Native speakers of English are taught not to use contractions in formal writing, so we generally don't (except in books). When we speak, however, we use contractions far more often than not. We only use individual words when we want to stress a point (i.e. "I am NOT going to the store today."). recently, I have noticed that non-native speakers seem to avoid contractions.
"I am Christie. I am from America."
"He will not understand why I do not like him."
"She does not eat fish."
Is this because of a fear of making the wrong contraction?
Is this influenced by the lack of contractions in the L1 (mother tongue)?
Or is this just a lack of familiarity of the English contractions and usage?
Any light on this would help, thanks!
I know a Hungarian woman who has written several stories for children. She is working on translating them from Hungarian to English and seeks a native English speaker to proofread and correct the stories once she has translated them.
If anyone is interested, please respond to this and we'll see about getting you two in touch.
Thanks a lot :)
I'm studying to become an accent reductionist and I'm interested in what ways people already use to reduce their accents in foreign languages.
Do you sing foreign songs?
repeat foreigners speaking their native tongues?
repeat actors in film/tv?
try to put on a French accent when speaking French?
practice individual letter sounds?
practice sounds word by word?
practice sentences?
