These rices are nices.

This is something we do deliberately to annoy language learners*.

Sometimes people want to know how to talk about one trouser. We say 'a pair' - I'll only pack one pair of trousers . Jeans and shorts are the same.

You've probably also noticed we say hair (singular): 'You've had your hair cut.' or 'He has grey hair,' even though there are many thousands of hairs on the average head. Confusingly the singular is also hair. You don't need to say 'one grain of hair.'

The thing is, these 'non-count nouns' are things which we don't normally count, we're not thinking of them as individuals, we see them as a whole. Almost like a liquid. Rice comes in sacks or bags and we pour it out. We don't think about the grains.

The same with hair. We see the whole head of hair, and we don't notice the many thousands of individual hairs that make up that image.

But every language is different. In French, they do use the plural for hair. In German, it can be either. Does that mean they think differently about hair?

Does your language have count and non-count nouns? Do you find it difficult to use them in English? Does it change the way you see these things?

Abigail
PS *Not really. But it looks that way,doesn't it?

So that's not a very happy way to end my blogs for December. But Veronika has been an excellent writer, hasn't she? You really speak fantastic English, Veronika, and I know how hard you must have worked, to become so fluent. I've learnt a lot this month, including a new recipe (for draniki)! So even after this month's blog has finished, I'll be able to remember Veronika and Belarus, every time we have potato pancakes for breakfast.

Tinsel and baubles

In this country, most families open their presents on Christmas Day. As you all know, little children believe that Father Christmas/Santa brings their presents. Then at lunchtime we usually have a large family meal. We don't do much feasting in this country, so Christmas is huge for us.

If you celebrate Christmas in your country, please tell us about it.
Whether you celebrate or nor, December is a special month for us in the northern hemisphere. Tomorrow is the winter solstice: the shortest day and longest night. The sun is the lowest in the sky. But from the lowest point, it can only go up. As one year ends, another begins. And other words of wisdom... ;-)

If you're in the southern hemisphere, your days are about to get shorter of course :-(

Wherever you are, I hope you all enjoy the rest of 2010, and I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year!

The... the...
It sounds like cinema and theatre are very cheap in Belarus. And you say 'often the better is a film the better is price.' In English we use this: the .... the... :
- The better the film, the better the price.
- The more you pay, the better the clothes.
- The bigger the better.
I'm a cinema fan, and I think I really would like it Minsk!

Who hates anything and something?
They're really strange and difficult to use in English, learners often make mistakes with these words. There are exceptions to the rule, but the rule is: We use anything in questions and negative sentences, and something in positive sentences: so we wouldn't say 'we have anything special to watch every week there' we would say 'We have something special to watch.'

- Do you have anything special to watch?
- We don't have anything special to watch :-(
- We have something special to watch :-)

Minsk or Mensk?
Tell us more about the name Minsk or Mensk - how is its name affected by politics?

I'm sure the others will agree it's wonderful to hear about the character of Minsk. The word which you feel sums up the city of Minsk is 'rules' because it's very proper and correct, and because wherever you look, you see straight lines.

Which word would I use to describe Hastings (the town where I live)? It's got a rather special character: stubborn and individual. It's a tourist town, where shop-keepers close at lunchtime on Saturdays, and during the week, because I suppose they can, and they have other things to do. I find it annoying ...and I like it!

So for Hastings... stubborn.

Which word would everyone else choose, to describe their own town or village?

pop round - go to visit someone quickly, for a casual visit
pop out - go out very briefly, not planned
pop up - happen unexpectedly
Once again, thanks to Veronika for some useful English!

Straw animals
Great to see the animals and decorations made out of straw. We have similar traditions in Britain too. Does anyone else have that in their country? But the spiders - that's something I've never seen before. Fascinating!

This topic made me think about the difference between make and do. If you create something, we use the word make and not the word do. So we would say that craftsmen make straw goods, make straw animals.

There are lots of times when we need to choose between make and do, and it's not easy to remember which is which! This page might help:

Meaning - every word has a meaning. Signs and symbols also have a meaning. In the UK, a red capital L on a car, means learner driver. A flashing blue light on an ambulance means it's an emergency. These meanings are fixed in the culture.

Sense means the way we could interpret or think about something:
'She was using the word 'housewife' in a very negative sense.'
'What sense do you mean that in?'
'It's funny in every sense of the word.'

Roses, candles, red and green and tartan are all associated with different things.

One last word, which is a bit like these two words, is associated. Red and green don't strictly mean Christmas - they can be used at other times of the year. But when we want to make things look Christmassy, we use the colours red and green. When we see a lot of red and green together, we think about Christmas. So we could say red and green are associated with Christmas. Roses and candle-light are associated with romance. Tartan is associated with Scotland.

Great Aunt Doll's doily

Next stop Minsk?

Thanks for your extremely well-written guide to your country and its food. And what fantastic photos! You've made me want to cook draniki and rollerskate in front of the Executive Committee. You've used some very good words and phrases, and I'd like to share these with everyone, and offer some help.

I have a question. You say that machanka is a "unique sauce from meat and relish" What do you mean by relish?

You use the word culinary in your post, which is an excellent word. For those who don't know, culinary is an adjective, meaning 'to do with food,' even though it doesnt sound at all like the word 'food.' This happens a lot in English, where we have an English noun, paired up with a Latin adjective, or an adjective from Greek.

liver - hepatic
church - ecclesiastical
year - annual
brother - fraternal

Often the Latin adjective is more formal, and less-well known than the noun. The words culinary and annual are a little formal, but they are well-known and widely-used. You don't need to worry about them.

But some words from Latin or Greek are confusing for English people, who don't always understand them.

When we have no English adjective (eg like 'churchy', instead of ecclesiastical) then we can use the noun itself, instead of an adjective. So we could say 'church traditions' instead of 'ecclesiastical traditions' and we could say 'food traditions' instead of 'culinary traditions.'

Cooking pots - I was interested to hear that now people cook on modern cookers, so you'd be surprised to see an old-fashioned cooking pot. By the way, that's what we call these in English - a pot. A jug is normally something with a handle on one side, and a little 'lip' on the other, for pouring liquids. Like these two - a little blue jug and a measuring jug from my kitchen:

All about Slutsk
Here's another great phrase - you said "I used to be driven by my brother." Used to... is a very useful phrase and again, lots of people don't use it. It doesn't really sound like what it means. As you know, Veronika, if you used to do something, it means you often did it in the past. Your brother used to drive you - so we know he did it lots of times and we also know he doesn't do it anymore.

You are very good at formal, written English. Sometimes it's good to use a more informal, conversational style. You say "should I wish to see my parents" and this is too formal. It would be better to say 'If I want to see my parents.'

You showed us a photo of an ancient stone: "all that can remember you about" the ancient past of Slutsk. Here you need to use the word 'remind'. I remember, because the stone reminds me.

One more question: "There is also a bright Roman-Catholic church in the town." What did you mean by 'bright'?

The Slutsk Belts look very interesting - I agree with Pary, it would be good to hear more about local crafts.

In the village
"A change from the daily routine that makes you perceive time differently." What a beautiful phrase - again you really know how to make a complicated sentence in English! And one of the really good things about that sentence is just the little word make - it's a small word, but not everyone knows how to use it. We use it all the time in English.

'Red and green makes me think of Christmas'
'Seeing them dance made me want to try it'
'The red carpet makes the room look small'

So the word 'make' means 'to cause it to be.' And it's very useful. So thanks to Veronika for showing us that word.

And I found the pictures of the countryside very beautiful, I feel like I can really imagine the place. It's a shame that so many people are leaving the village. It makes me want to move into one of those cottages, next to your grandfather. But I suppose I would also miss the internet... :-)

Once again, looking forward to more posts!
All the best

Abigail

You speak really excellent English, but I would like to offer you some tips, which might help you express yourself even better.

So, some tips:When you speak another language, it's hard to know when to use 'the', when to use 'a' and when to use neither. As you probably know, 'the' is called the definite article, 'a' is the indefinite article and '-' is... neither! How to use these articles varies from language to language. In Belarusian, do you have no definite article, like in Russian?

Country names.
In English, most country names have no article at all: Russia, England, Belarus. We also say 'Europe' not 'the Europe'
But some take the definite article: The USSR, the US, the United Arab Emirates, the UK.

Uncount nouns
We would also say 'we waited for mobile communication for about 15 years,' not 'a mobile communication. 'Communication' is what we sometimes call an uncount noun. You can't count it. And these don't normally have an article.

Other examples of 'uncount' nouns:
- water
- happiness
- sunshine

The only one
You're absolutely correct when you say 'the world' and 'the first hypermarket.' There is only one 'World' and that's why we use 'the.' And we always say the first, the second, the third and so on.

Share your tips!
I'm not sure I'm explaining this well. It's very difficult to explain why and when to use these articles. Does anyone else have any clever ways to explain or remember the rules? Please share them with us!

Now I'm really curious to know more about Belarus, Veronika, and looking at the comments to your first blog entry - everyone else is too!
All the best
Abigail

From football to snowballs: Britain is covered in snow. This is a photo of the view from my window, as I write to you.

Here in Hastings, on the South Coast of England, we're snowed in. The snow is about 90cm deep. We're not used to snow. We don't have the right clothes; we're walking round in thin jackets and wet shoes. Some people in my street have put bin bags on their feet and legs, to keep dry.

When snow comes, people panic buy. Everyone's been stocking up on food and the shops are sold out of bread and milk. Everywhere you go, you see people dragging sledges, making snowmen, or having snowball fights.

So that's us. We're wet, cold and we have plastic bags on our feet and too much bread in our cupboards! But tell me about the weather where you are. How does the weather make people behave?

I'm looking forward to reading your comments, and especially looking forward to reading Veronica's blog. Veronica is our student for December, of course.

See you soon!

Here are some of the words I've used today:
snowed in - if you're 'snowed in', snow is stopping you leaving
used to snow - accustomed to snow, have often seen snow
bin bags - large plastic bags to put rubbish in
panic buy - buy things because you're scared of an emergency
stock up on something - buy plenty of it, to last for some time.
are sold out of - have sold all of, have no more to sell
sledge - a sheet of wood or plastic; you can slide along the snow on it
snowman - well, a man made out of snow!
snowball fight - throwing snow at each other!