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Tuongvan Posted 18 years ago
Grammar
It was to have been John
Dear teachers ,
Please help correct my translation below::
Situation : Last month the company managenent planned to appoint John the marketing manager , but for some reason ,they changed their mind and appointed Alice marketing manager.
So can I say this to Alice ?:
1/ John was to have been appointed marketing manager , not you .
And can I say this to one of my friends ?:
2/ It was to have been John who was appointed marketing manager , not Alice ,
Please correct me
Thank you in advance
Please help correct my translation below::
Situation : Last month the company managenent planned to appoint John the marketing manager , but for some reason ,they changed their mind and appointed Alice marketing manager.
So can I say this to Alice ?:
1/ John was to have been appointed marketing manager , not you .
And can I say this to one of my friends ?:
2/ It was to have been John who was appointed marketing manager , not Alice ,
Please correct me
Thank you in advance
Top answer
These are both beautiful, maybe a little too much so 1 is fine. " is a lot of little words to keep straight, even for native speakers. In fact, you'd probably hear, "John was going to be appointed marketing manager, not you" for number 1, too.
- These are both beautiful, maybe a little too much so 1 is fine.
- " is a lot of little words to keep straight, even for native speakers.
- In fact, you'd probably hear, "John was going to be appointed marketing manager, not you" for number 1, too.
- " HTH
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6 Answers
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These are both beautiful, maybe a little too much so 
1 is fine.
2 is also correct, but it would be more usual to
1 is fine.
2 is also correct, but it would be more usual to
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Hi, Delmobile.
Tuongvan wrote:
So can I say this to Alice ?:
1/ John was to have been appointed marketing manager , not you .
To this, you said 'fine'. Could this be fine too?
John was to be appointed marketing manager, not you.
Tuongvan wrote:
So can I say this to Alice ?:
1/ John was to have been appointed marketing manager , not you .
To this, you said 'fine'. Could this be fine too?
John was to be appointed marketing manager, not you.
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Okay, now I'm in over my head. Both sentences are correct, and either would work in your situation, but obviously there is a very slight difference between "was to have been" and "was to be." (If I knew more about grammar, I could label the tenses with their proper names, but I can't.)
Help!
Help!
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Another alternative, but with a less clear sequence of tenses, perhaps:
2/ It was John who should have been appointed marketing manager , not Alice.
2/ It was John who should have been appointed marketing manager , not Alice.
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TuongvanSo can I say this to Alice ?:You can say it to Alice; but Alice might be offended. It sounds very much as if John was your preferred candidate.
1/ John was to have been appointed marketing manager , not you .
If you don't want to offend Alice, but don't want to be entirely untruthful, you can say e.g.
2. At
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