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Tomtocvang9193 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Be to Verb
Oop, anyone can tell me what does this sentence mean?
"We are not in a way to know WHAT Mr. Bingley likes since we are not to visit." and that structure " be to Verb".
Thanks a lot.
"We are not in a way to know WHAT Mr. Bingley likes since we are not to visit." and that structure " be to Verb".
Thanks a lot.
Top answer
"we are not to visit" = we are not allowed/permitted to visit
- "we are not to visit" = we are not allowed/permitted to visit
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6 Answers
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Hi tomtocvang, and welcome to the forums.
You're reading one of my favorite books, but you will probably find some of the language challenging because the style of speech is different than it is today.
You're reading one of my favorite books, but you will probably find some of the language challenging because the style of speech is different than it is today.
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tomtocvang9193... that structure " be to Verb".I find that the most usual meaning of "be to" is understood by placing "supposed" before "to". In this case, however, I agree with Mr Wordy that inserting "permitted" gets closer to the meaning.
CJ
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Yeah!thanks everyone for yours help.
Following Mr Wordy, that sentence means "not allow to visit".But I think it's not suitable in this case very much.I found some sentences like that, for example: "He is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week."
I think it's a same structure but it doesn't m
Following Mr Wordy, that sentence means "not allow to visit".But I think it's not suitable in this case very much.I found some sentences like that, for example: "He is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week."
I think it's a same structure but it doesn't m
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Thanks everyone for yours helps.
Following Mr Wordy that sentence means "not allowed to visit" but I think that it's not suitable in this case very much.
I found some sentences like that, for example:"He is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week."
I think it's a same structure but it doe
Following Mr Wordy that sentence means "not allowed to visit" but I think that it's not suitable in this case very much.
I found some sentences like that, for example:"He is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week."
I think it's a same structure but it doe
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tomtocvang9193Following Mr Wordy that sentence means "not allowed to visit" but I think that it's not suitable in this case very much.I thought afterwards that I should also have suggested: "It has been decided that we won't visit." The degree of external prohibition (as implied by "permitted", "allowed") is actually somewhat ambiguous to me.
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