Well, Brazilian Guy, this is what I would do (native speaker of California accent):
I used to play baseball. = Action in past.
I play baseball. = Action in present.
The present form of "used to..." is simply the present tense in its regular from; or, "I do play" or "I am playing."
Younger and youngest ? Well I've never heard anyone who doesn't pronoust the "g" in those two words. Normally, only the "g" with an "h" are not pronouced. In this case neither the G nor the H are pronouced.
e.g : although, high, though, thought, brought, fight, fought.
officially you would pronounce it in "finger", but not in "singer". there are a few rules to pronounce the "g", and this website explains them:
http://www.hi.is/~peturk/KENNSLA/02/TOP/nasals.html#ng
but there are native speakers that tend to pronounce the "g" even when the rules say they shouldn't, so i think it's ok to pronounce them if you are not sure.
I never knew that. Thanks for the link, mee.
Thanks, mee. I didn't knew either the site or that in English there was nasal sounds. It seems to me that its equivalent to the "nh" in portuguese.
brazilian guy,
nasal sounds are quite comon, and most of the languages have at least a few of them. they are sounds produced by lowering the soft palate (or velum), allowing the air to pass through the nasal cavity. /m/ and /n/ are comon nasal sounds.
the "nh" in portuguese, is the same as the spanish "ñ", and the italian and french "gn", but it is definitly not the english "ng".
portuguese does not have an equivalent for "ng", and english doesn't have an equivalent for "nh" either.
that sound is produced in a very similar way to the "g" and the "k", but the soft palate is lowered, so it becomes a nasal sound. to produce it, it is important not to mix the nasal sound with the preceding vowel, or you will lose your work.
basically, if you manage to produce syllables such as "ang" or "eng", without nasalising the preceding vowels, you will probably produce the "ng" sound, with the "g" included, and later you can try it without the "g". but keep the tip of the tong resting against the lower teeth, or you might produce an "n" sound instead.
the "n" in "ng" is the same as in "nk".
also, portuguese and french are very nasalised languages, so speakers of those languages tend to nasalise english vowels the same way they would do in their native language. if you can try and avoid that, you'll improve your pronunciation in general.
Wow! I'll be more carreful when I'll pronouce the vowels now! Thanks again mee!
OK, mee. That seems a little hard to master but I'll try. Thanks.
Brasileiro:
Os sons nasais podem ser pronunciados em Inglês mesmo pelos nativos, mas via de regra, eles se comportam de um jeito um pouco diferente. Você "começa" a pronounciar mas não termina; para antes.
Não existem sons nasais como os do português e francês em Inglês.
Alguns nativos diriam: "yân-guíst" (youngest), mas eu diria algo quase lá, mas sem exatamente pronunciar o "g". O resto fica igual.
Hi. Me again. When should I use "all" and "whole"?
this is brahma rao who is feeling not good in english
is it possible for me to give a speach in america
i expect reply from u
Brazilian Guy:
'I walked the whole day' = 'I walked all day'
'all the people were there'
'they were all there'
Are question tags considered sarcastic in any English-speaking countries?
I know that my American friends don't use question tags. I do use them and that should sound odd to them.