0
MustAsk Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

A specific wrong...

Hi,

"You're asking a specific wrong person"

Notice 'a' and 'wrong'

I have just recently seen this sentence and I personally would avoid such a construction. Is that sentence grammatically correct?

Thanks!
  

Top answer

Grammatically its fine, although this particular example is a little ugly except in unusual circumstances. eg "Students, I would like to show you a specific wrong answer I received that displays all the issues I was telling you about" d

  • Grammatically its fine, although this particular example is a little ugly except in unusual circumstances.
  • eg "Students, I would like to show you a specific wrong answer I received that displays all the issues I was telling you about" d
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

5 Answers
0
Grammatically its fine, although this particular example is a little ugly except in unusual circumstances.

eg
"Students, I would like to show you a specific wrong answer I received that displays all the issues I was telling you about"

d
0
I was looking up 'deduct' and found this on oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

"Ten points will be deducted for a wrong answer."

Shouldn't it be "the wrong answer" or better yet "an incorrect answer"? Is that a mistake?

Thanks!
0
'the' wrong answer would be if he had mentioned a particular wrong answer:
"Question 3 is especially hard - 10 points will be deducted for the wrong answer"
here the wrong answer is specified (for question 3) - 'a' could also have also been used, as there will likely be many wrong answers possible for the question ("what colour is a sunflower?" there are many wrong answers: red, blue, purp
0
Thanks! Your answer is amazingly detailed! Just one more quick question. Does all of that apply to 'right' too?

"Ten points will be added for a right answer"
0
Yes you can say "a right answer".
There's a theoretical ambiguity with whether this means 10 points for each right answer, or 10 points if you get at least one answer right (ie 5 correct will only get you the same points as 1 correct). Obviously in this example it's expected that it's for each, but in other situations it could perhaps be ambiguous:

But it's nicer instead

Related Questions