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Question

Are my sentences ok?My city is fairly huge and beautiful.There is a modern coffee shop.Everyday I go to this coffee shop for breakfast.Sometimes I walk my dog around that coffee shop.Yesterday, I met a pretty lady there.

KrisBlueNZ · Accepted Answer

1. My city is fairly huge and beautiful.

Fairly huge doesn't make sense as a straightforward phrase, because huge means very big (very is an intensifier) and fairly is also an intensifier, so fairly huge means something like fairly very big. This has two intensifiers (fairly and very) which conflict with each other.

This is a bit hard to explain, so I'll use another example. An intensifier is a word that modifies the degree of an adjective, i.e. it tells you how much that adjective applies. Two intensifiers are slightly, which means a little bit, and extremely, which means a very large amount. The universe is extremely big, and you could say that an insect is "slightly big".

If I say that something is "slightly extremely big", the two intensifiers conflict with each other, and the sentence becomes meaningless.

Huge means very big, so it already includes an intensifier in its meaning. If you add another intensifier that conflicts with very, you get a meaningless or contradictory statement. I hope this makes sense! I would replace fairly huge with large.

Also, you could say "The city I live in is large and beautiful". Calling it my city kind of implies that you own the city, or control it in some way. It's obvious that you don't mean that; you mean the city you live in, so it's OK to leave it like that. This is just a suggestion.

2. There is a modern coffee shop.

That's fine. It doesn't say much, though. I would try to combine it with another sentence, or add some more information, e.g. "There is a modern coffee shop in the main shopping mall" or something like that.

3. ~~Everyday~~ Every day I go to this coffee shop for breakfast.

Everyday is an adjective; it means unremarkable, common, or regular. For example, "In this neighborhood, crime is an everyday occurrence."
Every day is an adverb; it refers to something that happens every day. "The postman delivers the mail every day."
It's increasingly common for people to write everyday when they should write every day, as you just did, but I believe it's still considered wrong.

You could simplify the sentence by saying "Every day I have breakfast at this coffee shop", or "I have breakfast at this coffee shop every day" (or "... every morning").

4. Sometimes I walk my dog around that coffee shop.

Do you mean you walk your dog around the outside of the shop, or walk him around inside the coffee shop? Although around that coffee shop implies that you walk him literally around (the outside of) the shop, walk him around can just mean walk him randomly within a particular area. So in this case, the exact meaning of around is not clear.

5. Yesterday, I met a pretty lady there.

Fine.

Those sentences should have been pretty straightforward and simple, but there are traps in sentences 1 and 4 because of strange features of English. Although you say what you want to say, sometimes it doesn't mean what it should! (Or rather, people will interpret it a particular way, instead of taking it literally).

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