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Three questions for English speakers

  Tags: English
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages Post Reply
11 messages over 2 pages: 1


Hencke
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Spain
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 Message 9 of 11
11 June 2009 at 6:50am | IP Logged 
On _the_ television really jarred in my ears too.

Rafa v. 2.0 wrote:
a) I'm preparing a dissertation AT? or IN? an institute.


AT and IN are both possible:

I am preparing it AT an institute - The dissertaition is part of my work at or for that institute.

I am preparing it IN an institute - I am working on the premises of an institute, preparing a dissertation that is not necessarily related to the activities of the institute.

Edited by Hencke on 11 June 2009 at 6:52am

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Rafa v. 2.0
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Poland
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 Message 10 of 11
12 June 2009 at 12:01pm | IP Logged 
Thanks! And by the way, is there a definitive guide about when to use or not to use THE? Some kind of a comprehensive grammar book, focused on this very problem?

I know the general rules and I think I use them quite proficiently (most of the time), but every now and then I come across some weird phrase and I just can't decide.
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RBenham
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 Message 11 of 11
20 June 2009 at 3:36am | IP Logged 
FWIW, it is a bad mistake to use an article with television unless you mean the physical television set. If you see "This was broadcast on a US television", this is almost certainly the work of a non-native (you should say "on a US television station/network/..."). I don't think I've ever heard "on the US television" before, and certainly not from a native.

Contrary to certain assertions, it is perfectly OK say one graduated with a master's degree or PhD. "Graduating" from high school sounds like a bad joke outside the US (maybe Canada too?). To say you "completed" postgraduate studies does not mean that you were successful. I would say "successfully completed".

Oh, and it seems more natural to me to refer to an "institution" of higher learning, rather than "institute", even though many of them (such as MIT) have "Institute" in their name.

Edited by RBenham on 20 June 2009 at 3:38am



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