this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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"I won't be able to use much the computer today. I have to go to a place."

"It's incredible how flies the time! It will be Christmas soon!"

Sorry, I am still learning English. I hear many people who have second-language English that is my friends say that though.

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[–] BertramDitore@lemmy.zip 41 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

They’re both really really close to perfect, and any native speaker would understand exactly what you’re saying with no problem, but I’d say them like this:

“I won’t be at my computer much today, I have to be somewhere.”

and

“It’s incredible how time flies! It will be Christmas soon!”

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 17 points 20 hours ago

Two points:

"I have to go to a place" actually has its own semantic implications. It's a modern construction, deliberately vague to imply intentional mystery or semi-sincere shame.

"How flies the time" ironically makes the speaker sound more well-versed in English, like a stuffy old professor.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 14 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Close...

"I won't be able to use much the computer today. I have to go to a place."

Should be:

"I won't be able to use the computer much today, I have to go to a place."

Alternately:

"I won't be able to use the computer very much today, I have to go to a place."

Much (or very much) is modifying the action of using the computer, so it comes after.

"It's incredible how flies the time! It will be Christmas soon!"

Same issue here...

"It's incredible how time flies! It will be Christmas soon!"

The idiom is "time flies", flies, the modifier, comes after. "The" isn't needed and can be left out.

English has a LOT of weird rules, but there are good books that explain EVERYTHING:

Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" is kind of the gold standard and it's old enough now that it's public domain:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37134

While not free, I'd also suggest the Borzoi Handbook for Writers:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394332016

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

No, those are not correct.

If I saw either of those, I would assume that you started learning English recently. (Which is fine, it just means more work for us to understand each other)

As other comments have said the meaning is mostly clear but it's not how native speakers talk.

[–] SassyRamen@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I wouldn't assume that.

I would place these in around a B1-B2 level. Which to be on that level means you've been learning for a good while.

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Ah, probably so - I have no idea how long in absolute terms it takes to reach any given amount of fluency, but my thought was that they noticeably still have a way to go - which I figured was why they asked, to get a straight answer on that.

I also have no idea how it's evaluated or what system those level labels are part of.

[–] SassyRamen@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Yeah I only know about them, because I've taken my fair share of language tests. If you're interested here is a pretty good explanation of each level. These levels are used for (as far as I know) as a scale for every language.

[–] lucg@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

"I won't be able to use many computers today." See how much/many in this position would indicate a multiple of computer? As though you could only use a few. But you're not wanting to count the number of computers but the amount of time. In the original, "the" before "computer" indicates it's singular so that the original sentence is simply not grammatical. What you probably mean is: "I won't be able to use the computer much today."

(Edit: I think in older English you could also put "much" earlier in the sentence: "I won't much be able to use the computer today." Makes me think of "Tell me where is gandalf, for I much desire to speak with him." https://youtu.be/uE-1RPDqJAY?t=74)

For the second sentence, swap the verb and the noun. I don't know why. "It's incredible how the time flies!" Putting the verb before the time might fit in a question: "How flies the time? Like an arrow!"