Choosing Tense and Tone in a Host-Family Email
A Grade 9 student in Yerevan is writing an email to a host family in Manchester. The student has met the host mother, Mrs Whitfield, once. The draft says: 'I live here since 2019. Next Friday I will come to your house at 6. Can you borrow me a bike for the weekend? I am very excited.' The school style guide says: use the present perfect for states that continue from the past; use the present continuous for fixed future arrangements; 'borrow' means take something and return it, while 'lend' means give something temporarily. The host mother signs her emails 'Jane' but the student wants to sound polite and friendly.
1. Correct the three numbered problems in the draft and explain each correction using the style guide or the meaning contrast.
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- 'I live here since 2019' → 'I have lived here since 2019.' The state began in the past and continues now, so the present perfect is required by the style guide.
- 'I will come' → 'I am coming.' The visit is a fixed arrangement for next Friday, so the present continuous is the better future form here.
- 'Can you borrow me a bike?' → 'Can you lend me a bike?' The host family gives the bike temporarily; the student takes and returns it. The giver lends; the receiver borrows.
2. Choose the opening and closing for the email: 'Dear Mrs Whitfield' / 'Hi Jane' and 'Best wishes' / 'Cheers'. Justify your choice for a first email to an adult host.
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Choose 'Dear Mrs Whitfield' and 'Best wishes.' This is a first email to an adult the student has met only once, so the safer polite form is appropriate. 'Hi Jane' and 'Cheers' are friendly but assume a familiarity the student has not yet established; they could be used later if Mrs Whitfield invites that tone. The student can still sound warm by adding a friendly sentence after the formal opening.
3. The student wants to add: 'I am looking forward to meet you.' Is it correct? If not, fix it and explain the pattern.
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Not correct. The phrase is 'I am looking forward to meeting you.' In 'look forward to', 'to' is a preposition, so it is followed by a noun or a gerund (-ing form), not the base verb. 'Meet' would be correct only if 'to' were an infinitive marker, which it is not here.