Stephanie先生の英会話コラム

こんにちは。今回はStephanie先生のコラムをです。
よくある間違いの解説をします。
最後には便利なイディオムも紹介しますので、是非最後までご覧ください。

Common Mistakes made in English + Bonus!

• -ed VS -ing 

A very common mistake is mixing up the endings of adjectives.

Let’s look at some sentences below:  

When do we use -ing and -ed? 

We use -ed to describe the emotion that the subject is feeling. 

We don’t normally use -ed for non-living things, like a party or a table.
We only use -ed for people or animals. 

For example,

Sue was bored. (Sue feels bored.)
スーは退屈だ。（スーは退屈だと思う）

We use -ing to describe the subject itself. It is a description of the subject.

For example,

Sue was boring. (Sue is a boring person.)
スーは退屈だ。（スーは退屈な人だ）

• To play / to do

In Japanese, to play or do something has the same verb – やる.

A common mistake is to confuse them when describing sports.

Play is usually used for games: I play soccer/tennis/chess.  (私はサッカー/テニス/チェスをする)

Go/went is usually used for activities we have to go to: I went hiking/swimming/skiing. (私はハイキング/水泳/スキーをしに行った。)

Do is usually for a non-team activity you do alone: I do yoga/gymnastics/meditation. （私はヨガ/体操/瞑想をする）

• Go to home / call to him

We use the preposition “to” to indicate a direction or destination.

For　example,

I will go to Kyoto tomorrow.
I will send a letter to Tom.

However, we don’t need to use “to” for the verbs “home” and “call”. We can just say:

I will go home after dinner.
I will call Tom tomorrow.

• BONUS!!: Idiom

1. Break the ice
   (緊張をほぐす/話の口火を切る)

If you break the ice at a party or meeting, or in a new situation, you say or do something to make people feel relaxed and comfortable.

E.g. I broke the ice at the meeting with a joke. (私はジョークで会議の緊張をほぐした)

I tried to break the ice by offering her a drink, but she said no. (私は彼女にお茶をおごって話してみようとしたが、彼女は断った。)