Does the sentence "My English is poor" sound right to you? What is the best way to express the same idea?
First, from the aspect of grammaticality or idiomaticity:"My ... is poor" isn't very idiomatic in English."My swimming is poor" well... "I'm a poor swimmer" or "I'm not a very good swimmer" might be better."My Maths is poor"... How about "I'm not very good at Maths" or "I'm poor at Maths" or "My Maths isn't very good"?"My speaking skills are poor"... How about "I'm a poor speaker" or "I'm not good at speaking"?"My jokes are poor"... more like, "I don't tell very good jokes" or "I'm not good at telling jokes" or "I'm poor at telling jokes".In each case, using "poor" as a predicative adjective is not very idiomatic. The more idiomatic alternatives are to say "I'm poor at...", "I'm not good at...", "My ... isn't very good". Alternatives are "My ... is terrible", "I'm hopeless at...", but that could only be used by a very good English speaker!If you want to include slangy expressions, you might say "My English sucks" --- but if your English was good enough to say that, you wouldn't need to say it at all!Second, from the cultural or sociolinguistic aspect:As Mikhail points out, you need to consider other aspects. Telling people your English is poor is just a statement; saying it won't necessarily get the effect that you want. If you say "My English is poor" or "My English is terrible" you might only succeed in getting people to say "No, your English is fine! Better than mine!", but that's not what you want.If you want the other person to be aware that you're still struggling with English and to make allowances for that, there are probably better ways of putting it. For instance, "Sorry, I haven't been learning English for very long, could you (...say that again please, ... slow down a bit, etc.)" or even "I'm still just learning English". If you want to signal that your expression may be awkward or you're not sure if you will be taken the right way, you might say "Sorry, I'm not sure how to say this in English but..."And in fact, if your English is really that "poor", people will pick up on it quite quickly. It may not be necessary to say anything at all.
Do these sentences make sense?
They all make sense, but I suspect what you're really after is which sentences are grammatically superior, or perhaps which is the most succinct. I will address each sentence by number. 1. This is fine. 2. You can probably drop the "had", depending on your intentions for the sentence's meaning. 3. This is a little awkward. You can probably replace "had been looking" with "appeared", or "appeared to be". 4. Once again this seems a bit stilted and awkward. The "had" could be dropped and achieve the same meaning. 5. This is fine. 6. This works as well, but in my opinion sentence #5 sounds a bit more natural. 7. I would rephrase to "I have been receiving the magazine for some time and enjoy reading it immensely." You can also drop the word "reading" to make it more succinct. Remember, if a sentence doesn't sound right when you read it out loud, it should probably be changed. Also it is best to drop any unnecessary words whenever possible. This makes the whole sentence flow better.
Does this sentence make sense... I translated this myself into french?
la statistiquement pour la population de la ville de quebec est 537,088 est prouve dans l'annee 2007. the statistics for the population of quebec is proven to be 537,088 in the year 2007. i think that's better sounding.
What is the basis of GOOD WRITING? what does this sentence mean?
Good writing is hard to define, but when you read it, you know it. And it varies by the type of writing it is. Obviously a well-written poem is going to look different from a well-written news article. In general, good writing makes it as easy as possible for the reader to understand what the writer is saying. "Good writing" can be a very individual thing--what books have you enjoyed reading? Chances are you wouldn't have enjoyed them if they weren't well-written.
English help!! please, does this sentence sound accurate? ?
"Everyone gets SCOFF at now and then," Lynn said. "You just have to be RESILIENT enough to bounce back after a facetious remark" Does this sentences make sense? its fill in the blank with the given words, so the capital words are the ones I put.
How can I use the word tenuous in a sentence?
You used tenuous in a sentence very well. Hey, so did I! Seriously, I just used Answers.com and found a wide variety of ways to use the word "tenuous". Have fun. Oh yes, an example, When having a tenuous argument, you have little substance, a flimsey argument.