I wrote a bit of rude reply on my son's English test!

[LinoleumBlownapart]

Now I'm feeling a bit bad and I can't erase it because I wrote in pen, but my son got 8.75 out of 10 on his English as a second language test (we live abroad) but he chose the only right answer and the teacher marked it wrong. I wrote because I thought maybe she wanted the answer in past perfect! On the second page he got another question wrong, I think she wanted him to write "haven't" but he wrote "don't have". But "My parents haven't a lot of money" sounds wrong, but is it? I'm attaching pictures because I'm confusing myself. AIBU to talk to the teacher or should I let it go and not be one of those parents.

the most natural thing to say would be 'my parents don't have much money' wouldn't it?

However don't forget that a lot of English teachers abroad haven't actually spent any time in an English speaking country, so have no clue as what would sound most natural.

honestly the ridiculous unnatural sounding stuff my boss in Czechia used to come out with, and she had Cambridge Proficiency..(a very hard exam)

On the first page you had to use the verb 'have' so I can see why using the verb 'do' was marked wrong.

I'm not sure it matters that you're right. You're still rude.

Seam engine?

You're right. We have the same problem as ds's English is better than his English teacher's but I generally let it go as she is a bit touchy!

" On the first page you had to use the verb 'have' so I can see why using the verb 'do' was marked wrong. "

but 'do' is an auxhiliary verb so you need it here with 'have', as in 'do you have'..
'My parents don't have...'

But anyway correcting teachers is never a good idea...

@Slightlyperturbedowlagain did you see this on social media:

This is Biff. This is Chip.

This is Biff and Chip's homework.
Biff and Chip are required to write down ten examples of fronted adverbials. Biff and Chip have not a fucking clue what a fronted adverbial is.

This is Mum. Mum has not a fucking clue what a fronted adverbial is either. "We don't know what a fronted adverbial is," whinge Biff and Chip. "This homework is impossible. You will have to help us." "It's not my homework, it's your homework," says Mum, thanking her lucky stars that she did not have to engage in any of this fronted adverbial bollocks when she was at school.

This is Dad. Dad still struggles to distinguish between a noun and a verb, and would not know a fronted adverbial if one came up and punched him in the face.

Biff and Chip think for a moment about asking Dad for help.They decide to Google instead.

This is Mrs May. When Mrs May went into teaching she honestly believed she would be able to spend her time helping children to love learning. And putting on plays. Mrs May loves a play. She did not realise that a love of learning would not feature on the National Curriculum at all, and that she would instead be forced to meet a series of impossible and continuously moving goalposts which successive governments would put in place, and have to teach her classes about ridiculous concepts such as fronted adverbials which, in all honesty, are only ever likely to be of use if they end up becoming professors of linguistics. Or primary school teachers. If truth be told, Mrs May has not a fucking clue what a fronted adverbial is either.

This is Floppy the dog. Floppy holds no truck with fronted adverbials. Floppy eats the fronted adverbial homework sheet. Floppy knows that he is a fucking liability, and waits to be told so. No one is more surprised than Floppy when the entire family gather around and tell him "Oh GOOD dog Floppy."

Floppy feels this is proof positive that some good can come from fronted adverbials after all. Later at school, Biff and Chip are, for the first time, able to legitimately use the excuse: "My dog ate my homework."

Mrs May breathes a secret sigh of relief that that is one less set of incomprehensible and entirely incorrect homework that she has to plough through, and suggests to the class that they will all put on a play instead to celebrate.

Did you write “had chosen,” OP?

Because not only is “chose” the only correct answer from those four options, but many people would say that ‘team’ is plural, so it would be have chosen.

Lol at the Biff and Chip article.

"haven't much money" is perfectly correct because you are using the verb "have". whereas "haven't got much money" uses "got" which, if you think about it, is grammatically incorrect, since the situation in the sentence predicated on the possession - and therefore the 'having' - of money. . Simples.

So StormTreader you are wrong to say there is a verb missing - there isn't. Saying " haven't got" is , from a grammatical perspective, clunky and lazy. What you actually mean is "don't have". "Get " is an active, not passive verb.

OP - you are rather vulgar and picky to call the teacher out.

Just think of the TV/Radio show "I'm sorry I haven't a clue". Nowt wrong with that, is there?

Oh man, I’m going to be zero help when my DC get old enough to start asking for help with questions like these.

It’s English, you can basically say or write whatever you want can’t you?

I find these questions sooooo hard .

"Team" is singular btw. Only "teams" is plural.

Some collective nouns, such as team or staff, are treated as plurals in certain situations. It depends!

Now I'm feeling a bit bad and I can't erase it because I wrote in pen
Tippex over it?

she's wrong on both counts, don't be sorry.

If she's going to teach English as a 2nd languge, then she needs to get it right because native speakers WILL pick her up on it.

my parents haven't a lot of money is BAD English. Its either
my parents haven't got a lot of money
or
my parents don't have a lot of money
or at a push
my parents didn't have a lot of money.

Annoyingly it's too small for me to read!

But as a pp says, it's often the case that a verb should be changed & that's all!

English as a second language in another country as a native speaker yourself is rough. I grew up in the US and went to 3rd grade in Turkey where one of the subjects was English. There was a picture of an eraser (rubber) and I obviously wrote down "eraser" which she marked wrong. She was teaching UK English and I spoke American English. My DM had to have a conversation with the teacher as I was extremely upset by the whole thing. Aside from that, it was very annoying that all my classmates wanted to sit next to me during English class.

My nephew has this in Spain. Although born & brought up there, he speaks English at home. My sister is a teacher. DNephew's English teacher can barely speak the language, yet constantly "corrects" him. He has stood up and told her she is wrong but then gets in trouble. Dsis has to go into school to sort it out - rudeness is apparently a worse "crime" than crap teaching. All the kids ask him how to say things, and of course he has a nice line in teaching his peers the most revolting English sayings, which of course the teacher cannot understand.

OP, maybe offer to help in school. That way you are being constructive.

I would say don't have too.

I'm with you OP.

I can’t work out which bits are the teacher and which are your comments. But on the chose / have chosen question - have chosen isn’t correct because team is a singular collective noun. So the team has chosen for the present Perfect or had chosen for the past Perfect. Actually in that sentence the only correct response is ‘the team chose’ because the present Perfect usually requires a time qualifier or some other clause to indicate the continuing time period.

My parents haven't a lot of money to my 2018 ear sounds odd and not good.

However, I used to love black and white films of the 1930s and 1940s, British war films. Those characters would speak like that in that enviable, clipped British accents. Thinking David Niven here (showing my age there)

I know, off topic. I'd say something because I'm that parent.

Your son is correct on both counts. I dont have would be normal usage. We use haven't when we use have as an axillary for example in the present perfect eg I haven't seen the movie yet. It's not wrong but it's old fashioned as I have not any money or I know not of any good reason etc..
Thé second example is definitely chose as it is a defined period of time in the past (the start of the season) and therefore we use the simple past.

Nobody says "My parents haven't a lot of money." It's not wrong - I can imagine Celia Johnson saying it - but nobody actually says that. They say "My parents don't have a lot of money" or "My parents haven't got a lot of money."

In the other one, "chose" is perfectly correct.

If English is your first language, and the teacher's second, then she should probably defer to you.

I think that "the team have chosen" could be correct, although that doesn't necessarily make "chose" incorrect-it depends what they have been taught about team being singular/plural.

I think that in the circs, "haven't" is correct-they were told what words to use!