このレストランは英語の使い方に注意した方が良い。

I was in Kunitachi the other day and noticed this sign. It says:

× 100% New Zealand Beef, The whole day with rice.
○ serving 100% New Zealand beef with rice, all day

The main problem here is the word order.

• word order 語順 (definition from Eijiro)

If you follow a noun with a prepositional phrase, it sometimes can sound like the prepositional phrase is describing the noun.

• prepositional phrase 前置詞句 (definition from Eijiro)

This restaurant's phrase is hard to understand. It sounds like there are days with rice and days without rice, which would mean:

• On days with rice, we serve 100 percent New Zealand beef all day.

That means they aren't serving the New Zealand beef on the days without rice. I'm pretty sure that isn't what they mean, but I didn't go in to check. I'm a vegetarian, so my interest in the restaurant doesn't go beyond the sign.

• one's interest doesn't go beyond [noun] ～にしか興味を示さない

The other thing to remember is that after the verb, a common order is to put time last, after manner and place, like:

• I'm in my classroom on the sixth floor right now. <- place = sixth floor; time = now

If I look out the window, I can see the water on the street and umbrellas in people's hands. The smartphone on my desk is kind of dirty. The fingerprints on the screen are mine, and I don't really know how to avoid smudging the screen like that. My stomach is growling in my belly on this typical Wednesday evening, so I'd better finish up this post and go eat some dinner.

「familiar」の使い方

When a student made this mistake, it seemed familiar. Other students have made similar mistakes.

× I felt something familar with you.
○ I felt something familiar about you. <- I felt I had seen you before. Somehow, I knew something about you.

Look at some definitions from 英辞郎 on the web:

familiar with《be ～》～をよく知っている、～に詳しい［精通｛せいつう｝している・通じている］、～を熟知｛じゅくち｝している、～の勝手｛かって｝を知っている、～に慣れ親しんでいる、～になじんでいる、～となじみのある
・The user must be thoroughly familiar with its function before printing out. : 《マニュアル》印刷作業を開始する前に各機能について完全に理解しておいてください。

familiar (adj) おなじみの、精通｛せいつう｝している、よく知られている、（～に）通じている、（～の）様子｛ようす｝を知っている、造詣｛ぞうけい｝が深い、心当たりがある
・I thought the voice sounded familiar. : 聞き覚えのある［どこかで聞いたことのある］声だと思いました。

Now that you know that, you can say:

× I am familiar about it.
○ I am familiar with it. <- I know of it.

I know prepositions are tricky, but they can change the meaning of your sentence. Be careful! The more familiar you are with these expressions, the better your English will be.

Be careful -- some words have prepositions inside of them. (part 2)

In the post below, I talked about these words:

• abroad, aboard, there, here, inside, outside

They act like they have prepositions in them. That means that frequently (though not always) we don't use them with a preposition after a verb. However, that's tricky, and leads people to make this kind of mistake:

• × I'm going to there tomorrow.
• × Have you ever been to abroad?

The correct way to make these sentences is:

• ○ I'm going there tomorrow. <- I'm going to that place tomorrow.
• ○ Have you ever been abroad? <- Have you ever been to a place which is outside of this country?

I'm out of vegetables and other ingredients I need for tonight's dinner. I think I'll have to go to two different supermarkets to get everything I need. I didn't want to go outside while it was hot, so I'm going there in just a bit. Talk to you all later!

Be careful -- some words have prepositions inside of them.

Yesterday I was talking to someone about an association which he is managing. He's making a website, and he wanted to make a list of all of the members in the organization who are living outside of Japan. For the title of the list, he wanted something short and clear. The question then was:

• Which is correct: "abroad members" or "members abroad"?

My answer is that "members abroad" is correct. The reason is that the word "abroad" is one of the words in English that behaves like it has a preposition at the beginning. "Abroad" means "at a place which is outside of this country". When we use a prepositional phrase to modify a noun, we put it after the noun:

• a house in the country
• a trip to the beach
• a rest for my tired brain

Since "members" is a noun, we should put "abroad" after it. Technically, "abroad" is an adverb. If you think about it this way, the true meaning of "members abroad" is "members who are living abroad", and "who are living" has been omitted.

You can use the same pattern with these words: abroad, aboard, there, here, inside, outside.

• The people aboard the plane were examined for swine flu.
• I've been reading about Mexico in the news. The people there seem afraid of swine flu.
• The people here are also worried about it.
• The people inside might have more to fear, because the air circulation is bad.
• The people outside are the safest, maybe.