Are these sentences natural? March 4

Question

Hi,Are the following sentences natural to a native ear? 1. You know who this analysis would be useful for, it would be John.2. I wanted to go to some place small. ( I was talking about my last vacation)3. …and wanted to tell you all what these guys would look like when they would be fully grown. Thanks, MG

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

All three sentences are okay grammatically, but they sound maybe a little bit off to a native ear - at least to my native ear. In the context that these are apparently said in, they don't seem to be how most native speakers would typically speak.

1. A native speaker would probably say this as: "You know who this analysis would be useful to? John."

2. If you're talking about your last vacation, you'd probably say this as: "I wanted to go somewhere where there weren't a lot of crowds." The problem with "somewhere small" is that the word "small" has strong connotations in English, all negative, so you wouldn't use it in this context.

3. The phrase "...and wanted to tell you what these guys would look like when they're fully grown." doesn't seem to make sense if you're talking about humans. You might say this about puppies, or other young animals, however.

Are these sentences natural? March 4

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