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Musicgold Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Are these sentences natural? April 17

Hi,

Are the following sentences natural to a native ear?

1. He came out and told me that they have us down to 12 visits, which he didn’t think was correct. ( I was describing a colleague what our boss said when he saw that we had done only 12 client visits this month, which he didn’t believe)

2. You could smell the weed in the air. ( I was talking about the state of a park)

3. He would break a sweat if he walked from your desk to my desk. ( I was talking about a person’s physical fitness)

Thanks,
MG
  

Top answer

1. He came out and told me that they have us down for 12 visits, which he didn’t think was correct. 2.

— Mister Micawber

  • 1.
  • He came out and told me that they have us down for 12 visits, which he didn’t think was correct.
  • 2.
  • You could smell the weeds in the air.
  • ('the weed' = marijuana).
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5 Answers
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1. He came out and told me that they have us down for 12 visits, which he didn’t think was correct.
2. You could smell the weeds in the air. ('the weed' = marijuana).
3. He would break into a sweat if he walked from your desk to my desk.
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Thanks MM.
Mister Micawber 2. You could smell the weeds in the air. ('the weed' = marijuana).
I wanted to convey that there was a smell of marijuana in the air. I am not sure if I should use 'the' before 'weed' in the original sentence.

Thanks.
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You mean that you were really talking about mary jane?! Then go back to your original:

You could smell the weed in the air.
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Thanks. One more follow up. Do the following sentences convey different meanings?

4a. You could smell the weed in the air.
4b. You could smell weed in the air.
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Not really, but with 4a the speaker more likely expects that the listener knows marijuana is smoked in the park.
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