"It is shocked of me to fail."

Question

"It is shocked of me to fail."Is this okay to use? Or it should be "It is shocking for me to fail"? I think that both are possible because "It is kind of you to help me" is commonly used and "it is interesting for you to do that" is also commonly heard. And then, Do you feel meaning difference between them?Thank you so much as usual and have a good and happy day.

An0nymous · Accepted Answer

"It is shocked of me to fail." is more or less understandable, but this is ungrammatical.

"It is shocking for me to fail." is correct.

The following are okay:

It is shocking of me to fail.

It shocked me to fail.

It shocks me to fail.

It is shocking that I failed.

It shocked me that I failed.

This is an interesting question, because if 7 sentences above are okay, then why not, "It is shocked of me to fail.", given that it is more or less understandable? There's no way to explain this easily. The best answer I can give is that "It is shocked of me to fail." is just not used in English and is therefore considered ungrammatical.

CalifJim · Answer

Hans51"It is shocked of me to fail."Is this okay to use?

No. The grammatical pattern is

It [is/was] [ (personality) trait descriptor ] of [ person ] to [ verb ...].

The meaning is that, in the assessment of the speaker, the person can be (or should be) described by the trait descriptor because he has performed the act expressed by the verb (and what follows it).

The trait descriptor, always an adjective, can be positive (e.g., kind, nice, considerate, big, gracious, prudent, good, sweet, decent, brave, brilliant) or negative (e.g., silly, childish, selfish, unrealistic, unfair, presumptuous, irresponsible, dishonest, unreasonable, disingenuous, hypocritical, cowardly).

It is considerate of you to help me. (You are helping me. That shows that you are a considerate person.)
It was brave of him to say that. (He said that. That shows that he is a brave man.)
It's dishonest of them to do things like that. (They do things like that. That shows that they are dishonest people.)

shocked is a temporary state, not a personality trait, so it doesn't work within this grammatical pattern. shocking isn't a personality trait either, by the way.

CJ

"It is shocked of me to fail."

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