Grammar help please?

Question

Hi there,Could you please check for me if I have used these words correctly in these following sentences?I have an urge / an impulse to have it done. ("a sudden strong wish to", both words share the same meaning here?)Goods were transferred / transited from this van to another a ship. (Both words share the same meaning here?)Cheers

John Aki · Accepted Answer

Sorry there was a typo on the previous post, this one is a correction.

Goods were transferred / transited from this van to another ship. (Both words share the same meaning here?)

Cheers

Anonymous · Answer

John AkiI have an urge / an impulse to have it done. ("a sudden strong wish to", both words share the same meaning here?)

The meaning is similar, but the idiom is different. You can have an urge, but you don't have an impulse. You feel an impulse. You can feel an urge, but it is more often "feel the urge". There are more nuances, too many to be sure I have covered them all.

John AkiGoods were transferred / transited from this van to another a ship. (Both words share the same meaning here?)

"Transferred" is unremarkable in this context. "Transit" is not good unless there is some connotation of "across", "through", and in the rare passive, the thing moved is not transited, the extent it moves across is.

CalifJim · Answer

John Aki
Could you please check for me if I have used these words correctly in these following sentences?

I have an urge / an impulse to have it done. ("a sudden strong wish to", both words share the same meaning here?)
In my opinion "urge" is better.
Goods were transferred / transited from this van to a ~~another~~ ship. (Both words share the same meaning here?) [ The corrected form was inserted here. ] See below.

An urge is more visceral than an impulse. It comes from within the world of human emotions. Impulses are decisions made without thinking or planning. Emotions are less involved in the case of impulses.

We generally use the expressions "have an urge to do something" and "do something on an impulse".

More examples:

He had an urge to do something new.
The artist had an urge to stop and make a sketch.
Sometimes my sister gets an urge to have a smoothie.

Remorse is not uncommon after buying something on an impulse.
I hadn't spoken to Mark for two years but an impulse made me ring him.
We need politicians who are honest and act out of an impulse to serve the people.

'transfer' is a transitive verb; therefore it takes an object.
'transit' is an intransitive verb; therefore it does not take an object.

They transferred goods from this van to a ship. OK.
They transited goods from this van to a ship. NO.

So the passive is not possible for 'transit':

Goods were transferred from this van to a ship. OK.
Goods were transited from this van to a ship. NO.

With 'transit' all you have is

Goods transited from this van to a ship. OK. (No 'were'.)

[There are some uses of 'transit' that are transitive, but not in this sentence.]

CJ

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