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Victorycountry Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

I envy you ...

0Hi,02br
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00Many english learners tend to use phrases like "I envy you your ability to speak English well!". But I don't really think the "envy" is used among native speakers like that.02br
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00So I am just wondering how you say in a case that someone has an ability that you don't have, so you are impressed because you also wanted to have such an ability.02br
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00Thanks in advance. 0-
  

Top answer

0 I use it that way, VC--- and I envy a lot of people (for) a lot of things. It's one of the ditransitive verbs that work both ways. 02br 0-

— Mister Micawber

  • 0 I use it that way, VC--- and I envy a lot of people (for) a lot of things.
  • It's one of the ditransitive verbs that work both ways.
  • 02br 0-
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4 Answers
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0 I use it that way, VC--- and I envy a lot of people (for) a lot of things. It's one of the ditransitive verbs that work both ways. The 'I envy you your...' seems to me the most common case for dropping the 'for'.02br
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You could also say: "I wish I could do that", "I wish I had a voice like that", "I wish I had your voice", "I wish I could do XYZ like you".

MrP
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We also say "I'm (really) jealous of your ..."
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My ESL teacher said "I envy you is too direct expression and we don't use it usually. I heard it many times in Korea and it was wired." So I think native English speaker use it rarely as you said.
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