games with words: which English?

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by BAnna, Jun 3, 2014.

  1. BAnna

    BAnna Active Member VIP member

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    Researchers from MIT have a fun quiz to determine which English dialect you speak and what your native language might be:
    Games with words-Which English?

    My results (native speaker of standard American English).

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:
    1. American (Standard)
    2. Canadian
    3. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics

    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:
    1. English
    2. Swedish
    3. Norwegian
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  2. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Hi BAnna

    I've done their vocabulary quiz some days ago, now I've done this one. But in one question it was absolutley impossible. I wanted to find "who". This options are for the inanimate objects or direct objects, not the humans and human who is a subject:

    Which answer is correct?


    My results:

    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:
    1. Australian
    2. Scottish (UK)
    3. Irish (Republic of)
    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:
    1. Swedish
    2. English
    3. Finnish


    MIT you are completely WRONG hahahahahaaaa

    Their test was obsessed with the passive and the articles. But the pictrues were cute with the animals. It's funny that the elephant has bitten the lion, poor lion!!!

    I think that this tests were ok, I mean the vocabs and this one, but it's inacceptable that they do the mind reading one. Therefore I don't write in French online because of this nasty danger when they (or it) abuse the online writing (by the person) for discover the thoughts. In the other languages (non-native ones) you are protected , but I suppose that mostly the people are English-speakers on the website therefore it's their native langauge.
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2014
  3. Cainntear

    Cainntear Active Member VIP member

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    It's "that" -- "that" (or even the "zero conjunction" -- ie nothing) tends to be used whenever it comes directly after a noun it qualifies. The other conjunctions tend to be pronominal, with no noun before them. (NB: This is not always true, it's only the most common usage.)
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  4. Josquin

    Josquin Member

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    Our top three guesses for your English dialect:

    1. English (England)
    2. Welsh (UK)
    3. US Black Vernacular / Ebonics

    Our top three guesses for your native (first) language:

    1. English
    2. Norwegian
    3. German

    I take this as a compliment... ;)
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  5. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Cainntear thanks for the explanation. It is weird!!!! The man that :confused:o_O..... In Dutch or German this would be wrong: De man dat die (NL) and Der Mann das der (D).

    Josquin, wow you are a native English speaker from England :D

    I am a speaker of Australian English but native Swedish speaker hahahahahahaahahahahahaha I don't speak Swedish at all, although I can say "Stockholm" "ABBA" and "Nobel Prize" LOL And I don't know Australia at all except "Kangaroo" "koala" and "Sydney"

    It's a silly test but funny. The grammar was too obsessed with the passive and the articles.
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  6. Cainntear

    Cainntear Active Member VIP member

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    ...Basically because these are strong indicators of dialect.
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  7. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    How? I can't imagine how the understanding of the passive can be dialectal, would the passive be used for the active? The test wanted only to know which was the agent.

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