Lend and borrow are another typical pair of words which students sometimes mix up. ‘Can you borrow me your dictionary?’ a student once asked me. Well, you can borrow something from somebody, and you can lend somebody something or lend something to somebody, but you can’t borrow somebody something. So the student should have asked me for a dictionary as follows: Can I borrow your dictionary?, Can you lend me your dictionary?, or Can you lend your dictionary to me? The use of can is perfectly correct when asking for permission or a favour, but if you want to sound more formal or polite, use could, may, might, or I wonder if I could instead.
‘Please?’ responded a student in a beginners’ class after he didn’t understand what I had just told him. In such a situation, native speakers of English normally say Sorry?, Pardon?, Pardon me?, or more formally I beg your pardon. They use please as a polite way of asking for a favour (Open the window, please), asking for permission (Could I use your bathroom, please?), telling somebody to do something (Please sit down), or accepting something (Coffee? Yes, please).
When people are handing something to somebody, they say Here you are, There you are, or There you go. After somebody has thanked them for something, they say You’re welcome, Not at all, No problem, or Don’t mention it.
When people want to apologize for something, they usually say I’m sorry, or simply Sorry (Americans prefer saying Excuse me). They use the verb apologize to say they are sorry for doing something wrong or causing a problem (I apologize for being late). To express that they have accepted an apology, they use phrases such as That’s all right, Don’t worry about it, Forget it, No problem, etc.
The verb forgive is used to say in a polite way that you are sorry if what you are doing or saying might seem rude or silly (Forgive me, but I don’t agree with you).
When people want to politely get somebody’s attention, especially somebody they don’t know, they use the phrase Excuse me (Excuse me, could you tell me how I get to the station?).
Students sometimes incorrectly use a negative question in order to be polite (Don’t you know what time it is?, Can’t you tell me what time it is?). Be careful with that. English negative questions don’t function in the same way as Slovak ones do. The above examples suggest surprise, criticism, or even threat, but hardly politeness. You should use the phrase do you happen to know (Do you happen to know what time it is?), or a negative statement with a question tag (You don’t know what time it is, do you?, You couldn’t tell me what time it is, could you?).
While I was searching for some articles on the Slovak system of education, I came across the expression special schools covering the category of Slovak secondary schools offering professional education, including business and hotel academies, agricultural and nursing schools, etc. This is quite a confusing categorization, as a special school is primarily a school for children who have physical or learning problems. Therefore, a better term for the category of specialized secondary schools is vocational schools (ones offering education in a particular area of knowledge and skills as well as some general education).
A student wrote in her essay, ‘My sister visits primary school.’ Well, you can visit your grandparents or your dentist, or an inspector can visit your school. Regular pupils and students attend school, go to school, or are at school (British English) / are in school (American English).
Another student once said, ‘I was after school.’ The punishment of being kept at school for some time after the other students have gone home is called detention. So the student should have said, ‘I was given detention,’ or alternatively, ‘I had to stay behind after school.’
I hope you won’t oversleep and come late for your English lesson. If so, at least you know now how to apologize politely in order to avoid detention.
