💫 Some English Tips and Tricks

[manganese]

Hi,

I’m an Australian, native English speaker and I’m starting this thread as a location to store my thoughts on some of the principles and quirks of the English language. Hopefully the thread’s contents will grow and will be useful to others who write subtitles.

Manganese.

[manganese]

GERUNDS 1 (understanding the basics)

A gerund is an -ing verb that functions as a noun. For example, consider “swimming” in the following sentence.

• Swimming is enjoyable.

This is in one of the standard English formats of Subject + Verb + Adjective

In this sentence “swimming” is a noun. Because it’s based on a verb, though, it still retains some of its qualities of action.

Here are some more sentences that use gerunds as nouns…

• Running makes me fit.
• Smiling hurts my mouth.
• I feel good when I hear laughing.

In the above, running and smiling are used in the subjective position. In the third sentence, laughing is in the objective position. (This third sentence is actually two sentences joined together using the conjunction “when”.) It’s easy to identify that laughing is acting as a noun by replacing it with the noun laughter. The sentences “I hear laughing” and I hear laughter" are nearly the same.

For me, the gerund, laughing, creates an image of people laughing in my mind while the noun, laughter, creates the sound of laughing inside my head. In a number of ways, the strength of a gerund lies in its ability to convey information that relates to the verb. Poets have used this quality of gerunds for many centuries.

NOTE: In the above video, Hey Teacher! also mentions gerunds after a preposition. This is something that I’ll be talking about in another post called GERUNDS 2.

[angelight313_941]

It’s a shame I haven’t seen here more feedbacks from others in this thread since your topic is very interesting, and I love learning anything/everything/ about other countries, especially about the language (grammar etc). It is mainly because I want to really understand certain things, so I can communicate better, and do it without offending anyone.

I found this wonderful video that makes me understand things so much better, things that I never knew before, and I’m really curious as to know how you and/or others from Australia, are now avoiding using common slangs in the subtitles?

I used to see some words in the past (like those in the video) that I didn’t recognized written in the subtitles, but I no longer see those words here in the subs. But you as a Moderator/ Editor do you have your own [docs.google.com ] spreadsheet? If you don’t, can you make one like @worthyromance did? This English tips and tricks are helpful to know, but not a lot of people come to discussion, and have access to this wonderful and useful information. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

This is the video I watched.
#mmmEnglish #AustralianSlang #AustralianEnglish

How to understand Australians | Slang Words & Expressions

[vivi_1485]

This is a nice thread! I don’t know if this is relevant(please tell me if it isn’t!), but if someone finds it helpful:

• I always keep WordHippo open on a separate tab while I’m working in the subtitle editor. It’s a very helpful online thesaurus that comes in handy when you’re trying to find the perfect word or making a sentence concise/more simple.
• I’d also recommend using Grammarly or some other spell-correction software, because it highlights the words you accidentally/unintentionally misspell. It’s especially helpful for non-American English speakers, because it helps with spellings and words that vary in different types of English.

[angelight313_941]

@vivi_1485

The only thing I have to add to your great information is that when using [Grammarly Correct] be mindful and aware, that they make mistakes, too. Don’t ‘‘trust’’ them 100%. Combine your sources, and double check to be on the safe side. I personally don’t use [Grammarly Correct] bc I did a long while back, and I had several shocking ‘‘wrong corrections’’ suggested by them.

[vivi_1485]

Oh no, I never use their corrections, and I haven’t paid for it, either. I just use it to catch my spelling errors Using such software without context for the subtitling job can be very bad for the overall quality of the subs.

[manganese]

Hi @angelight313_168 and @vivi_1485

It’s great to see you! Thank you for your support. I don’t use Grammarly software. From what I’ve seen, it seems to make suggestions. Like all suggestions, I’m guessing that some are better than others. I do use the Grammarly website for help on understanding aspects of words and grammar (like the link below about gerunds).

What is a Gerund Phrase?

I find Grammarly’s explanations are good and easy to understand. The website also helps me understand American English a bit better, too.

I’ve still got a few things to cover about gerunds! If I get a chance tomorrow, I’m hoping to write “Gerunds 2”

All the very best to you both!
Mn