grumbleradded a comment 6 years ago
а после at точно ничего дальше не было?
Go to Questions & Answers
Serge Nepshaasked for translation 6 years ago
How to translate? (en-ru)
When they woke up in the morning, they did not know where they were at.
User translations (2)
Discussion (20)
⦿ ULYadded a comment 6 years ago
In the spoken language, sometimes we add AT like that. But it’s not standard.
⦿ ULYadded a comment 6 years ago
Sergey, are you writing these?
grumbleradded a comment 6 years ago
✅
grumbleradded a comment 6 years ago
- "A huge free online English learning resource"
⦿ ULYadded a comment 6 years ago
Horrible English. Sergey, people who say “where they were AT” belong to a class that is considered somewhat “uneducated.” Furthermore, you don’t LIGHT smoke signals; you LIGHT a fire and SEND OFF smoke signals. This is not a good place to learn English in my opinion.
Serge Nepshaadded a comment 6 years ago
Serge Nepshaadded a comment 6 years ago
etc.
It's American English.
Serge Nepshaadded a comment 6 years ago
Serge Nepshaadded a comment 6 years ago
⦿ ULYadded a comment 6 years ago
It’s too bad you went to the trouble of looking up all those references - I know people say AT with WHERE - I’m American AND a professional translator and editor. Just because people write and say it, doesn’t make it correct. It’s “low colloquial” and not only used by Americans - all English dialects use this and it sounds horrible in all of them. It’s the equivalent of Russian ихний - you could find it in Russian books, but would you recommend I use it as someone learning Russian as a foreign language?
⦿ ULYadded a comment 6 years ago
⦿ ULYadded a comment 6 years ago
⦿ ULYadded a comment 6 years ago
⦿ ULYadded a comment 6 years ago
The reason I asked you above if you were writing all these sentences yourself is that I wanted to compliment you on your English and offer you tips to make it sound more natural. But instead, you looked up references to justify something that STILL sounds horrible. Good luck!
Yuri Skyeadded a comment 5 years ago
I'd say it's pretty common. It's more like a slang phrase than a proper sentence though. In this way, we communicate with regular folk. Politicians use this turn of phrase to seem closer to normal people.
Улий, I understand your confusion, as I began to forget my native language and culture.
Yuri Skyeadded a comment 5 years ago
And it's BY FAR not the equivalent of Russian ихний. No one speaks the way they do on CNN or NBC. So, chill Mr. Proper English
⦿ ULYadded a comment 5 years ago
Hi, Yuri. Very interesting. However, I’m far from confused about this. I know there’s a class that talks like this, but what I was trying to explain to Sergey, who, for some reason is ignoring me, is that it’s not something for a non-native to use. If it sounds uneducated in a native speaker, it would sound downright strange coming from a non-native.
Yuri Skyeadded a comment 5 years ago
It depends, of course. Language is symbolic in that we use it to describe ideas, objects, and feelings. It's important even for a non-native speaker to at least understand the connotation.
After 21 years in New York, I can say that the phrase is not weird by any stretch of the imagination.
⦿ ULYadded a comment 5 years ago
Not weird coming from an American, but highly weird coming from somebody who has acquired English as a second language in a foreign country.