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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Grammar issue
Hi,
I would like to ask about two sentences I've recently encountered in test.
1.)We had expected that they ___ fluent English, but in fact they didn’t.
A The correct option was "would speak". But I don't know why It can not be "spoke" as well.
B I assume that past perfect is optional and it would suffice to use past simple.
C If I transform this sentence into present time except the second part(but in fact ...) It will look like this:
We expect that they (will) speak fluent English. - is it OK? Can I use "we are expecting"?
2.)What ___ this weekend, Peter?
Would it be OK, in terms of grammar, If I say "will you do"? The correct option was "are you doing" which is definetly OK with me. But in my opinion, this question is related to the future events so It should be possible and acceptable to use "will you do" as well.
I would be grateful If you answer any of these questions. I'm interested in answers from a grammatical point of view. I'm not looking for the most appropriate options.
Thank you very much
Martin
I would like to ask about two sentences I've recently encountered in test.
1.)We had expected that they ___ fluent English, but in fact they didn’t.
A The correct option was "would speak". But I don't know why It can not be "spoke" as well.
B I assume that past perfect is optional and it would suffice to use past simple.
C If I transform this sentence into present time except the second part(but in fact ...) It will look like this:
We expect that they (will) speak fluent English. - is it OK? Can I use "we are expecting"?
2.)What ___ this weekend, Peter?
Would it be OK, in terms of grammar, If I say "will you do"? The correct option was "are you doing" which is definetly OK with me. But in my opinion, this question is related to the future events so It should be possible and acceptable to use "will you do" as well.
I would be grateful If you answer any of these questions. I'm interested in answers from a grammatical point of view. I'm not looking for the most appropriate options.
Thank you very much
Martin
Top answer
Hello Martin, 1. We had expected that they spoke fluent English, but in fact they didn't. 2.
- Hello Martin, 1.
- We had expected that they spoke fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
- 2.
- We expected that they spoke fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
- 3.
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2 Answers
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Hello Martin,
1. We had expected that they spoke fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
2. ?We expected that they spoke fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
3. We had expected that they would speak fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
4. We expected that they would speak fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
I would accept #1 too: whereas
1. We had expected that they spoke fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
2. ?We expected that they spoke fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
3. We had expected that they would speak fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
4. We expected that they would speak fluent English, but in fact they didn't.
I would accept #1 too: whereas
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Hi Martin,
We had expected that they would speak fluent English, but in fact they didn’t.
To my ear, it means that we expected that they would speak fluent English during a particular time in the future(like a meeting), which can be influenced by some extralinguistic factors (for example, when someone is intoxicated they usually have problems speaking
We had expected that they would speak fluent English, but in fact they didn’t.
To my ear, it means that we expected that they would speak fluent English during a particular time in the future(like a meeting), which can be influenced by some extralinguistic factors (for example, when someone is intoxicated they usually have problems speaking
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