I am a little bit puzzled

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ESL forum > Ask for help > I am a little bit puzzled

I am a little bit puzzled

maryse pey�

I am a little bit puzzled

Hi all,

Hope you are well. But I need your opinion about some automatic corrections on the net.

Here are the sentences :

1) If I HAD known you were coming, I�d have cooked something.

2) Had the play already started when you arrived ? - No, it HADN�T.

3) What was it like, coming from Edinburgh by bus ? - Not bad. But it WAS longer than I had expected.

4) If people on the ship HADN�T or HAD NOT seen him, he would have drowned.

5) What was your childhood like ? - I remember I WAS or I WAS NOT very happy as a teenager.

6) How did you get on ? - Very well, thanks. But if it HADN�T or HAD NOT been for Alan, I would have failed. - Why ? What did he do ?

I cannot think of other possibilities. Please native speakers where am I wrong ?

Thanks a million for your precious help.

Hugs and take great care of you.

Maryse.

7 Dec 2020

yanogator

These are all correct, Maryse. Are you saying that something tried to tell you they�re wrong?

Bruce

7 Dec 2020

lillianschild

Your answers are correct.

The only alternative I can think of is the possibility of using "used to be" in number 5. Of course, it�d mean you�re no longer very happy, but it�d be a grammatically correct option.

Which sentences were supposedly wrong?

7 Dec 2020

maryse pey�

Hi Bruce and Lillian,

Thanks for your checking.

I have been teaching adults - who want to sit for CECR tests or other Cambridge ones - for some months now and they are more than motivated. So I am looking for good tests where they can be given the key to speak about their difficulties afterwards... But before I DO the test myself just to be sure !

To answer your question Lillian ALL these sentences + one I forgot are supposed to be wrong ! I could have accept 1 or 2 errors from the programmer but not all these ... In my humble opinion there are more difficult and trickiest sentences than that. And it is not the only problem. One of the cells was wrongly placed in the sentence.

So thanks again to confort me in the fact that I CANNOT advise such a site only looking for students able to pay fees... What a pity! Indeed ! I feel deceived and I don�t want to deceive my students.

Have a very good day all.

Hugs.

Maryse.

8 Dec 2020

maryse pey�

Thanks for these new propositions, very interesting indeed but I tried some of them and they were refused too... So it is well to have several ideas on what about is possible or not.

Thanks for your help and your time. Human beings can reflect, propose other solutions but machines once programmed with only 1 possible answer are not good training for students.

I will note these ideas too for them.

Thanks again.

8 Dec 2020

lillianschild

Regarding the new suggestions for 1, 4 and 6, although you might come across the use of WILL and WOULD or the conditional perfect WOULD HAVE in IF clauses among certain speakers, it�s grammatically incorrect and should be discouraged with one particular exception- when they mean "willing to do something" or when they refer to later results.

You can find a full explanation here:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/conditionals-if

Scroll down to the last section on that page to find the exception I mentioned above.

12 Dec 2020

maryse pey�

Thanks so much for the link Lillian ! Very useful.

Take great care of you.

13 Dec 2020

lillianschild

You�re welcome, Maryse.

Stay safe,

Guillermina

13 Dec 2020