Memories...
Hi Marina
Thanks for the latest post about your grandparents. I love the description of your grandma eating all those sunflower seeds. For a number of years I taught English in Spain, to children as well as adults, and the children would often be snacking on sunflower seeds (they called them 'pipas'), and the classroom floor and playground would be covered in the husks. Their seeds were salted - did your grandmother salt hers too? As I mentioned before I also have an allotment, and have grown some sunflowers too, though not as a crop. I don't think I will have enough to be able to supply us with snacks for the rest of the year. More likely, they will keep the birds in food over the winter.
The cherry jam looks delicious as do the 'chimpeni'. It is so nice to have these recipes passed down through the generations. My husband has a few recipes passed down from his grandparents. One is for pickled onions (small onions preserved in vinegar) and another is for mincemeat which is a sweet mixture that is used to fill little pies at Christmas:
It doesn't really look very nice in this picture does it? But it tastes good - the brandy preserves the fruit for a long time! This December we will be using the mincemeat above to make our mince pies. Here is the handed-down recipe:
500g sultanas
500g raisins
Box suet
A shake of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of mixed spice
4 sweet apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 litre brandy
Here are the simple instructions: Put in a bowl, cover with a tea-towel and leave for a few days!
Let's look at the language you used in your last post now. You have used articles and the passive well in this post - well done! I spotted just a few problems with articles.
In the following sentences you need to include an article:
...sometimes discussing situation in the USSR... > sometimes discussing the situation in the USSR
I wasn't good at pulling pits out of cherry > I wasn't good at pulling pits out of the cherry (or the cherries)
So it was just unforgettable pastime to play with that grandma's stuff > So it was just an unforgettable pastime to play with that grandma's stuff
In these sentences you don't need an article:
she had a stunning clothes and accessories > she had stunning clothes and accessories
Although my grandparents had the Korean names, people called them by Russian ones > Although my grandparents had Korean names, people called them by Russian ones
And every survived baby was treated with a special care > And every baby who survived was treated with special care (note that you can't use 'survived' as an adjective)
in return the baby was given the money or the gold ring > in return the baby was given money or a gold ring
Finally, in this last sentence I think you should use 'the' and not 'a' as you are talking about a specific tradition previously referred to:
Ashish was asking about a Korean birthday tradition > Ashish was asking about the Korean birthday tradition
Here are some comments about the use of other aspects of language:
My grandma grew up the sunflowers on her allotment > My grandmother grew the sunflowers in her allotment
The verb 'grow' can have an object; the verb 'grow up' does not have an object and means 'become an adult'. Look at this example:
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Anyway the smell of the ripe sunflowers seeds really reminds me about my childhood > Anyway the smell of ripe sunflower seeds really reminds me of my childhood (we say 'remind somebody of something')
It's thanks to my grandfather, Feodor, I became an addictive reader > It's thanks to my grandfather, Feodor, that I became an addictive reader (actually, the phrase 'addictive reader' sounds a little unnatural, although I know what you mean. We might say 'avid reader' or a 'bookworm')
This is quite strange that I've never been to Ukraine as it is closer to Kazakhstan than Poland > It is quite strange that I've never been to Ukraine as it is closer to Kazakhstan than Poland (I commented on this in an earlier post...you need 'it' here as you are introducing something new)
Also...note the spelling of 'cocktails'!
Talking about the past
I thought that this time I would discuss past tenses. Let's look at some sentences from your post:
I've been living with my Polish-Ukrainian grandparents for almost six years.
The tense used in this sentence (I've been living) means that you started living with your grandparents six years ago, and you are still living with them. Maybe that's the case, but it sounds like you don't live with them anymore. This is a finished past event, and so you just need to use the simple past:
I lived with my Polish-Ukrainian grandparents for almost six years.
Let's look at two more sentences:
We just were sitting together at home with a cup of tea and were listening to the story of every picture telling by my grandma and later by my mum.
So during the tea grandma was telling some interesting "scary" stories in a "World War II" style or grandpa was reading me the "fairy tales" from a sort of "red soviet soldier" magazine.
In these sentences you use the past continuous, but you don't need this tense here. We use the simple past to describe events, even if they are things that happened again and again, which seems to be the case here. If you are talking about past habits, then you use the past simple, or you can use used to or would (+ infinitive), for example:
We just used to sit together at home with a cup of tea and listen to the story of every picture told by my grandma and later by my mum.
OR
We would just sit together at home with a cup of tea and listen to the story of every picture told by my grandma and later by my mum.
So during the tea grandma used to tell some interesting "scary" stories in a "World War II" style or grandpa read me the "fairy tales" from a sort of "red soviet soldier" magazine.
OR
So during the tea grandma would tell some interesting "scary" stories in a "World War II" style or grandpa would read me the "fairy tales" from a sort of "red soviet soldier" magazine.
Or you can just use the simple past tense.
Using the past continuous
We use the past continuous when we are talking about something that happened before and after another action in the past for example:
I remember my grandma was telling me some stories, when my grandpa showed us a picture.
The first action (telling stories) was interrupted by the second action (showing a picture). The first action continued before AND after the second action.
We can also use it with a date in the past when the action continued before AND after a certain time or date. Let's look at these sentences:
In 1990 I was living in Spain.
That means the action (living in Spain) lasted more than one year. I lived in Spain before 1990, and lived in Spain after 1990 (in fact I lived there for 12 years!).
In 1990 I lived in Spain.
This probably means that I lived there for that one year.
In 2000 I moved to the UK.
I have to use the past simple here - there was no continuous activity.
Look at this short paragraph where I talk about the past - note the tenses used and they way past habits are described:
In 1990 I was living in Vic, a small town near Barcelona in Spain. I lived in Vic until 1995 when I moved to Barcelona. I lived in Vic for 8 years, teaching English at a language school. I taught people of all ages, including children who would eat sunflower seeds in class. The children used to throw the husks on the floor! The children were great, but sometimes they could be a little mischievous. I remember one day I was writing something on the board, and I wasn't looking at them, and when I turned round, they all dived under their desks at the same time! I enjoyed those years of teaching though.
Now here is your task. Can you write a short paragraph about a past time and memory like the one above about your life? Try to use the past simple, the past continuous, an example of would, and an example of used to.
Bye for now!
Kim
Vocabulary
snack on something = eat small amounts of something
husk = the shell of a seed
to salt = to add salt to something
crop = a large amount of fruit or vegetable grown
pickled = preserved in vinegar
preserve = keep food with sugar, salt, alcohol, vinegar etc
sultanas = a dried white grape
raisin = a dried black grape
suet = a type of hard animal fat (we use a vegetarian version!)
cored = an apple core is the hard centre of an apple which has the seeds - if an apple is cored, it means the centre has been removed
avid = very keen or interested
bookworm = a person who loves reading books
Comment number 1.
At 19th Aug 2010, Marina wrote:Hi Kim!
Thanks a lot for your lesson about the past times. It's really useful for me! And I like the way you write about the rules.
Your recipe is also interesting, although I've never tried that kind of dish before. My grandma never salted the flowerseeds but I believe they taste delicious :)
Kim, I've done my homework in my next entry :)
Marina
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At 20th Aug 2010, beauty-womman wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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