Erros Mais Comuns em Inglês para Brasileiros

ERROS MAIS COMUNS QUE OS BRASILEIROS COMETEM AO FALAR INGLÊS

 
 

Em português

Em inglês errado

Tradução do inglês errado

Em inglês correto

João e Maria se beijavam	João e Maria were Kissing themselves	João e Maria se beijavam cada um a si próprio	John and Mary were Kissing each other
O professor está atrasado	A late teacher	Um professor falecido	A teacher who is late
Desculpe meus erros	Excuse my wrongs	Desculpe meus errados	Excuse my mistakes
Michael está namorando Mary	Michael is courting Mary	Michael está cortejando Mary	Michael is going out with Mary
Ela tem vinte anos	She has twenty ears	Ela tem vinte orelhas	She is twenty years old
As crianças estão na praia	The Kids are in the beach	As crianças estão dentro da areia	The Kids are on the beach
Deixe-me explicar para você	Let me explain you	Deixe-me explicar você	Let me explain it to you
Eu nunca via o mar	I never saw the sea	Eu jamais vou ver o mar	I have never seen the sea
Minha amiga não gosta do cabelo dela	My friend doesn't like your hair	Minha amiga não gosta do seu cabelo	My friend doesn't like her hair
Eu perdi o ônibus	I lost the bus	Eu perdi (como se fosse um objeto) o ônibus	I missed the bus
Mudei de idéia	I changed my idea	Troquei de idéia	I changed my mind
Reclamações	Reclamations	Retomar a posse de uma terra	Complaints
Você pode tirar o seu carro, por favor?	Can you take off your car, please?	- "take off" é para ser usado com sapatos, camisas, óculos etc	Can you move your car, please?
Vamos fazer compras	Let's go to the shopping	- "shopping" não é um lugar, é uma atividade	Let's go shopping
Sem condições	Don't have conditions	- em inglês, não há a expressão "ter condições de"	No way
Eu pretendo ir com você	I pretend to go with you	Eu finjo ir com você	I intend to go with you

Source: http://www.agr.feis.unesp.br/ingleser.htm

How to Improve Your English Level

By Steven Starry 

http://www.madridteacher.com/founder.htm

There are five points, number 1 is the most important.

5) Make English your hobby and have fun! 

Study at least two or three hours per week. 

Learn English through other activities: 

Reading – there are graded books in English for your level. 

Internet – begin with the activities on this website and on the links page.

Songs in English - take your favorite songs, download the lyrics (the words) from Google and sing them again and again until your neighbors scream: STOP!!”.

DVDs – many films are also in English with subtitles in your language.

Magazines – there are specialized magazines for English students. 

Travel – travel motivates you to improve your level because you need English for everything.

4) Be constant! Don’t stop for long periods of time such as in the summer and don’t do too much! It is also important to study at least 3 hours every week. To progress very well, you should study at least 5 hours per week.

3) Be as disciplined and organized as possible with your classes! 

Free conversation is necessary and so is more controlled speaking (in practice activities in class). However, it is better to balance conversation with other activities in your classes or outside of your classes. In a "one-to-one" class, you should do all of the homework, reading and vocabulary studying outside of your class and then comment on the homework in the class. It is very important for you to do the homework that your teacher assigns you and it is very important for you to be punctual to your classes.

2) Get a teacher or attend a class! 

It’s easier to be constant, disciplined and organized if you have a teacher. It’s more difficult to study English alone. Also, it is more difficult to learn how to “speak” English if you don’t have an English teacher to speak with.

1) It is your responsibility to reach (to get) your objectives! 

Learning English is your responsibility and not the responsibility of your teacher. You must have initiative in your classes! The teacher cannot learn or study English for you. For example, you often have to study and learn vocabulary alone.

With point number one, you will develop all of the other points. If you apply these five points with long-term motivation, you will learn English or any language. Put simply: if you spend more time studying, you will learn more. If you are very interested, you will continue studying.

Source: http://www.5minuteenglish.com/articles.htm

Use “STAY” correctly in English language

Sometimes English language learners have problems in using the verb “To Stay” in the correct situations. This is often due to interference from their own native language.

Stay can be used in the following situations:

1.   Stay in the sense of “not move”

• Johnny, I’m just going into this shop to buy a newspaper. Stay her near the door until I come out.
• OK, mummy.
• Lucky! Here boy! …… (His dog returns to his side) Good dog! Sit! Stay! (don’t move)

2.   Stay in the sense of not leave, remain in a place.

• Mr. Smith: Gerard and Sandra I have to talk to you about your homework project. Can youstay for 5 minutes at the end of the class?
• Gerard: I’m sorry Mr.Smith, but we can’t stay because we have a Maths exam. If you want we could stay after school.
• Mr. Smith: OK. That’s fine. Let’s meet at 4.15 in my classroom ….
• Yesterday we went to John’s birthday party. It was very good. We stayed until three in the early morning.
• We didn’t go skiing last weekend. John was ill, so we stayed at home
• I heard that Leo Messi is going to play for Manchester United next year.
• No! that’s not true. He’s staying in Barça.

3.   Stay in the sense of sleep somewhere:

When I go to England I usually stay at my mother’s house ( I sleep there);

It’s very late, I think you’ve missed the last train. We have a spare bedroom, why don’t youstay here? (sleep at our house);

I don’t like staying in hotels when I’m on holiday, I prefer to rent an apartment. Then I canstay in bed all morning and have breakfast when I want to.

Source:

http://www.learnenglishlanguagewell.com/2011/stay-correct-use-of-the-verb-stay/

Fear of Speaking English

By Robby

If you’re a foreign English speaker – you’re most likely familiar with anxiety of making mistakes when speaking English.

You know – it’s the feeling when you’d gladly say something when chatting in English with someone, but you hold it inside because you’re not sure you’ll get it right.

In the most extreme cases you might even be avoiding communication only not to experience embarrassment and humiliation! That’s when it gets really serious because no matter how badly you fear making mistakes, you’re not going to improve your spoken English simply because you’re not speaking enough!

So how to deal with this anxiety and how to overcome your fear of making mistakes? Watch the video above* and you’ll find out how to change your mindset when it comes to making mistakes; alternatively you can read this video’s script below!

Fear of Making Mistakes Feeds on

I think that the majority of foreign English speakers have to admit that FEAR of making mistakes when speaking English is one of the main factors inhibiting our spoken English fluency.

We all can definitely remember situations when we’ve made a mistake when speaking or attempting to speak, and that has made us feel insecure, embarrassed and ashamed of our level of spoken English.

The more similar situations we encounter, the more conscious we become, and fear of making mistakes constantly feeds on itself. So what initially shows up only as moments of slight embarrassment can grow into a proper speech anxiety, and you can start avoiding contacting other English speaking people to avoid those embarrassing situations. And this is where it gets serious. While being a bit confused and making an odd mistake here and there is absolutely normal, those foreign English speakers who are constantly worried about making mistakes have their English improvement seriously impeded; in

other words – they find it hard to enjoy themselves when speaking English.

Where This Fear Comes From?

Just think about this – at school you are aiming to achieve good grades, so every mistake you make downgrades your assessment in your English teacher’s eyes. While generally students are encouraged to speak and express themselves, at the same time your knowledge is constantly assessed and checked against the existing standards.

Such system works pretty well in exact subjects such as Math, and similar, where you are literally required to memorize formulas and to able to perform certain calculations whereby making a mistake would result in a wrong answer.

So where does this fear of making mistakes come from and why it’s so prevalent among foreign English speakers?

I think there are a couple of reasons for that, and the biggest of them goes back to your school days when you studied English sitting behind a desk.

English speaking is a completely different matter altogether, I would rather put English is the same subject category with Arts and Music because when you learn a language it’s more about being able to improvise and express yourself in a unique way rather than cram something into your brain and then re-produce the very exact knowledge So in other words, I believe that the existing English teaching system at school is responsible for many foreign English speakers being way too conscious of mistakes they’re making. They feel as if they’re still sitting behind a desk in an English class and if they say something that isn’t 100% correct, they’ll get a bad grade.

Another reason for many foreign English speakers being too worried about making mistakes when speaking is their type of personality. If you aren’t very confident and you generally tend to be a bit on the shy side, you can find it very intimidating when speaking with an English speaker and making mistakes.

It’s basically down to feeling like a lesser person, and none of us like feeling that way, do we?

So if you’re one of those folks who are anxious about making mistakes, here’s what I’ll tell you.

You have to change your mindset regarding how you perceive mistakes made during a conversation!

A slip of a tongue when speaking isn’t the same as making a permanent mistake when performing some practical task. If you’re a shop assistant and you make a mistake when giving a change to your customer, it’s a real mistake.

If you make a small mistake when thanking your customer for making a purchase, it’s an entirely different matter. You can always go back and correct yourself, so you have to start looking at mistakes made during English speech in a similar way you’d regard mistakes during a musical performance.

When you sing despite not being a professional artist, it doesn’t really matter that much if you’re off tune on a couple of notes, or if your voice is a bit shaky because you’re nervous on stage. Once you’re hitting the main notes right and you carry yourself with a head held high, you’re 100% fine, and people will still be getting the song’s message, they’ll feel your heart and soul through the song.

And the same goes with speaking English. You’re not a professional English speaking artist which means that you’re not a native English speaker. But similar to what I just said about signing performance, as far as you’re smiling and being friendly and the small mistakes you make aren’t as big as to create a real communication barrier, you’re fine!

You see, the thing is that nine out of ten native English speakers and also other English speaking people in general will see much more in your English speech than just words.

It’s about how you look at people; it’s about your emotions when you speak, your facial expressions, your gestures and so on and it’s not a secret that the biggest part of the message you get across to the other person consists of those components than just words.

Of course, as I said previously, if your mistakes create a real communication barrier, it does become an issue indeed, so you need to make 100% sure you’re getting the basics right, there’s no doubt about that!

But the main point of today’s lesson is that if you constantly fear making mistakes when speaking English with people, you will avoid real communication and therefore you will find it very hard to improve your communication skills!

Speaking English Is Much More Than Just Words!

There’s much more to speaking English than just being able to speak. It’s actually more about facing other people, especially people you speak with for the first time, or important people, and the related stress you’re experiencing and how it affects your verbal performance.

You may even find yourself in a strange situation when you can speak with much fewer mistakes with certain people or when you practice your spoken English with yourself.

When you go out there and face real life communication, however, you might make a whole lot more mistakes because during real communication you get stressed out a bit, or you face non-standard questions so you’re required to improvise when speaking, and it all adds up creating a brand new dimension of English speaking.

So basically if you perceive mistakes during English speech as something terrifying, as something that you make and it stays there, and you can’t correct, or as something that will definitely make others laugh about you and you’ll end up being humiliated, then you definitely have to change the way you see mistakes.

You have to start seeing them as an integral part of being a foreign English speaker, you simply have to tell yourself: “Making mistakes is normal” whenever you feel onset of fear and anxiety if there’s a prospect of speaking with someone.

But don’t think I’m condoning speaking in bad, broken English without trying to improve it. That’s not what I’m saying at all, you definitely need to work on your spoken English skills to make sure you get English grammar right and also that you use proper words and phrases and so on.

Every time you feel onset of fear when there’s a prospect of a conversation with someone in English, don’t avoid the conversation, simply jump into it as if you’re jumping in a swimming pool from a jumping board!

Analyze your speaking style

By Lisa Mojsin

Here’s something that will help some of you quickly improve your accents.

Do a little self-diagnosis of your individual speaking style. Here are three questions to ask yourself:

1. Do you tend to speak quickly in you native language?

If yes, you probably speak fast when you are speaking English as well. This can cause your accent to sound stronger, particularly if you are not following the rules of American English word stress and intonation (The melody of the language.) Think about it; if you are speaking fast and not stressing the right words, people will have a very hard time understanding you.

You shouldn't sound mechanical by pronouncing every word seperately like a robot. Learn the rules of linking words together when speaking English. Linking and speaking fast are two completely different things.

2. Do you have a quiet, reserved or shy personality?

Are you more introverted than outgoing? This can also be cultural, by the way. If yes, people may have a harder time understand you. Outgoing people are more animated not only with their body language but also with the way they move their mouth and use their vocal cords. The loud voice often forces the jaw and lips to move more, creating a sound that is clearer.

Imitate someone who is outgoing and has a “big” personality. Remember, Americans are generally not shy people. They are more expressive than people from a lot of other cultures. Asians and northern Europeans in particular are less outgoing in general. I’m sure they think we Americans are too loud. In fact, I don't think, I know they do. Imitate us and your accent will sound better!! :)

3. Do you tend to mumble in your native language?

Some of my students admit to me that when they speak their native language they are often asked to repeat what they said. They have what is called “lazy lips.” They don’t enunciate (pronounce fully) all of the consonant and vowel sounds in any language. This bad habit can be broken.

Try this: Imagine that you are speaking to a deaf person who has to read your lips. You will naturally move your mouth more to make it easier for the deaf person to catch every word you’re saying. Or imagine you are a theater actor or a poet reading his poetry out loud - every word is beautiful to listen to, every word matters. Fall in love with the beauty of words, pronounce them clearly and with energy. Don’t just mumble them as if they are not important. Your words are important so say them well;

don't take short cuts. Just like a dancer moves beautifully and a singer sings beautifully, a speaker can speak beautifully!

About the author, access:

http://accurateenglish.blogspot.com

Learning English is Simple, Just Have Fun

By johnhayden

We recently found a good article in the Shanghai Daily about how so many learners are taking the fun out of learning English. Does it have to be so painstaking, and is there proof that no-fun learning is more efficient?

It’s amazing to me that most people believe learning English and having fun are mutually exclusive. After years of painfully trying to learn the language by memorizing grammar rules, how often do students end up at the promiseland of fluency? Rarely.

People are trained that the harder they work at something, the greater the rewards. I agree with this principle and if your end goal is to be really good at diagramming sentences, then work hard and study them every night.

However, most learners aren’t studying English to analyze sentences or become linguists. They want to communicate, interact, and socialize – and here’s the key – with other people.

While books and rules remain important to build a sound foundation for the English language, genuine human engagement will take learners to the communication level they desire.

The best part about the social component of learning English is that it makes learning fun. Take any hobby or interest that involves other people and do it in English, making the language part of your lifestyle. Instead of spending nights memorizing arbitrary vocabulary lists, join a bowling league, hang out at a sports bar, or find your nearest hiking club. The possibilities for practice are endless. You’ll feel your improvement every day and even have some fun at the same time.

Source: http://englishbabyblog.com

Savoring and Improving

Although the difficulties, the journey to speak English is a blessing for the mind. It is known by the cientists and neurolinguistics that the brain gets stronger when one is learning a new language or how to play a musical instrument. The students usually complain that it takes a long time to master a new  anguage, but at least, they need to realize that this long process improves their cognition and can even prevent them from mind diseases such as Alzeimer, among others.

We don't need to preach about the benefits of learning English for a person career, however, one ought to know that the only way to master the language is by practicing every single day a bit and the real learning

can only take place if the students become learners of the language and study by themselves, after all, they do not learn English inside the classroom or with a teacher, but mainly on their own.

Therefore, if you have made up your mind about becoming a learner, don't wait for your teacher to tell you what to learn at home. Use your creativity and research things you like, watch videos, translate songs, most of all, enjoy the process and soon, you will be savoring your progress and speaking as much as you want.

Professor Frank Oliveira

source: www.afrankexperience.com.br/portugues

O Trampolim

Nada me dá mais prazer que observar meus learners se esforçando para se comunicar. É isso o que o aprendizado de uma língua estrangeira  significa: tentativa-erro, tentativa-erro...tentativa e acerto e aprendo.

Cada tentativa é um exercício mental que fortalece conexões, facilita as associações que são tão preciosas para que a fluência apareça naquele momento " a-há consigo falar" que todo aluno quer alcançar,  however... Sim tem always um however.

Não gosto de " howevers" pois eles indicam um porém, curto mesmo o " therefore", pois mostra continuação, progresso de idéias e flow - palavra tão importante quanto associação. Você sabe o que " flow" significa?

Flow não é o mesmo que fluency; mas eu posso garantir que flow é um nível possível para o seu inglês - fluency é só para inglês ter. However ( olha o however aí de novo) para sentir esse flow, os learners precisam ter coragem para encarar o perigo de pular do trampolim - the springboard - e deixar seu inglês fluir.

Flow é se deixar falar com todos os erros que a prática exige e se concentrar em se perder nesse falar, sabendo que naquele momento só o flow está valendo, todo o resto ( boicotes, síndrome de nunca vou conseguir, medo de errar, etc) ficou lá atrás, pois quando você tenta falar, você quer therefore, seguir em frente, continuar. Com o flow não  há " howevers", nada de but, nada de don't, nada de nothing; pois o flow se torna everything: there and fore!!!

And when the flow becomes everything, your English is flowing like a river, like the wind and you see that you are using a second language. Yes, you are practicing it and you are reading it and understanding it and it gives you a lot of pleasure because finally, you can tell your teacher: what gives me pleasure is to learn.

Learning is let your English flow and only real learners can move forward and jump from this springboard  to their progress.

The flow in English doesn't depend on your teacher or the grammar that you can use or the vocabulary that you can memorize. The flow is all about communicating.

There will be occasions when the português vai aparecer no seu English; there will be situations where  you will get the (            ). However, if you get  the (            ) or if the Portuguese continuar invadindo o seu inglês, breath in and breath out, but keep talking in English. Don't give up, because this effort is what is going to guarantee your flow.

What really gives me pain is when a learner has a retrocession and instead of keep talking, they give up trying and look at me saying:

- Deixa eu falar isso em  português!

One thing is to mix Portuguese with English and keep working with the flow, the other thing is giving up trying and start speaking only in Portuguese.

They are not having English classes to speak Portuguese. If they are tired, we can always finish the class and start over next class. Therefore, evolution is practice and practice is the secret of all languages learning processes.

I know, as a teacher, how hard it is not to be able to communicate properly. I  want to be there  and keep helping my learners to jump from their springboard, however, I know as well when the learner stops learning and decides to become " again" a student.

This is the moment when the flow stops and the experience with the language is frankly over.

However ( and this is a good however), once the learners jump from their springboard, the flow will be there for good and for ever as the learners will become speakers.

After the flow, there is no return, no retrocessions and finally, the English teacher mission with You will be finally accomplished.

Nada me dá mais prazer que observar meus learners se esforçando para se comunicar. É isso o que o aprendizado de uma língua estrangeira  significa: tentativa-erro, tentativa-erro...tentativa e acerto e aprendo. 

Cada tentativa é um exercício mental que fortalece conexões, facilita as associações que são tão preciosas para que a fluência apareça naquele momento "a-há consigo falar" que todo aluno quer alcançar,  however... Sim tem always um however.

Não gosto de "howevers" pois eles indicam um porém, curto mesmo o "therefore", pois mostra continuação, progresso de ideias eflow - palavra tão importante quanto associação. Você sabe o que "flow" significa?

Flow não é o mesmo que fluency; mas eu posso garantir que flow é um nível possível para o seu inglês - fluency é só para inglês ter. However (olha o however aí de novo) para sentir esse flow, os Learners precisam ter coragem para encarar o perigo de pular do trampolim - the springboard - e deixar seu inglês fluir.

Flow é se deixar falar com todos os erros que a prática exige e se concentrar em se perder nesse falar, sabendo que naquele momento só o flow está valendo, todo o resto (boicotes, síndrome de nunca vou conseguir, medo de errar, etc) ficou lá atrás, pois quando você tenta falar, você quer therefore, seguir em frente, continuar. Com o flow não  há "howevers", nada de but, nada de don't, nada de nothing; pois o flow se torna everything: there and fore!!!

And when the flow becomes everything, your English is flowing like a river, like the wind and you see that you are using a second language. Yes, you are practicing it and you are reading it and understanding it and it gives you a lot of pleasure because finally, you can tell your teacher: what gives me pleasure is to learn.

Learning is let your English flow and only real learners can move forward and jump from this springboard  to their progress. 

The flow in English doesn't depend on your teacher or the grammar that you can use or the vocabulary that you can memorize. The flow is all about communicating.

There will be occasions when the português vai aparecer no seu English; there will be situations where  you will get the (            ). However, if you get  the (            ) or if the Portuguese continuar invadindo o seu inglês, breath in and breath out, but keep talking in English. Don't give up, because this effort is what is going to guarantee your flow.

What really gives me pain is when a learner has a retrocession and instead of keep talking, they give up trying and look at me saying:

- Deixa eu falar isso em  português! 

One thing is to mix Portuguese with English and keep working with the flow, the other thing is giving up trying and start speaking only in Portuguese.

They are not having English classes to speak Portuguese. If they are tired, we can always finish the class and start over next class. Therefore, evolution is practice and practice is the secret of all languages learning processes. 

I know, as a teacher, how hard it is not to be able to communicate properly. I  want to be there  and keep helping my learners to jump from their springboard, however, I know as well when the learner stops learning and decides to become " again" a student. 

This is the moment when the flow stops and the experience with the language is frankly over. 

However ( and this is a good however), once the learners jump from their springboard, the flow will be there for good and for ever as the learners will become speakers. 

After the flow, there is no return, no retrocessions and finally, the English teacher mission with You will be finally accomplished.

Professor Frank

source: http://www.afrankexperience.com.br/Portugues/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65:newsletter-55&catid=21:newsletter&Itemid=19

To Translate or Not To Translate it?

To Translate or Not To Translate it?

By Professor Frank

The translation is a great tool of learning, specially when it comes to acquire a second language; however, one must know when it starts blocking the flow of their English.

As a non-native English teacher and a Brazilian English learner, I have been collecting a variation of common mistakes in translations during my classes. Those "mistakes" are not that bad, specially when an educator takes into account that all errors are  signs of progress, therefore, the learners are trying their best to get it right. 

My job is to help them to perceive it as I have learned that the teacher's corrections per si don't help them effectively.

Nevertheless, I have collected a few phrases and their translations and I would like to invite you to look it trough. 

Let's see two examples today; shall we?

1. "Eu vou trabalhar amanhã"

 This sentence can lead a brazilian learner to a series of mistakes:

A) I go work tomorrowB) I go to work tomorrow C) I will go to work tomorrow

 The best translation will be those three examples below:

A) I will work tomorrow ( if the learner is not sure about it)B) I am going to work tomorrow ( if the learner has a plan to do it)C) I am working tomorrow ( if the learner has no doubt about it) 

 As you see, the perfect translation will be according to the learner's point of view. However, the most important thing here is the mistakes. The question is: why the first three sentences are wrong?

" I go work tomorrow"

 Over here, we have the classic brazilian mistake with future tenses. In Portuguese, it is quite common to say "eu vou ser" instead of "eu serei". This mistake will be transferred to English as "I go work" doesn't mean " I will work".  The translation of "vou" to "go" is something that the learner will only correct if they realize it. 

"I go to work tomorrow" 

 Over here, we have the same problem above  with the inappropriate use of "to" from the infinitive form. Every time we use a modal ( will, would, can, could, etc) with another verb in English, we need to remove the "to" from the infinitive.

Without the "to" in this sentence, the phrase still falls into the previous mistake, the translation of "vou".

"I will go to work tomorrow"

 At this sentence, the learner makes almost the same mistake of translating "vou" to "I will go". If the learners wants to use "I will go", they will have to give it an object. 

Work can be an object as the same way as job:

I will go to work I will go to my job

 Although we can understand that, the meaning of it will be slightly different from the original phrase. At the original one, the meaning is straightforward: eu vou trabalhar. If the learner keeps this translation, "I will go to work", the meaning will be: "eu vou pro trabalho " , but it doesn't mean that he will, in fact, work.

2. Ela tem 30 anos, mas ela não tem experiência em sua vida.This example might lead you to a very good study of Portuguese ( the main language) interfering and affecting the second language. Let's see some possible translations:

 A) She has thirty years, but she doesn't have experience in her life.B) She is thirty years old, but she does´t have experience in her life.

 "She has thirty years, but she doesn't have experience in her life."

 The use of the verb "to have" can deceive most of the learners, specially when they are talking about age. The verb "to be" will work much better here. "She is thirty"

We can see this same problem, when one tries to translate the following:

Eu tenho certeza disso Eu tenho medo de algo

On those two cases, most basic (or not) learners would use "have". 

I have sure about it I have afraid of it

 Yet, " to be" will work much better to describe fear and certainty. 

Returning to the sentence, changing to have for to be won't be enough as "she is thirty years" can also bring some misunderstanding here.

A mispronounced " years" can become " ears" with no effort.

Therefore, instead of understanding that somebody is thirty years old, your listener might hear: she has thirty ears (ela tem trinta orelhas). Needless to say that this example is not related to aliens.

The study of the second part of the sentence will be discussed within the example below:

"She is thirty years old, but she doesn't have experience in her life."

 On this example, the first part of the phrase is ok, however, on the second one, the use of the present simple can indicate a fact though (she doesn't have experience at all), but it would be better to change the time tense and use the Present Perfect on it: she hasn't had experience in her life.

She is still alive, so if she didn't have experience before (in the past), she might acquire it as she learns. 

Yes, the use of the Present Perfect is something that really annoys the Brazilians learners for it's complexity and oddness. 

That's why, on the next newsletter, we will be studying it and another very usual mistake in brazilians translations: "Eu estou trabalhando aqui por cinco anos" 

Try to translate this sentence and on the next newsletter we will discuss the difference between the present continuous and the present perfect continuous. 

Does it sound hard? 

Well, I am sure that after the next newsletter, you will never get confused with it again.

To be continued...

Pronouns: a summary

By Jane Strauss

Definition:
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Pronouns can be in one of three cases: Subject, Object, or Possessive.

Rule 1

Subject pronouns are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence. You can remember subject pronouns easily by filling in the blank subject space for a simple sentence.

Example:

 ______ did the job.

I, you, he, she, it, we, and they all fit into the blank and are, therefore, subject pronouns.

Rule 2

Subject pronouns are also used if they rename the subject. They follow to be verbs such as is,are, was, were, am, and will be.

Examples:

It is he.

This is she speaking.

It is we who are responsible for the decision to downsize.

NOTE: In spoken English, most people tend to follow to be verbs with object pronouns. Many English teachers support (or at least have given in to) this distinction between written and spoken English.

Example:

It could have been them.

Better:

It could have been they.

Example:

It is just me at the door.

Better:

It is just I at the door.

Rule 3

Object pronouns are used everywhere else (direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition). Object pronouns are me, you, him, her, it, us, and them.

Examples:

Jean talked to him.

Are you talking to me?

To be able to choose pronouns correctly, you must learn to identify clauses. A clause is a group of words containing a verb and subject.

Rule 4a

A strong clause can stand on its own.

Examples:

She is hungry.

I am feeling well today.

Rule 4b

A weak clause begins with words such as although, since, if, when, and because. Weak clauses cannot stand on their own.

Examples:

Although she is hungry...

If she is hungry...

Since I am feeling well...

Rule 4c

If a sentence contains more than one clause, isolate the clauses so that you can decide which pronoun is correct.

Examples:

Weak Strong

[Although she is hungry,] [she will give him some of her food.]

[Although this gift is for him,] [I would like you to have it too.]

Rule 5

To decide whether to use the subject or object pronoun after the words than or as, mentally complete the sentence.

Examples:

Tranh is as smart as she/her.

If we mentally complete the sentence, we would say, "Tranh is as smart as she is." Therefore,she is the correct answer.

Zoe is taller than I/me.

Mentally completing the sentence, we have, "Zoe is taller than I am."

Daniel would rather talk to her than I/me.

We can mentally complete this sentence in two ways: "Daniel would rather talk to her than to me." OR "Daniel would rather talk to her than I would." As you can see, the meaning will change depending on the pronoun you choose.

Rule 6

Possessive pronouns show ownership and never need apostrophes.

Possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

NOTE: The only time it's has an apostrophe is when it is a contraction for it is or it has.

Examples:

It's a cold morning.

The thermometer reached its highest reading.

Rule 7

Reflexive pronouns - myself, himself, herself, itself, themselves, ourselves, yourself, yourselves- should be used only when they refer back to another word in the sentence.

Correct:

I worked myself to the bone.

Incorrect:

My brother and myself did it.

The word myself does not refer back to another word.

Correct:

My brother and I did it.

Incorrect:

Please give it to John or myself.

Correct:

Please give it to John or me.

Source: http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/pronoun.asp

Teaching Pronunciation: Seven Essential Concepts

Teaching Pronunciation: Seven Essential Concepts

Empowering English Learners

Empowering the Language Learner: A Discussion with Diane Larsen-Freeman
THE NEW SCHOOL FOR GENERAL STUDIES


g

How to Communicate with a Non Native English Speaker

Steps

1. 1
   Speak clearly and pronounce your words correctly. Exaggerated pronunciations will not help your listener and may cause more confusion. However, you may find that it helps to pronounce some words as the non-native speaker does. This will be especially true if the proper pronunciation is very different from the non-native pronunciation.
   
   
2. 2
   Recognize that people wrongly think that turning up the volume somehow creates instant understanding. Avoid this common mistake (however, do not speak too quietly).
3. 3
   Do not cover or hide your mouth because listeners will want to watch you as you pronounce your words. This helps them figure out what you are saying in many cases.
4. 4
   Do not use baby talk or incorrect English. This does not make you easier to understand. It will confuse your listener and may give the wrong impression about your own level of competence.
5. 5
   Avoid running words together ( Do-ya wanna eat-a-pizza?). One of the biggest challenges for listeners is knowing where one word ends and the next one begins. Give them a small pause between words if they seem to be struggling.
6. 6
   When possible, opt for simple words instead of ones that are complex. The more basic a word is, the better the chance is that it will be understood. ("Big" is a better choice than "enormous" for example. "Make" is a better choice than "manufacture.") However, with a Romance language speaker (i.e. Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian), these 'complex' words can be useful as they are rooted in Latin.
7. 7
   Avoid verb phrases that sound very similar to non-native English speaker. "Look out" sounds very close to "look for." Both are similar to "look out for." Many times you can use another word in these cases. (Example: look out = be careful, look for = search for, look out for = watch for).
8. 8
   As much as possible, avoid using filler and colloquialisms ('um...', 'like...','Yeah, totally.') as non-native speakers, especially ones of lower proficiency levels, may get hung up on these thinking the filler language is vocabulary that they don't possess. Colloquialisms are likely to be unknown as well, especially if they are not easy to find in the dictionary.
9. 9
   If asked to repeat something, first repeat it as you said it the first time. Then again. It could be that they simply didn't hear you. If your listener still doesn't understand, however, change a few key words in the sentence. It may be that they couldn't understand one or two of the words. Also repeat the whole sentence and not just the last couple of words. It's time consuming, but it helps prevent confusion.
10. 10
    Consider the fact that your dialect may not be what the other person has learned in school. For example, most non-Americans expect the second t in the word "twenty" to be pronounced.
11. 11
    Paraphrase. if you happen to know a similar word to the word you are searching for then use it. As your knowledge of the foreign language builds this becomes even easier.
12. 12
    Avoid using contractions or short forms. Use long forms. “Can’t” is one word you must use the long form with. It is difficult for a non-native speaker to understand the difference between “can” and “can’t” in a sentence. For example, “I can’t take you on Friday” and “I can take you on Friday”. Use the long form, “cannot”. “I cannot take you on Friday”.
13. 13
    Decrease the use of words that fill your sentences. The idea is to remove the “noise” from your speech. Imagine trying to listen to the radio with two young children in the same room. They are playing and screaming. What is the result? "Family of...car...on vacation...in Arizona." If your oral communication is filled with "um", "like", "you know", or other fillers, comprehension is more difficult. “Right” is a word that commonly fills conversations. I prefer to use “Yes, that is correct”. A non-native speaker may not understand “right” and confuse it with its opposite, “left”.
14. 14
    Be explicit: Say “Yes” or “No”. Do not say: “Uh-huh” or “Uh-uh”. Those words are not in grammar books!
15. 15
    Listen and try not to form your response while the other person is talking. Wait until the person is done so that you can clarify if needed and give correct information based on all they have said.
16. 16
    Be aware that other cultures have different standards regarding touching, eye contact and personal space. Someone standing too close or not looking you in the eye is merely following their own cultural standard and not trying to offend.
17. 17
    Be patient and smile. The more relaxed you are, the more you are in control of your communication. Do not give a busy lifestyle or a meeting agenda permission to control your speech. Think as you speak and do not speak as you think.