A general chat topic for English

Community-Created Courses English (British)
31

@Petri_Wilson72

‘’

Which one shows for you?

32

@alanh Aha now it’s clear to me. At first I couldn’t find where I had to change my setting, but I managed.
Hydroptere has written me from another topic, so she will not anwer here. Have a nice day and who knows we might have a chat later again.

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@Atikker you are great. I feel quite stupid, but alas I have managed to change my settings, hihi

34

@alanh when do you say every and when each Much husband is too Dutch to explain.

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Hi @Petri_Wilson72,

That’s a good question and one that’s not so easy to answer because those two words can often be interchangeable.

“Each” means “every one, individually” or refers to a single object or person.
“Every” means “every one, as a whole” or refers to a group of objects or people.

Also, you use “each” when there are only two objects in question. So, for example, you would say “she wore jewellery on each hand” but you would not say “she wore jewellery on every hand”.

When there are more than two objects or people in question, “each” and “every” can be interchangeable. So, it would be ok to say either “he received each item on his wish-list” or “he received every item on his wish-list”.

There are probably some other variations and exceptions but, hopefully, the basic rules I have described above will help.

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36

You’re a good explainer. My gosh there so many things I cann’t even explain about my native language. I’m very happy with your help.
Have a nice evening! Till tomorrow.

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37

Sorry I was at the wrong topic here, hihi

38

Hi @Petri_Wilson72, could you edit this message of yours: A general chat topic for English ?

Now it has your email, and some other stuff you shouldn’t post in a public forum.

To edit the post, click on the pencil below it. When you hover over the pencil you will see a pop-up “edit this post”.

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@Arete_Hime Oops I have just deleted the message. Thanks for your message :wink:

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40

hi @petri_wilson72!

if you are answering through email be sure to uncheck any box that sends
your personal information to public forum

41

@Atikker I’m completely lost today. I’ve send alanh a personal message now. Hope it’s fine now

42

I would like to always know the difference between those two sentences.

I would have used only the second one. I’m looking forward to see you

so @alanh would you answer it here

43

Hi @Atikker,

Sure. Here is my PM reply to Petri_Wilson72:

"Actually, both sentences are correct and basically have the same meaning. There is just a difference in the tense. I needed to do a little research to find a (hopefully) clear explanation:

“We look forward to meeting you” is using the simple present tense. You are stating the simple fact that you are looking forward to meeting the person [whenever that event is going to take place].

“We’re [we are] looking forward to seeing you” is using the present progressive [also called present continuous] tense. This tense is used to indicate that an action is occurring right now and is continuing to take place. This sentence, therefore, also means you are currently looking forward to seeing/meeting the person. The present progressive form is used to indicate that you are feeling pleased and excited about something that is going to happen.

Does that help?"

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44

It is still a bit confusing and the frustrating thing is that it is used in one of the lessons, I am wrong all the time. Well maybe it’s just not my day, hihi.

P.S. In the setiings at the forum I have checked all the boxes because I like to have an email if there is something added on the forum, but I don’t get any email. It’s is really odd. For now I am leaving. Bye bye

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is it really to seeing it sounds so weird.

why isn’t infinite form (to see) used here?

47

Thanks for the link

this site also states that if there is to it should be followed with the infinite form.

I totally understand the difference between like doing and like to do because it translates perfectly to my own language

what I do not understand is why is those two mixed up sentences … to seeing…

48

Yes. It really is “seeing”. It´s like when you say to someone “see you later”. That means you are going to meet them later, not that you are going to ‘view them from a distance’ later. So, in this context, “see” means “meet” and the two phrases mean pretty much the same thing.

I think these phrases appear in all of the ‘official’ Memrise language courses. I am taking Spanish(Spain) 4, where they appear in Level 9:

“to look forward to …” = “tener ganas de …”
“we’re looking forward to seeing you” = “tenemos ganas de verte”
“we look forward to meeting you” = “tenemos ganas de conocerte”

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49

When I was checking earlier, I found this detailed discussion of the distinction:
https://www.quora.com/Which-is-correct-I-look-forward-to-seeing-you-soon-or-Im-looking-forward-to-seeing-you-soon-Why

Once you remember that “seeing” someone and “meeting” someone means the same thing, I guess it’s not so difficult to remember which verb to use when reviewing these two items.

I actually thought that Petri_Wilson72’s original question was more about the difference between “we look forward…” and “we are looking forward…”. Maybe I was wrong about that.

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50

Thank you for your post. In Estonian we also use see and meet in those cases as interchangeables, the first one is even more casual.

My question arose from the to + ing part

so …the to part goes with forward and does not affect the word seeing?

51

This is a very good finding. Very throughout. Thanks