Are the sentences natural?
Hi, dear all. I wrote the following sentence at the beginning of a recommendation letter.
I have been an acquaintance of Mr. XX for many years.
I got criticized and told that a more natural version should be "I have been acquainted with Mr. XX for many years."
Do you think my sentence is unnatural? If it is, why? If it is not, what would be the difference between the two versions?
Thank you.
Top answer
zuotengdazuo Do you think my sentence is unnatural? No, but many people would like a possessive there for grammaticality: "I have been an acquaintance of Mr. " The elaborateness of this is not ideal in my book, and "an acquaintance of" sounds a little like you are trying to hide your real relationship with a word you couldn't define if you were asked to.
- zuotengdazuo Do you think my sentence is unnatural?
- No, but many people would like a possessive there for grammaticality: "I have been an acquaintance of Mr.
- " The elaborateness of this is not ideal in my book, and "an acquaintance of" sounds a little like you are trying to hide your real relationship with a word you couldn't define if you were asked to.
- I know I couldn't.
- zuotengdazuo I got criticized and told that a more natural version whould be zuotengdazuo "I have been acquainted with Mr.
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zuotengdazuoDo you think my sentence is unnatural?
No, but many people would like a possessive there for grammaticality: "I have been an acquaintance of Mr. XX's for many years." The elaborateness of this is not ideal in my book, and "an acquaintance of" sounds a little like you are trying to hide your real relationship with a word you couldn't define if yo
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