English Experts

[Flavia.lm]

Question: What game did you most like to play as a child?

Examples of answers:

• I used to play dolls with my sister;
• I liked to jump rope, hopscotch and hide-and-seek.
• I spend all my childhood playing soccer on the street.

Now it's your turn!

[w.slayman]

WOW, this is a great question that has several answers, all of which depend on my age at any particular time, therefore I will give several answers.

When I was very young I liked hide and seek, and between about six and ten years old I liked cops and robbers.
As I got a little older, about eleven, I liked baseball and American football, which I actually played into middle age. However when I reached 12 years of age, my favorite games became spin the bottle, and post office, this lasted until I was old enough to have a real or semi-permanent girl friend.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide-and-seek
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_the_bottle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_(game)

[Nadya]

It´s good to go back in time...
I loved to play ball and make mud cakes in my imaginary kitchen, where I was the mommy and the other kids were my children.
Jump Rope, hopscotch, jump elastic(pular elástico), catch-up are in the list!

xoxo

[ENG_rafael]

Greetings,

Wow, there are some games I was addicted to depending on my age...

When I was very young, about 6 years-old, I used to play LEGO. By this game, I could build houses, cars and whatever my imagination could create. I used to play it with my brother, sometimes my mother joined us.

Between 8-12, hide-and-seek was very often game on my street...

About 12 to 15 I played football almost every day, all days long and I was very good on that, as a matter of fact, most people said me I could be an excellent football player. People used to asked me if I played for a team and I said no, I played for joy, and they said I was good enough for a dude who doesn't was addicted to some team. Then, after I enter to high school, I started loosing joy for playing football, and by the time of my prom, I don't have time and interest in playing football, however, I always liked watching matches and forever I do.

Nowadays, I am twenty, and I no longer have time to do activities that request our body, like football or tennis. I am studying hardly in order to manage to gain good grades at college, engineering is not easy. In fact, computer games are the only kind of game I have played for the last two years when lacks on my agenda are found.

Take care!

[w.slayman]

It´s good to go back in time...
I loved to play ball and make mud cakes in my imaginary kitchen, where I was the mommy and the other kids were my children.
Jump Rope, hopscotch, jump elastic(pular elástico), catch-up are in the list!

xoxo

Nadya,

I have two minor suggestions, both of which are in your last sentence. I would add "and" (a particle) immediately before "catch-up", and the second would be to use "on" instead of "in" ie. ... "are on the list!" While either word is correct, most native American English speakers would use "on" in this context.

I realize that both of these suggestions are "nitpicking", but your writing is that good.

[w.slayman]

Greetings,

Wow, there are some games I was addicted to depending on my age...

When I was very young, about 6 years-old, I used to play LEGO. By this game, I could build houses, cars and whatever my imagination could create. I used to play it with my brother, sometimes my mother joined us.

Between 8-12, hide-and-seek was very often game on my street...

About 12 to 15 I played football almost every day, all days long and I was very good on that, as a matter of fact, most people said me I could be an excellent football player. People used to asked me if I played for a team and I said no, I played for joy, and they said I was good enough for a dude who doesn't was addicted to some team. Then, after I enter to high school, I started loosing joy for playing football, and by the time of my prom, I don't have time and interest in playing football, however, I always liked watching matches and forever I do.

Nowadays, I am twenty, and I no longer have time to do activities that request our body, like football or tennis. I am studying hardly in order to manage to gain good grades at college, engineering is not easy. In fact, computer games are the only kind of game I have played for the last two years when lacks on my agenda are found.

Take care!

Rafael,

Check out these changes and let me know what you think.

... LEGO. With this game, ...

... was very often the favorite game on my street.

Between 12 and 15 I played soccer every day, all day long and I was very good at that, ...
people said ( delete me) I could ... excellent soccer player ... I played for the joy of it... who wasn't associated with some team. ... after I entered high school I started losing my love of playing ... prom, I didn't have either the time or the interest in playing ... matches and I always will.

Now I ... have time to participate in athletics. I am studying hard in order to get good grades in my engineering studies at college. ... only kind of games I have ... when there are openings in my schedule.

I hope you can make sense of the above. Please let me know if you have any questions.

[ENG_rafael]

Bill,

Firstly, the usage of "by" was hurried, since I thought this term could express the fact of playing LEGO allowed me build what I said, I mean, "by" working as "playing", thus "by this game" was supposed to sound like "playing this game". Of course I accept your change, but tell me if what I said has some sense.

Secondly, I wrote "I played for the joy" and you changed it to "I played for the joy of it" . Did you change my version because it sounds very general? Ought I to write "I played it for the joy"?

Oh, so many changes, it means there are a lot learn yet. I have to keep up studying.

Thank you!

[w.slayman]

Bill,

Firstly, the usage of "by" was hurried, since I thought this term could express the fact of playing LEGO allowed me build what I said, I mean, "by" working as "playing", thus "by this game" was supposed to sound like "playing this game". Of course I accept your change, but tell me if what I said has some sense.

Secondly, I wrote "I played for the joy" and you changed it to "I played for the joy of it" . Did you change my version because it sounds very general? Ought I to write "I played it for the joy"?

Oh, so many changes, it means there are a lot learn yet. I have to keep up studying.

Thank you!

Rafael,

You could also have written "By playing this game..."

The word joy as you used it begs to be explained, therefore you could have written "I played it for the joy of competition" , or "I played for the pure joy of the game", on the other hand you could have written "The joy of playing was all the reward that I wanted."

More often than not the subtle nuances of a language are the hardest to understand. A direct word by word translation from one language to another is almost always incorrect, due to different constructions and subtle differences in meanings. Do not become discouraged, you are learning, and remember I have been trying to learn English for almost 67 years.

[ENG_rafael]

Bill,

Alright, if I keep up studying I will always be on the right way. It is important to compare my mother-tongue to English with careful, due to the subtles differences, as you said above. Otherwise, my studies will not work out.

By the way, you changed "football" to "soccer" im my version. Would anyone understand "football" with some meaning different I intended to, I mean, the famous kind of football over here

Thank you in advance!

[w.slayman]

Bill,

Alright, if I keep up studying I will always be on the right way. It is important to compare my mother-tongue to English with careful, due to the subtles differences, as you said above. Otherwise, my studies will not work out.

By the way, you changed "football" to "soccer" im my version. Would anyone understand "football" with some meaning different I intended to, I mean, the famous kind of football over here

Thank you in advance!

Rafael,

Compare this rewrite to your post above, if you do not mind.

Alright, if I keep studying, I will always be on the right track. It is important to compare my mother tounge to English with care, due to the subtle differences, as you said above.

... with some meaning different from what I intended, I mean ...

In American English futebol translates to soccer, and if you write or say "football" almost all Americans think of "American Football". As a matter of fact most of the American sports announcers and writers even refer to the World Cup matches as soccer matches. However in British English the game is refered to as "football", ONLY in the Unided States! The more to confuse English students.

An idiom
"On the right track." see http://idioms.yourdictionary.com/on-the-right-tack
By the way, "On the right way", does not make sense, at least in American English.