Propitious & Unpropitious Usage
Hi teachers,
Could you check the following sentences please, and answer my questions about them.
"Mark reports the propitious news to his friend."
1. Is it correct to use the verb "presents" in that context?
"The project they're working on is unpropitious."
2. This doesn't mean that their project failed or will fail. It's just not giving indications that it will succeed, isn't it?
3. Can I use "propitious" or "unpropitious" with people, like to say: "He seems unpropitious", "He is propitious"? If so, what would it mean?
Thanks in advance
Top answer
"propitious" is probably used 10 times more often than "unpropitious". "propitious news" might be possible. I'd call it a borderline case.
- "propitious" is probably used 10 times more often than "unpropitious".
- "propitious news" might be possible.
- I'd call it a borderline case.
- But projects and people are not "propitious" or "unpropitious", so it's hard to assign a satisfactory meaning to your second and third sentences.
- We almost always use (un)propitious before the following nouns: time, moment, season, times, timing, circumstances, development, conditions, opportunity, setting, site, place, sign, omen Note that they are almost all rather abstract nouns.
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"propitious" is probably used 10 times more often than "unpropitious".
"propitious news" might be possible. I'd call it a borderline case. But projects and people are not "propitious" or "unpropitious", so it's hard to assign a satisfactory meaning to your second and third sentences.
We almost always use (un)propitious before the following nouns:
time, moment
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