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Listenever Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

'by' followed by a bare infinitive


At 1:39, a British guy says this, I think:
Go is a game for two players. It's a game of perfect information. So, there's no luck. There's no hidden moves or anything. And the game is played by black and white take it in turns to play smooth. They play smooth on the board, but these stones once placed do not move. But a stone can be captured.

That is what I've transcribed. Is the fifth sentence correctly transcribed? If not, please let me know what's the correct transcription. If it is, does that sentence make sense?
  

Top answer

And the game is played ... by ... black and white take it in turns to place moves .

  • And the game is played ...
  • by ...
  • black and white take it in turns to place moves .
  • They place moves on the board ...
  • The sentence is not properly constructed.
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11 Answers
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And the game is played ... by ... black and white take it in turns to place moves. They place moves on the board ...

The sentence is not properly constructed. He starts out saying one thing and then changes course mid-stream.

I believe "these stones" may actually be "the stones", though it hardly matters.





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Thanks. So, from 'black and white' on it's a well-formed sentence?
Black and white take it in turns to place moves.
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Or alternatively, can the whole thing be fixed by changing 'take' into 'taking'?
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listeneverThanks. So, from 'black and white' on it's a well-formed sentence?Black and white take it in turns to place moves.
Yes.
listeneverOr alternatively, can the whole thing be fixed by changing 'take' into 'taking'?
Yes, though the result is arguably not the greatest sentence ever.
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Thank you. I've got another question.
At 3:07, I hear another British person say:
So these things are generally computers are not great at.
I'm not sure if it's 'are' or 'uh'.
But if it's 'are' something's strange with the sentence structure, I guess.

Do you think it's 'are' or 'uh'?
And does the sentence work as spoken?
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listeneverSo these things are generally computers are not great at.
I think you have correctly transcribed what he said, but it is another faulty sentence. He meant to say something like "So these things are generally things that computers are not great at" but fluffed his words.
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Thanks.
If it was 'uh' instead of 'are', would the sentence be natural?
So these things, uh, generally computers are not great at.
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listeneverThanks.If it was 'uh' instead of 'are', would the sentence be natural?So these things, uh, generally computers are not great at.
It is still not a particularly well-formed sentence, but it works better than what he actually said. It feels like an inverted way of saying "So generally computers are not great at these things", where the speaker said "th
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If the version with 'uh' is better than the one with 'are', how can we be sure that he actually said 'are' there? From the sound of it alone? Or there's something else that tells you that it's 'are'?
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listeneverIf the version with 'uh' is better than the one with 'are', how can we be sure that he actually said 'are' there? From the sound of it alone? Or there's something else that tells you that it's 'are'?
There is not enough room around the syllable. It runs smoothly into the adjacent words, with the rhythm expected for "these things are generally", not t

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