BrainKing - Discussion boards (Languages)

Languages

Ask questions or just talk about different languages. Since BrainKing is an international game site supporting many languages, this board can be kind of useful.

Since we will be dealing with pronunciation of words rather than their spelling, I think it's useful to have a link to The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet.

To see translations of some frequently used phrases and sentences in other languages see Languages

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17. February 2009, 18:07:35

coan.net

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Subject: Re: May, might, could

Pedro Martínez: Well just reading what you wrote, I personally would use all three words - with the same exact meaning / probability.

After doing some quick searches on the internet, might is actually the past tense of may.

As another side note about adding "NOT" to the words:

"Could not" vs. "Might not"

Jack could not have the key. - means you didn't do that. (100% probability)

Jack might not have the key. - means there is a chance.
Jack may not have the key. - means there is a chance.

... so adding "not" changes it.

Anyway, here are a couple of sites that I quickly took these thoughts from:

http://www.englishpage.com/modals/could.html
http://esl.lbcc.cc.ca.us/eesllessons/maymight/maymight.htm (has quiz at bottom)
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/may-might.aspx

25. September 2008, 18:36:46

coan.net

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Subject: Re:

ghingher: Thank you - I don't trust the on-line translators and would always like to have a human translation.

25. September 2008, 18:27:35

coan.net

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OK, awhile back I joined a Dutch only game site, and had the following phrase translated for me:

I only speak English

Dutch: "Ik spreek alleen Engels".

Well now I went and joined a German language game site, and would like the same translated to German. I would like to get that into my profile there so people don't think I'm rude or something when I don't reply back to them. Thanks.

15. July 2006, 18:10:50

coan.net

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Subject: Re:

King Reza: I would probable say "is not torn" - and would probable never say un-torn, if that helps.

11. July 2006, 02:15:32

coan.net

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Subject: China launches Web site to teach Chinese

In case anyone is interested in this: http://www.linese.com

The Web site is only in Chinese and English, but versions in Japanese and Korean are being developed

16. May 2006, 18:53:07

coan.net

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Subject: Re: Dutch

Pedro Martínez: Thanks.

Putting both "Ik spreek alleen Engels" and "Ik spreek slechts het Engels" in the on-line translater brings up "I only speak English", but I'll go with yours since I trust a human more then the translater. :-)

16. May 2006, 01:38:46

coan.net

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Subject: Dutch

Modified by coan.net (16. May 2006, 01:41:25)

Can anyone tell me how to write this in Dutch:

"I only speak English"

I've joined a place which is mainly dutch, and I don't want people to think I'm rude for not answering them when they talk to me.

NOTE: This is what an on-line translater gave me: "Ik spreek slechts het Engels"

Does that make sense... I know not to always trust the on-line translators, but I would not think they would mess something up so simple.