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Johnson13 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
English idiom
In a certain language in Asia, when people, including myself, want to do some grammatical explanation, they, by my literal translation, tend to say something like this: (the following by Johnson)
-The sentence A lady, beautiful, sailed across the room is grammatically correct, but according to English idiom, if in this case the writer doesn't choose to use A beautiful lady sailed..., then there should be two adjectives to make it balanced, like A lady, beautiful and elegant, sailed across the room.
The intended meaning of according to English idiom is according to the usual way native speakers use English, but is it common/natural/idiomatic English to say according to English idiom in grammatical explanation?
Thank you.
-The sentence A lady, beautiful, sailed across the room is grammatically correct, but according to English idiom, if in this case the writer doesn't choose to use A beautiful lady sailed..., then there should be two adjectives to make it balanced, like A lady, beautiful and elegant, sailed across the room.
The intended meaning of according to English idiom is according to the usual way native speakers use English, but is it common/natural/idiomatic English to say according to English idiom in grammatical explanation?
Thank you.
Top answer
" is the most typical way to say this in English. " would be infrequently heard, but would be okay in certain specific contexts. For example, if her beauty was so well-established that calling her "a beautiful lady" would sound redundant.
- " is the most typical way to say this in English.
- " would be infrequently heard, but would be okay in certain specific contexts.
- For example, if her beauty was so well-established that calling her "a beautiful lady" would sound redundant.
- " is correct, but the meaning here is not quite the same as the first sentence.
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2 Answers
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"A beautiful lady sailed across the room." is the most typical way to say this in English.
"A lady, beautiful, sailed across the room." would be infrequently heard, but would be okay in certain specific contexts. For example, if her beauty was so well-established that calling her "a beautiful lady" would sound redundant. So here you kind of put the word "beauty" as a "footnote."
"A lady, beautiful, sailed across the room." would be infrequently heard, but would be okay in certain specific contexts. For example, if her beauty was so well-established that calling her "a beautiful lady" would sound redundant. So here you kind of put the word "beauty" as a "footnote."
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The intended meaning of according to English idiom is according to the usual way native speakers use English, but is it common/natural/idiomatic English to say according to English idiom in grammatical explanation?
No, not those exact words.
But we commonly say that some phrase or sentence is natur
No, not those exact words.
But we commonly say that some phrase or sentence is natur
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