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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

sentence help

Hi teachers, which of the following sentences would be correct when saying that you very happy that you were able to celebrate a friends birthday:

1. Glad I was able to celebrate another birthday with you.
2. Glad to be able to celebrate another birthday with you.

Are both possible? The second sounds that the celebration has still not happened. Is my interpretation correct?
  

Top answer

I'm glad I was able to celebrate another birthday with you. ) I'm glad to be able to celebrate another birthday with you. )

— AlpheccaStars

  • I'm glad I was able to celebrate another birthday with you.
  • ) I'm glad to be able to celebrate another birthday with you.
  • )
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10 Answers
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I'm glad I was able to celebrate another birthday with you. (The birthday celebration is in the past.)
I'm glad to be able to celebrate another birthday with you. (You are at the birthday celebration, or responding to an invitation to come to the birthday celebration.)
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Both are grammatical. However, there is some awkwardness in both. These sentences might be said if the speaker, or the speaker and the listener, were of a very advanced age, say, 90 years old. That is, at this age you don't know if you'll celebrate another birthday, ever.
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Thank you for your help.
AlpheccaStarsI'm glad I was able to celebrate another birthday with you. (The birthday celebration is in the past.)
Yes, that is what I thought. Could it be the recent past, maybe, a few hours ago or yesterday?
AlpheccaStarsI'm glad to be able to celebrate another birthday with you. (You are at the birthday celeb
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AnonymousCould it be the recent past, maybe, a few hours ago or yesterday?
Yes.
AnonymousSo this could be used for the present situation, right?
Yes.
AnonymousAnother interpretation of this is that the event will happen in the future, which is what you mean by 'responding to an invitation to come to
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AlpheccaStarsAnonymousAnother interpretation of this is that the event will happen in the future, which is what you mean by 'responding to an invitation to come to the birthday'. Would that be correct?Yes.
Awesome. Thank you very much for your valuable help, AStars.

I am assuming that it is possible to use it in that way, which also indicates that the
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I am glad to have been able to celebrate another birthday with you.

Your version is not a complete sentence, because it has no finite verb.
"to have been" = The celebration is in the past.

"to have been able" (or variations on "be able") can mean:
I was still alive.
I was still healthy enough to attend.
I had no schedule confli
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Thank you very much for your clear explanation.
AlpheccaStarsYour version is not a complete sentence, because it has no finite verb.
I see. just like the previous ones, in which I need to add "I am" at the begining. Right?
AlpheccaStars"to have been able" (or variations on "be able") can mean:
'Variations' meaning the
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AnonymousI see. just like the previous ones, in which I need to add "I am" at the begining. Right?
Yes.
Anonymous'Variations' meaning the meaning applies to the previous examples I wrote with "be able", right?
Yes.
AnonymousIs the use of 'be able' normal in these sentences since you gave a small list
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AlpheccaStarst's not usual
Yeah I kind of thought that. That would be because 'be able' (or could) implies the ability or availability to be part of an event, and thus is unusual for this situation. Would that be right?
AlpheccaStarsHere are some others:
Thanks for your great examples. I will make sure to add them to my col
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AlpheccaStarsIt's not usual.
Hi AStars, would you please tell me if what I said, regarding why it is not usual in m previous post, was correct!

Thank you very much in advance!
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