sporty90
I need a partner to improve my english and I can help with German

Hello,

I am Daniel and 25 years old and I am currently in New Jersey for the next 1-2 years, I am here since 3 weeks and I am original from Germany. I want to improve my english skills and maybe you can help me?

I can help with German.

PS: I think I am searching for an Partner who wants to speak regularly and

Best regards

Daniel

Sep 4, 2015 12:43 AM
Comments · 4
1

Hello, Daniel — there are a couple of interesting grammer points in your post to be found within the following phrase: "I am here since 3 weeks..." 

 

That's a direct translation of "Ich bin hier seit 3 wochen...," but it's not correct English. English has a verbal tense called "Present Perfect," which doesn't exist in German, and which is formed by using the present tense of the auxiliary verb "to have" and the past participle of the verb representing the action of interest — in the current example "to be." The job of the present perfect tense is to indicate that an action has begun in the past, but that it is still continuing in the present. (Notice that in my last sentence, I used the present perfect verb form "has begun," because the situation I am trying to describe is itself best described using the present perfect.) Some other examples are "I have been thinking of her since I met her...," "I've gone to the gym three times a week since April...," and so on. 

 

So, to form the present perfect, you could have written "I have been here since 3 weeks." However, that's still not quite correct English, because "since" is a direct translation of "seit." Unfortunately, the use of prepositions is very idiosyncratic from language to language, and English would use "for" in this case, not "since." There are no perfect rules for the use of the correct prepositions; you just have to hear and use the patterns until the patterns are natural to you. 

 

At any rate, good luck in finding good partners. If your objective is only spoken English, we could talk on Skype now and then. I haven't spoken (present perfect tense again!) very much German during the past 10 years, but that would be fun for me. I do not, unfortunately, have enough time to correct written English on any regular basis, because of my own projects. Tschüß!

 

September 16, 2015

Hi Daniel, I'm living in the US and I'm originally from India. I'd be happy to help you practice. I'm learning German and need some practice with that. Message me if you are interested! :)

September 13, 2015

Anybody else? I have time ;)

September 4, 2015

Hallo, Daniel.  Ich komme aus New Jersey, aber im Moment wohne ich in Kolumbien.  Hallo, Daniel. Ich komme aus New Jersey, aber im Moment wohne ich im Ausland.  Mein Deutsch ist nicht perfekt, aber ich habe einege Jahren als Englischlehrerin gearbeitet, also ich kann dir mit Englisch helfen.  I would like to be language partners.  

 

 

September 4, 2015