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|    ENGLISH_TUTOR    |    English Tutoring for Students of the Eng    |    4,347 messages    |
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|    Message 2,098 of 4,347    |
|    Ardith Hinton to Tesoro Hayden    |
|    Song grammar    |
|    28 Jun 16 07:01:24    |
      Hi & welcome, Tesoro! Recently you wrote in a message to alexander koryagin:               AK> "I often dream I am flying in night        AK> Take me, I am very light!"               TH> "I often dream I fly at night        TH> Take me, I am very light!"                      I liked your first suggestion because               1) Alexander has evidently been trying to make his idea fit a trochaic rhythm        ... BLAH blah BLAH blah BLAH blah BLAH... in which case "fly at night" is more        consistent with how I imagine the rest of the poem. Although it's permissible        to add the occasional unstressed syllable, he's already done that by using "I"        at the beginning of the first line. I wouldn't want to overdo it either.                      and because (probably more important to Russians in general)               2) The English language & the Russian language use articles quite differently        ... so you may see a lot of questions here re when to include "the" & when not        to. Alexander's friend is correct insofar as we do say "in the night" even in        poetry & song... e.g. strangers in the night, things that go bump in the night        ... but s/he may be unaware that there is an alternative wording which doesn't        require the extra syllable Alexander wants to leave out of his poem because it        messes up the rhythm. And there is where native speakers of English can help,        because they can more easily generate examples & alternative wordings.... :-)                                   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+        * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)    |
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