Interesting question about English taught in French school

[mint]

I don't think any of the "objectionists" is arguing that "got" is wrong.  And, of course, language is a living and infinitely changeable entity.

In the end, it's a matter of preference and what you and your family and immediate aquaintances use.  Mostly, you just want to get your meaning across.  People do tend to modify their language according to the company they keep, do they not?

Hence, birds of a feather flock together, or whatever the expression is![:D][:P]

[EuroTrash]

OK, I've been trying to keep out of this but in the end I can't resist sticking my twopenn'orth in before the thread drops off the radar: To me, do you have? sounds slightly unnatural/American and it also invites the response 'yes i do/no I don't' which surely is the wrong verb to be using. 'Have you' sounds un-English, something a non-native speaker would say. So I normally say 'Have you got', I'm sure I do sometimes say 'do you have' but normally have you got any change, have you got time to do this, etc, In the negative I would be even more inclined to use 'haven't you got' or 'I haven't got' although again there are certain instances where I would probably say 'I haven't', such as 'I haven't a clue'. If you don't use 'got' it's hard to find anywhere in the sentence to put the stress - try saying 'I haven't any' or 'Haven't you any?" emphaticlly, stressing 'have' or 'haven't' isn't nearly as satisfying as stressing 'got'. IMHO.

[EmilyA]

Glad there is another fan of get / got out there. I think it sounds more natural to an English ear and much better in the negative and future form - I have not got a bxxxxy tennis racket, but I will get one tomorrow. Have you got one?

I can't express,

"Get thee to a nunnery" and "Get thee behind me, Satan", any better than Shakespeare and the Bible either.

[Pierre ZFP]

Isn't it  'Hie thee to a nunnery'  ? [8-)]

[EmilyA]

Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?

[Richardbk]

Unfortunately this is very common. One of our kids was down marked for using a British day/date format, rather an an American one and there have been other grammar errors. Needless to say we responded in all cases and put the teacher right.

They also are quite good at trying to correct regional accents ! The Scots in my daughter's English class used to have a terrible time.

It really depends on the teacher. In our experience some teachers will use the anglophones to assist the class, in others they see them as a threat.

In my son's first years in a tiny one teacher primary village school in the Tarn he would help the teacher set the lesson, and assist with the pronunciation - age 6 !

When we moved, he was constantly being punished in his English class due to boredom and correcting the teacher. This changed when we reminded the teacher that she should perhaps see him as an asset rather than a competitor. After that we had no problems.

[idun]

My youngest son's english teacher used to give him two separate marks. One being quite high usually say 18 or 19 sur vingt. The other being low with a note saying that as it was his mother tongue he should only have say, 9/20. And this teacher wasn't too bad.

[NormanH]

worked for some time in the French

system teaching English at various levels from collège to Grande

Ecole and often had to struggle with the 'certainty' born of

insecurity of non-native speakers and text books which give very

un-English usage.

In the present case I feel that the

teacher is wrong.

I don't care whether the form used is

« I have got « 

or « I have « 

One can argue for ages about prefences

and American/British usage.

For me this is a question of symmetry.

If the question is

« Have you got a tennis racket? »

the answer could be « yes I have got a tennis racket »or

more naturally « yes I have »

If the question is « have you a

tennis racket? » the answer is either « yes I have a

tennis racket » or "yes I have"but NOT "I have got a tennis

racket" which changes the form « have/have got » chosen by

the person asking the question

[cooperlola]

CF's offspring was asked:

Question: Does Anne have a Tennis racket?

Why doesn't the answer "Yes" (or alternatively "No") suffice?  Why is more needed?

[NormanH]

Don't underestimate the mechanical nature of 'correct' answers in the French classroom

[nomoss]

And I always thought it was only Indians who corrected Brits' english grammar [:D]

[cooperlola]

No, Norman, I don't (my BiL talks long into the night on this subject - he works at Marseille Uni' and all three kids were educated here). 

I also remember Chancer's story about offering to translate properly, an ill-written notice at one of his local restaurants. They refused to accept that he might know more about speaking and writing English than they did.