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Marold Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

One sentence correction

I would like to ask you if you could come up with any verbs appropriate for the sentence below (it relates to the collocation - verb + certificate).

"I have obtained /earned/acquired/got/gained/procured/attained a Cambridge CPE certificate."

Which ones of these listed above would fit the sentence?

Thanks in advance.
  

Top answer

Marold Which ones of these listed above would fit the sentence? The only one I like is 'earned'. The others all have one problem or another.

— CalifJim

  • Marold Which ones of these listed above would fit the sentence?
  • The only one I like is 'earned'.
  • The others all have one problem or another.
  • 'got', for example, is too ordinary a word, and 'procured' brings in too many extraneous thoughts like 'the procurement department of the company', not to mention the unsavory 'procured women for the troops'.
  • You can obtain or acquire a certificate just because someone gave you theirs or you bought theirs.
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6 Answers
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MaroldWhich ones of these listed above would fit the sentence?
The only one I like is 'earned'.

The others all have one problem or another. 'got', for example, is too ordinary a word, and 'procured' brings in too many extraneous thoughts like 'the procurement department of the company', not to mention the unsavory 'procured women for the troops'. Yo
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Really? This only verb ("earn") does not sound much natural to my ear.Emotion: big smile I like "obtain" best, but since it has a different meanin
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MaroldWhat has puzzled me is the definition of the verb "obtain" in the Oxford advanced dictionary.
Dictionaries can tell you what a word means. They cannot list all the possible words/expressions with which that word naturally collocates. I can understand why CJ opted for earned, though I would go for gained.
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MaroldIt seems to me as if "obtain" was a suitable word for this kind of meaning.
Maybe it's not as bad as I made it seem.
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fivejedjonI would go for gained.
Wow! Is that a British usage? I'm not familiar with that one at all.

Here in the U.S. we gain a lot of weight, but not certificates.
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Thank you, gentlemen, for your expert opinions .Emotion: smile

I will probably stick with "earn" and "gain" in most cases, maybe "obtain"
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