Dear Cloud,
I'm a Canadian and have lived in Canada and used only English ever since birth. English is my native language. Is it any wonder that I can use my own language with ease? Of course it isn't! I know many of you are excellent speakersand writers of your own language, too.
If we in Canada suddenly learned that we would all be wise to learn Mandarin as soon as possible, how difficult it would be for us! You are such courageous andhard working people here on this forum as you struggle away with a language and way of writing and culture completely different from your own. I admire you all deeply and I am often impressed by how much English many of you know already.
In your case, Cloud, there are very few errors in the way you expressed your thoughts.
You began well when you wrote: "Dear Mary" with a capital letter on thefirst word, and another on my name. Then you forgot all about capital letters.I know they don't exist in your language, and so are difficult for you to remember, but in English, capital letters are very important, and must be used at all timesj. The only exception is when you are writing to a chat group. You really shouldn't be writing on chat groups while you're learning English, because there you can pick up many bad habits.
It would be better to read English language children's books, and to read and write to a forum like this one every day, than it is to read and write on chat groups while you are still learning some of the basics of English. Later, when you can easily recognize errors and won't 0learn them from the chat posts will be when you can chat.
Here is your first lesson, about the two errors you made in your firstpost to me:
1. CAPITAL LETTERS
Always use capital letters on the first word of every sentence. Also use capital letters on all names.
*If your cat is named Fluffy, then you should capitalize the first letter of her name, even though she is an animal.
*If your mother calls you a love name such as "Princess-child", you must capitalize that nickname.
*Use capital letters on words for languages, such as English, Italian, Greek, or Mandarin.
*The names of countries are capitalized. For instance Russia, New Zealand, Chile.
*The names of automobiles, such as Lada, Chevrolet, Mercedes, Peugot.
There are probably other places where you must capitalize letters. I'll point any out if they show up in your posts.
2. PUNCTUATION
You did well when you placed commas and periods immediately after the lastletter in a word. You now need to begin to leave a space after every punctuation mark, before you begin the first letter of the next word.
Please do both of these things accurately every time you write English. I hope you will write to me again tomorrow. When I receive your next post if it needs an corrections I'll point them out then.
Best wishes, and I'll watch for your post tomorrow, Cloud.
Your friend, Mary
