From New Zealand 2007年7月，ニュージーランドへ移住してきました。ニュージーランドでの日常生活についてつづります。

 

まず，多くの「教科書」，教材，会話集にあるgo to～をここで今一度確認したい。

I go to school at eight. 「８時に学校に行く」は非常に曖昧である。
I get to school at eight.は「８時に学校に到着する」である。
自宅を出る時刻をいうときは，I leave home at eight.が適切である。

プラス別の観点でのコメントも入りました。

A: How do you usually go get to school?

B: I usually walk.

 

I don’t like oranges. / I don’t eat oranges. / They don’t sell oranges. は無冠詞複数名詞でOK。

でも，I don’t have dogs.やI’ve never made speeches.の無冠詞複数名詞に違和感あるのはなぜ？

という疑問について，以下ネイティブの解説。

Let's change it to 'children'.

 

'I don't have any children.'

--- Most people consider that two or three kids is a normal family unit, so since the topic is the number of children, the negative plural is correct.

 

'I don't have a child.'

--- The negative singular would be appropriate in China, where most people have only one child.

 

'I don't have children.'

--- This would suggest that the topic is not 'how many', but 'what', and that the speaker has something other than children.

A mother frustrated at her messy children might declare, 'I don't have children - I have bloody animals!'

Now, 'They (don't) sell oranges' - answers a 'what' question.

'I have never made speeches' also answers a what question ('I've made presentations to small groups, but I've never made speeches').

However, if someone asks 'How many speeches have you made to date?' you could answer, 'I've never made any speeches' or 'I've never made a speech (in my life)!' for emphasis (= 'I've never made even a single one'). Ditto for 'English speeches'.
 

動詞rainと形容詞rainyの使い方について再び。

 

英英辞書のrainyの項目＝During a rainy day, season, or period it rains a lot.
 

使い分けがわかるような例文を，ネイティブに示しみました。

1. Oh, it's raining! I'll get a bus today.
2. When it rains, I take a bus.
3. When it's raining, I take a bus.

A call to a different city.
4. How's the weather? -- It was raining this morning, but now it's sunny.
5. How's the weather? -- It's rainy in Tokyo.
6. What did you do today? -- It was rainy all day, so I stayed home.

7. I go to school by bus during the rainy season.
8. I read books at home on rainy days.
9. When it's rainy, I get a headache.
10. When it's rainy, I feel down.

 

上の例文はどれも問題ないようでした。
特に，2. 3. (When + rain) と9. 10. (When + rainy) の違い（主節の内容）を参照されたい。

A : Yumi, what animal is popular in your class?

B : Dogs are as popular as cats.  Birds are not so popular.

（リスニングのグラフ付き設問の一部です，内容は悪しからず）

Native comment:
This is not a native construct.
We’d say, “Among your classmates, which animal is liked the most?” or casually, “Which animal do most people in your class like?”
 'Popular’ is used for people and places, not generally for animals.