As the number of people out of work in Germany sinks, less and less people take German as a subject in Ireland.
It is unquestionable that Germany is the economic driving force in Europe. It is the second largest exporter in the world after China and yet fewer and fewer Irish students are learning German in school. And nobody seems to be concerned.
It is home to the European Central Bank. German companies are in oartnership with a Chinese firm in development of high speed trains throughout China. VW this week signed an agreement to build a factory in China.
Germany and China this week signed in Berlin a €10 billion deal.
Last week Siemens won a €1.5 billion contract to supply 1,200 carriages to upgrade the Thameslink line that runs between Bedford and Brigthon
Ireland is a strange place.
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9 comments:
oops ... should that not read 'fewer and fewer people...'
Yes! I also would like to know why. I grew up French, but my sons are British. I trust the English I learned with them. I never see anything wrong with your posts, except, at times, what is obviously a typo miss.
What you say is always so honest and relevant. And your way of saying is always so gently direct and sober. I wonder what it is to correct grammatically???? If you didn't speak, there would be only silence on important matters which need to be known and changed for the well-being of the spiritual world.
Thank you for sharing your awareness.
People often don’t know when to use less and when to use fewer in a sentence. Here’s how to get it right.
Use fewer if you’re referring to people or things in the plural (e.g. houses, newspapers, dogs, students, children). For example:
People these days are buying fewer newspapers.
Fewer students are opting to study science-related subjects.
Fewer than thirty children each year develop the disease.
Use less when you’re referring to something that can’t be counted or doesn’t have a plural (e.g. money, air, time, music, rain). For example:
It’s a better job but they pay you less money.
People want to spend less time in traffic jams.
Ironically, when I’m on tour, I listen to less music.
Less is also used with numbers when they are on their own and with expressions of measurement or time, e.g.:
His weight fell from 18 stone to less than 12.
Their marriage lasted less than two years.
Heath Square is less than four miles away from Dublin city centre
But have we not gone metric?
I've been punished because I asked why!:)))
Explain.
Je ne peux pas. Mon anglais fait défaut!
I can't! My English is too poor.
EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES
The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
By Lynne Truss
209 pages. Gotham Books. $17.50.
In her scrappy treatise on punctuation and its discontents, Lynne Truss mentions that a certain kind of comma should be treated as half of a pair, ''even if you can only see one of them.''
However inadvertently, that phrase bolsters her book's main claim: that we are far too forgiving of imprecise language and should be more vigilant. After all, Ms. Truss is a self-appointed grammar fiend whose book-jacket photograph shows her defacing a poster for the film ''Two Weeks Notice'' to avenge its lack of an apostrophe. And she recommends a gun as well as ''strong medication for personality disorder'' to anyone who shares her zeal for ferreting out mistakes.
Misplaced modifier alert: what she means above is that you can see only one of the two commas. What she says, but does not mean, is that you can see the comma but not hear, feel or smell it. This is worth emphasizing because it demonstrates just how contagious Ms. Truss's witty analysis and fussbudget tactics prove to be. And by the way, she would argue about whether Ms. Truss's or Ms. Truss' is the correct possessive form of her name.
''Eats, Shoots & Leaves'' takes its title from a mispunctuated phrase about a panda. In Britain, where this rib-tickling little book has been a huge success and its panda joke apparently recited in the House of Lords, Ms. Truss has proved to be anything but a lone voice. Despite her assertion that ''being burned as a witch is not safely enough off the agenda'' for the punctuation-minded stickler, Ms. Truss obviously hit a raw nerve. For those who are tired of seeing signs like ''Bobs' Motors'' and think an ''Eight Items or Less'' checkout sign should read ''Eight Items or Fewer,'' boy, is this book for you.
I thought everyone in Germany spoke English. I thought German was reserved for science books.
Oh, well :)
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