2/24/2016

Who is the next?

My husband also had a fever yesterday morning.

I told him:

"I am sure that you caught the flu from her! Don't go to the office today and go to see a doctor in the evening, so that  you can be checked out to see if you have type B flu."
"Oh no! What am I going to do?"

"You are too busy, but I think you shouldn't worry about your work and ask your coworkers to handle your tasks. In a way, maybe this is a good opportunity for you to take a rest."

My 5-year-old daughter's fever was lower by the morning, so she could stay awake and eat.

Since I had a day off yesterday, I took care of them all day but it was not so hard for me.

My 7-year-old son came home at 3:20pm from school and said:

"Oh, all of family members are at home except me today! I envy my sister. She doesn't have to go to school."

Then he went to the park near our house with a friend.


In a while after going to bed, my daughter suddenly started crying and said:

"I can't breathe because my nose is stuffed up! And I am cold!"

She panicked.

Since she didn't take a bath because he had a slight fever again before going to bed, I took a bath with her to let her get warm.

After we got out of the bath, she fell asleep soon.

But she woke up several times and cried.

Her fever was over 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the middle of the night.

She said:

"I want to stay with mom! Don't go anywhere!"

I called our team leader and asked her if I could take a day off today.

I do hope that they will recover the flu soon and my son and me will not catch the flu from them, so we always have to wear masks.


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4 comments:

  1. Hello Kumi-san,

    It seems that unfortunately you are still having to deal with the flu outbreak. Still once everyone has had the flu you and your family are I think less likely to get it again, at least if it is the same strain of flu.

    I hope your husband and daughter make a quick recovery. I hate having congested breathing. I find that a hot bath or shower tends to help a lot. Although with flu it is just a temporary respite.

    Here is a list of some of the issues found with the post:

    This line:
    "I am sure that you caught the flu from her! Don't go to the office today and go to see a doctor in evening, so that you will be diagnosed with the flu of type B."

    Should be:
    "I am sure that you caught the flu from her! Don't go to the office today and go to see a doctor in the evening, so that you can be checked out to see if you have type B flu."

    This line:
    "You are too busy, but I think you don't worry about your work and ask your coworkers to handle your tasks. In a way, maybe this is a good opportunity for you to take a rest."

    Should be:
    "You are too busy, but I think you shouldn't worry about your work and ask your coworkers to handle your tasks. In a way, maybe this is a good opportunity for you to take a rest."

    This line:
    My 5-year-old daughter's fever went down in the morning, so she could stay awake and eat.

    Should be:
    My 5-year-old daughter's fever was lower by the morning, so she could stay awake and eat.

    This line:
    After we got out of the bath, she could fell asleep soon.

    Should be:
    After we got out of the bath, she fell asleep soon.

    This line:
    I called our team leader and asked her to take a day off today.

    Should be:
    I called our team leader and asked her if I could take a day off today.

    Reason: As written in your original sentence it reads as if you are asking your team leader to take the day off (request that your team leader not go to work), which I assume you did not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Terry.
      Thank you for your correstions!

      About this line:


      This line:
      After we got out of the bath, she could fell asleep soon.

      Should be:
      After we got out of the bath, she fell asleep soon.

      I sometimes mistake the usage of "could".
      We say the sentence in Japanese:
      彼女はすぐに眠ることができました。

      The Japanese sentence includes a nuance that my daughter had trouble getting to sleep even though she was sleepy, but she could finally fall asleep.
      And "できました" means "can" or "be able to".
      That's why I can't help using could in such kinds of sentences.

      What is the difference between using could and not?

      Delete
  2. Hi Kumi-san,

    In the original sentence you wrote:

    After we got out of the bath, she could fell asleep soon.

    The reason that I removed could was because could can be translated to "be able" and if you then replace could with the past tense version "was able to (in the past)" in your sentence you get:

    After we got out of the bath, she was able to fell asleep soon.

    The problem with the above sentence is that you have one past tense phrase "was able to" and then the very next word is another past tense word "fell". What generally happens in English is that when you have part of a sentence in Past Tense the next set of words will be in Present Tense, because you have already indicated that what ever thing is happening is in the past you don't need to include that information in the next word "fell" and so you just use present tense "fall".

    For example:

    I was able to swim. (In this sentence I use past tense was able, and present tense to swim)
    I swam (Here I have to use the past tense version of swim because the earlier part of the sentence doesn't mention weather it was past/present or future, so I had to specifically say by selecting the right version of the verb swim.)

    So with the your sentence as it is now it is not quite right we need to take the past tense version of fell and change it to present tense:

    After we got out of the bath, she was able to fall asleep soon.

    The above sentence sounds natural. And since we can replace the words "was able to" with could, you end up with with:

    After we got out of the bath, she could fall asleep soon.

    In your post you asked what was the difference between could and not. If I misinterpreted what you are asking then please let me know.

    Could as you have already mentioned can translate to "be able to" or just "be able".

    So the following sentences are very similar:

    I could eat ice cream
    I am able to eat ice cream

    But the word could can (but doesn't always) also has a slight implication that you are able to do something but that you may or may not choose not to.

    For example:

    I could eat 10 cakes (but I may or may not do so)
    I am able to eat 10 cakes (but I may or may not do so)

    If you wanted to make the sentence more definitive and say that you really fully intend to eat 10 cakes you would write:

    I will eat 10 cakes (almost certain you will do what you say)

    The word could can also be used in present or future or past tense.

    For example:

    I could go to store (future tense you may/may not, go to the store)
    I could hear a strange noise (past tense, you previously heard a noise)
    I heard a strange noise (past tense, this time we got rid of could and changed the word hear to its past tense version heard)

    The word not is the negation word in English, it turns words and actions into the opposites:

    The water is hot (Sentence can be rewritten as The water is not cold)
    The water is not hot (Sentence can be rewritten as The water is cold)
    The water is cold (Sentence can be rewritten as The water is not hot)
    The water is not cold (Sentence can be rewritten as The water is hot)
    The journey was long (Sentence can be rewritten as The journey was not short)
    The journey was not long (Sentence can be rewritten as The journey was short)

    The words "could not" effectively translate to "unable to" or "not able to"

    For example:

    I could not open the door
    I was unable to open the door.

    If the meaning of your sentence was that your daughter was tired but even so she was unable to sleep until she had a bath then the sentence could be written as:

    My daughter was tired but unable to sleep, after we had a bath she was able to sleep.

    Since your English skills are very advanced I am assuming that you already knew what "not" and "could" words mean, so apologies if I misunderstood the question and gave an answer that was not what you asked for.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also forgot to mention that for the most part native English people don't memorize the rules above we just know it sounds wrong in certain situations. So it is almost certainly going to be more productive to just read a lot of sentences until you spot the pattern of how we use such words. Trying to formalize them with rules only works sometimes and not others. So it basically comes down to experience.

    ReplyDelete