Sentence-Construction – How English-Speaking Kids Loudly Request Something

sentence-construction

Yesterday, I was teaching my daughter English. She didn't want to study. She just spoke loudly, and said, in Chinese:

"I strongly demand an ice cream stick!"

I told her, if she could say this sentence in English I would buy one for her, but even I couldn't compose this sentence in English.

So, how do English kids speak of that?

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(I'm not sure what these are called in English.)

Best Answer

Tone

10 years ESL in a Mandarin-speaking country, that is the "authority" I answer from. (SE wants 'sources', which accepts personal experience, though cited sources is the common habit.)

Your question is about Mandarin speakers understanding English communication.

In addressing the title of the question, not the synonyms of an ice cream bar, the issue is tone.

In Mandarin, the 4 (or 5) tones provide a lexical meaning. But, in English, tone is a song invented on the spot, without rehearsal or awareness.

It is in the tone, the "song of the sentence" if you will, that an English speaker would emphasize the idea of including "strongly demand" in Mandarin. Just the shortened terms "ice cream [bar]" or "chocolate [bar]" in an emphatic, song-like tone would do it.

For native Mandarin speakers, that is difficult because the English song tone is not instructed; it is culturally absorbed. How to teach English tone through immersion is a different Question. But, in my experienced opinion with your situation, tone provides the meaning you seek more than any pattern of words.

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