Hi everbody,

How do u address your mother while u talk about her to a freind.Do u keep saying "my mom" or "she"?If i use SHE to address my mom, is this consider rude????

Dorothy

To answer your two questions:

1) Neither, it's "my mum". "My mother" is also fine.
2) Yes.

Depend on the scenario: in normal situations, it is fair to use a pronoun when you have made clear the relationship. You may want to continue to reinforce the fact that she is your mother if:

a) she may be mistaken for your wife
b) the person you are talking to may fancy her.

dave

"She" is fine but don't use it throughout the whole conversation, you can occasionally refer to "Mum" or whatever you call her to her face.

[I suddenly have shuddering memories of teachers saying "She? She?? Who is "She? The cat's mother??"]

'Mum' is the British version.'Mom' is also acceptable.

To whom ? If you are not American, then expect a sideways-glance to the effect of wtf are you talking about, cos it isn't me.

dave

What do they teach them in schools these days, I wonder?

Using a pronoun to the complete exclusion of name or title is cheeky; not using one at all is... eccentric. Identify her clearly (i.e. non-pronominally) at the beginning of the conversation, and then use pronouns just as you normally would with anyone else.

"My mom's just popped out to do the shopping. ___ said ___'d be back by 12, but I guess it must have taken longer than ___ expected."

I`m using it in the conversation.

"My mom`s smoking. She open the window wide in such cold weather".

Don't know what she is doing in the film clip though, sorry bout that.

Whenever I'm talking to my sister I always say, "Your Mum", "Your Grandma", etc.

I never really thought about it until somebody pointed it out and asked if we had separate mothers (we don't). I suppose it's because I'm talking to my sister and unconsciously put things into her perspective.

I'm sure other people must do this, or am I odd...?

People do it when talking to their kids, perhaps to discriminate between grandmother and mother...

You remind me of a Peter Kay sketch where he is describing how Northern shop assistants in shops (like in Greggs bakers!) always count out your change aloud and prefix it with "your":

"Here's your ones, your fifties, your twenties, your tens, your fives, your twos"

dave

Where I come from it is common to refer to family members with the prefix "our", so it's "our Billy", "our Jane", etc.

What is beyond my comprehension is when they say it to your face, "C'mon, our Billy, get your coat on! Our Jane's waiting for you, aren't you, our Jane?"

I suspect that you want to say something like:

"My mom smokes. She opens the window wide even in cold weather"

or

"My mom is smoking. She has opened the window wide in such cold weather."

In otherwords if this is a complaint about something your mom does a lot then it should be in the imperfect. If you're complaining about something she's doing right now then you can use the imperfect, but you have to tweak the related sentence.

Our family does the same thing.... thus since I'm odd* you are too!!




*I prefer eccentric...

The original is correct ( with "opens")

"My Mum's smoking" , is continuous present. This is English.
She (habitually) opens the window wide , even in cold weather.

dave

Weird. I would always use the simple present tense for habitual actions. Perhaps this is a difference between American and standard English?

I have no idea what others do. I speak real English. The purpose of my comment ("This is English") was to highlight that German does not have the continuous present tense...

dave