I'd probably rate myself at 9 1/2. I'm a lawyer and write for a living.

 

Me fail English? Thats unpossible!

 

I prefer not to judge. Some people have greater things on their mind than concentrating on verbal semantics. I abide by these rules for personal reasons, but they are certainly not need for effective communication.

 

i feel like this is one of those polls where you can't answer for yourself

 

I put 7/10 and I'm from England :bang:

 

I can read and write English well. Speaking English I get lazy. My strong points are Spelling and reading.

 

Depends on the situation.

If it's for an academic or professional paper, it's going to be an 11.

If I'm talking to a professor or to a "superior" (though I'd like to note that I hate that word), it's about a 7.

If it's on here or another forum, or say in a formal setting (asking for a service, for instance), it's around a 5. Though I don't generally proofread so I cringe at a lot of things I don't get a chance to edit..

If I'm just talking casually, in person, I'll drop to around a 3. At that point, I don't really give a damn so long as you can understand me.

And if you do give a damn you'll likely not get along with me. :lol:

 

I gave myself 8 is that too generous for my English ?

 

Ok, that's what I learned today. It's interesting that Ireland does not align on the spelling with the nearby UK and that Canada does not align with adjacent United States. I had never seen it spelled with only a final "y," but then it's not a drink I've ordered nor a bottle I've held in my hands. As for the reference to the Canadians, I take that back to some extent. Written English in Canada is more like that of the UK, minus their slang. They would say dude or guy before saying bloke or mate in casual conversation.

So, then, how do you rate yourself, unless I've missed that in reading through quickly?

So far, 49% of the respondents have chosen 9 and 10, and the poll is about evenly distributed between those two choices.

 

Proper distinction when referencing a subject or object in conversation is certainly not bullshit. Nor would I ever claim that English is the most difficult language in practice. My point is that the English language is easily filled with the most frivolity. Many European or Asian have much stricter rules in regards to grammar; however, those rules exist with purpose and defying many of them can certainly change the meaning of a phrase greatly, as you have described.

Though this is rarely the case with the English language. Personally, I abide by as many rules as possible, but I am completely comfortable with admitting that quite a few of them are entirely unnecessarily in the realm of communication. A large portion of English grammar rules simply exist to exist, rather than bringing a greater sense of understanding and efficacy to the conversation. I'm not saying that I don't have issues with people who don't pay attention to their deployments of "its and it's", "who, whoever, whom and whomever", object pronouns, and ignorance of semicolons because those concept of difficult to grasp in theory, so much as their use is rarely substantially meaningful in general.

 

I've had the same problems when I was trying to learn Portuguese. What's even harder is that my exboyfriend (who was Portuguese) preferred me to learn the European Portuguese than the Brasilian Portuese. I was extremely confused when it comes to identifying the gender for every noun.

 

Do people in here generally include in their rating their ability to convey the most nuanced ideas and connotations in a way easy to understand, or just the grammatical nuts and bolts? Because the latter isn't such a big deal in most cases; the former is what separates the men from the boys

 

"How do you fail English? You speak English!"

My English has gotten worse the more I'm around people, I used to be really articulate and wordy but now I'm just more casual because I've come to like bluntness even if it's not technically correct and I think I relate to people better now.

---------- Post added 14th Jun 2014 at 08:00 PM ----------

I speak English real good.