Common Error: "I" vs. "Me"

Welcome to Mistake Monday! This error is actually common among native English speakers, so it's probably a good one to look at. The question is, when should you say "I," and when should you say "me"? 

"I" is the subject; "me" is the object. (Image credit)

It seems like an easy answer: "I" is a subject pronoun and "me" is an object pronoun. But it gets a little more complicated when you are talking about more than one person. For example, we can say "Mark and I," but can we say "I and Mark"? What about "The audience was looking at Mark and I"? Here are some tips for both English learners and native speakers:

Common Error: "I" vs "me"
DON’T say this:	"Me and Paul are brothers." "That car belongs to Angela and I." "Miguel and me are going to go to a movie." "Her and I are in the same English class."
WHY?	As we mentioned before, "I" is a pronoun used for a subject, and "me" is a pronoun used for an object. The same is true for the combinations of "he" and "him," "she" and "her," "we" and "us," and "they" and "them." If you have more than one subject or object and don't know which word to use, try eliminating one of them. For example, in the sentence above, "Miguel and me are going to go to a movie," eliminate Miguel. Does the sentence make sense? ("Me are/is going to a movie"... no, it doesn't make sense). If not, then you need to use a different pronoun. In the other example, "That car belongs to Angela and I," eliminate Angela: "That car belongs to I"... hmm, this also doesn't make sense, so I should use "me" instead. Note: when using "I" or "me," it's usually more common to put your name second or at the end of a list, if you're talking about more than two people.
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:	-"Paul and I are brothers." -"That car belongs to Angela and me." -"Miguel and I are going to see a movie." -"She and I are in the same English class."

So, that's it for now. If you have questions or comments, please leave a comment or contact me. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Fun Friday: Two Ideas

Today I wanted to share two interesting things you can do to have a good time while practicing English:

1. Play Scramble

(Image from game's iTunes page)

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, this is a fun little game that you can play with friends (or even with me... look up my name or send me an email if you want to start a game with me). It's very similar to a game called Boggle, where have two minutes to find words by connecting letters. I've been playing it with some friends, and it's pretty fun (and a little addictive). You can find it on iOS/iTunes here, and a similar game on Android phones here.

2. Check out Costa Rica Outsider

I recently started this website about Costa Rica. It's not a tourism website, but it does talk about strange and interesting aspects of Costa Rican life. Since many of Sitzman ABC's readers either live in Costa Rica or have visited (or would like to visit), the site may be interesting for you. I've written about local customs, the president's visit, Easter week, and even Juan Santamaría. If you have any comments or suggestions for posts, or if you'd even like to write a guest post yourself, please tell me. You can find the site by clicking here, or you can also follow or "like" it on Facebook or Twitter if you prefer.

So, that should keep you busy for the rest of the weekend! Have a good one, and thanks for reading!

False Friend: Resumen vs. Resume (and Résumé)

If you've play video games, a screen like this may look familiar.
"Pause" means to stop or take a break, "resume" means to start playing again.

Hello again, and welcome to Word Wednesday--although it's almost Thursday, so I need to type fast! It's been a while since we specifically looked at a False Friend, so today we'll talk about a common vocabulary problem. If you're not sure what a False Friend is, check out this introductory post. Today we'll look at the difference between resumen in Spanish and the words resume and résumé in English: 

False Friend: resumen vs. resume
This SPANISH word...	Looks like this ENGLISH word...	...but they are DIFFERENT because...
resumen	resume or résumé	In Spanish, a resumen is something that converts a lot of information or text into a smaller unit. The English word for this is a summary, and the verb is to summarize: "I didn't have time to read the whole book, but I found a summary that gave me the basic information." The words resume and résumé are completely different. Resume is a verb. If you stop doing an action and then start doing it again later, you resume the action: "Every day during the conference we took a one-hour lunch break, and then the presentations resumed in the afternoon." Résumé is a noun. The word résumé is sometimes written without the accent marks (like "resume"), but that can cause confusion for pronunciation, since the two words aren't pronounced the same. (Click here for pronunciation: resume résumé.) A résumé is a document that you give to businesses when you are looking for a job. It contains information about your biographical history, your studies, and your work experience: "I just got fired, so I have to look for a new job. But first I need to update my résumé or else I'll never get a job!"

I wish I could have given you a quicker summary of these words, but they're complicated. Thanks for reading, and now you can resume whatever you were doing before you started reading this blog! If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. If you have suggestions for other False Friends or Common Errors, please tell me. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Common Error: "How is...?"

The Mona Lisa, one of the most famous portraits in the world. I can ask "What is it like?" and "What does it look like?" but NOT "How is it?" Why not? Continue reading to find the answer!

Hello, and welcome back to Mistake Monday! If you're in Costa Rica and had a break last week, I hope it was relaxing.

Today's error is basic but still commonly causes confusion even for intermediate or advanced speakers. We'll look at how to use phrases like "How is...?" and "How are...?"-- and how not to use them, too! We'll also talk about "What is (s)he like?" and "What does (s)he look like?"

First of all, if I ask...

"How are you?"

...how do you respond? That's easy, right? You probably learned on your first day of English class that the response to this is something like "I'm fine, thanks" or "I'm O.K." In other words, "How are you?" asks for your temporary condition or feelings. So, if I ask...

"How is she?" or "How is he?"

...how should you respond? Obviously, it's the same question, but with a different subject. You can say something like "She is fine" or "He is sick." But I think this is confusing, especially for Spanish speakers, because there are two Spanish phrases that are similar: 

"¿Cómo es?" is used for physical descriptions or talking about personality.

"¿Cómo está?" is commonly used to describe temporary conditions or feelings.

The phrase "How is he?" could be literally translated into either of these phrases, but it really means "¿Cómo está?" If you want to say "¿Cómo es?" then what should you say? That's right, you should say:

"What is she like?" or "What is he like?"

If you only want a physical description, and not personality, you can also ask:

"What does she look like?" or "What does he look like?"

If you remember when to use these phrases, then you should be able to avoid this confusion.

As a side note, I noticed another similar phrase that causes problems in my classes. Sometimes I start my class by asking:

"How is everyone?" or "How is everybody?"

This is basically the same question, but instead of talking about one person, I'm talking about a group of people. "Everyone" in this context means "all of my students." It just looks strange because "everybody" refers to a group, but grammatically, it's singular. Just think of the word "every" as considering each individual person in a group.

So, to practice, see if you can complete this dialogue between a teacher and her students:

Ms. Bloom: Good afternoon, class! 

Students: Good afternoon.

Ms. Bloom: (1)________________ ?

Students: Fine, thanks!

Ms. Bloom: Good to hear. Now, who's absent? Where's Jane?

Ron: She's still in the hospital, remember?

Ms. Bloom: Oh, that's right! I forgot about her broken leg. Did you talk to her? (2)________________ ?

Ron: She's doing better. She should be out soon, at least according to Dr. Jackson.

Ms. Bloom: Dr. Jackson? I know a Dr. Jackson who works at the hospital. Do you mean Sheila Jackson?

Ron: Ummm, I'm not sure. I don't know her first name.

Ms. Bloom: (3)________________ ?

Ron: I'm not very sure. She seemed nice, but she was also very professional. I didn't really talk to her much.

Ms. Bloom: OK, but can you describe her? (4)________________ ?

Ron: Oh! Well, she's fairly short, she has dark skin, and she has long, wavy hair. She's very pretty... she has a wonderful smile with perfect teeth and soft, smooth lips, and she's got big eyes that are the color of the ocean at night. She also has an incredible body-- I think she must work out!

Ms. Bloom: Well, that doesn't sound like the Dr. Jackson I know, but it does sound like you want to get to know this other Dr. Jackson! Haha!

So, what were your answers? Here are some suggestions:

(1) - How is everyone? (You can also say something like "How is everybody?" "How are you all doing?" or "How are all of you?")

(2) - How is she? (Informally, you may also hear people say "How is she doing?")

(3) - What is she like?

(4) - What does she look like? ("What is she like?" isn't a good option here, because Ms. Bloom and Ron are giving a physical description of Dr. Jackson, but not talking about her personality.)

That's all for today. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below or send an email. Thanks for reading, and have a good day!

Easter Break

A basket of dyed and painted Easter eggs in Bulgaria. (Photo credit)

Good afternoon, everyone!

Here in Costa Rica this week is a holiday, so I'm only going to do one blog post this week instead of three. The holiday is called semana santa in Spanish, and many people (like me!) don't have to go work or school. The dates for this holiday change every year, but it's always in the week before Easter Sunday.

If you'd like to read a bit more, I put up a post last year about this holiday, along with an explanation of why we don't usually call it "holy week" in English, unless we're talking specifically about church functions. You can read the two posts here and here.

Additionally, this post explains how to use words like "holiday" and "vacation," and includes a dialogue example. Click here to read more.

If you are in Costa Rica, enjoy the holiday if you have a vacation. If not, then have a good week, and Sitzman ABC will be back next Monday. Thanks for reading!

Podcast: Stuff You Should Know

Good afternoon, and welcome to Fun Friday! Today's post is short but sweet. I want to recommend a podcast called "Stuff You Should Know." It's part of the site called "How Stuff Works," which has a large selection of podcasts, programs, and other interesting information. 

Every few days "Stuff You Should Know" posts a new program about a different topic. You can follow them through iTunes (that's what I do) or another podcast manager, their Facebook page, or you can also get the podcasts directly from the website. 

Some recent programs that I liked included one about tipping (definitely appropriate for people traveling to the US) and one about how dueling works. Check out the podcast and the site if you want listening and vocabulary practice.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!