Either II

Either of

We use either of before a pronoun or a determiner (the, my, these...)

e.g. I don't like either of them.
e.g. I don't like either of my math teachers.

We can use either alone if a noun has already been mentioned.

e.g. Would you like coffee or tea? I don't mind. Either.

Please note that this is a sentence fragment. It is fine for conversational English, but should be avoided in written English.

Either I

We use either before a singular noun to mean "one or the other".

e.g. Come on Friday or Saturday. Either day is ok.

Sometimes either means each, especially in the expressions on either side and at either end.

e.g. There are flowers on either side of the door.

I am sure you know I am from Canada, you may even know that Canada is the second largest country on Earth by land area. I thought it may be useful to write something about Canada and have you ask questions about it. I suppose I am interested to hear what Brazilians think about Canada, if they think about it at all. So that's what this post is about, ask me questions, and I will try to provide answers and hopefully this will be a learning activity for all of us, including the Gringo.

How do you celebrate EASTER???

Easter is a religious event.People celebrate Jesus' rebirth on this date. In Brazil besides this, you can be surprised how people run to the supermarket to buy or ask someone to make chocolate Easter eggs. Children choose those they can find a little gift inside them. Well, Steven is going to write about Easter in Canada and I hope you can write about your country or city. See You and Happy Easter!

Easter in Canada is one of the two major religious holidays, the other of course being Christmas. The three major traditions are Easter egg decorating, Easter egg hunts and Easter dinner.

Egg decorating is usually done with dye, wax crayons and occasionally stickers. The eggs to be decorated are first hard boiled, cooking them inside the shell. If you wish to you can put a pattern on with wax crayons. When the egg is dyed the pattern will form a negative image, that is the shell will be its original white colour beneath the wax. Some decorating kits also come with stickers which can be applied to the egg after dying it.

Easter egg hunts are when parents typically hide chocolate eggs around the house, in Canada there is no guarantee that there will be warm weather for Easter so we can't always do it outside. There are many varieties of chocolate eggs, from your standard small eggs, Cadbury Creme Eggs, and Kinder Surprise eggs, Children will typically receive a chocolate rabbit from their parents.

Finally there is Easter dinner with family. The traditional meals will either be a ham, leg of lamb, or rack of lamb.

- Steven the Gringo

THANK YOU!!!

There are many ways to say THANK YOU. It's one of the "magic words" to show you are polite or just you feel gratitude for someone. It's very important in all languages but here you're going to see it in English.

* Thanks! (informal)
* Thanx! (you can write it because the sound of X, it's very informal)
* Thank you! (the most common)
* Thank you very much! (more intensified)
* Thank you so much! (the same " thank you very much")
* Thanks a lot! (British people say it)
* Thanks a million! (a nice expression, Jack Scholes wrote it in a book when he autographed mine)
Thank you is indeed the most common, and is suitable for most cases, thanks is also sometimes abbreviated to thx this is usually used in text messages on mobile phones. For the most part, stick with thank you, it is almost never too formal, and rarely not formal enough.
- Steven The Gringo

"Choose an Answer to That"

"HOW ARE YOU?"



Well, How would you answer that??? Probably it would be "I'm fine, thanks."


But there are more ways than one to answer this question. Here they are:



positive

• I'm good!


• I'm very well!


• I'm ok!


• I'm fine!


• I'm great!


• I can't complain.

negative

Typically in Canadian English, when asked "How are you?" or "How are you doing?", if the response is negative, the responder doesn't use I. This is because the identity of the respondent is implied by the question. If you are giving a negative response because you are feeling sick, a slang response would be "I'm not feeling so hot". I have never heard someone say "I'm bad" in response to this question, that's more of a declaration of an intent to moonwalk.
- Steven the Gringo

• I'm not good!


• I've been better

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Homonyms Part 2

A second common error with homonyms occurs when dealing with it's and its. One is a contraction and the other is a possessive pronoun, but how to remember which one is which? Contractions, though not proper English are used extensively in vernacular English. Obviously cannot becomes can't, and were not becomes weren't, less clear is the transformation of will not to won't. Following this pattern, it is becomes contracted to it's. Remembering that the possessive its does not have an apostrophe can be remembered by looking at other possessive pronouns. His and hers do not have apostrophes, they are never written as hi's and her's. To avoid this sort of mistake it's advisable to never use contractions.