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Musicgold Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Sentences January 13
Hi,
Are the following sentences natural to a native ear?
1. These CDs are not correctly labelled. Several labels have switched ( I am trying to say that the label of CD A is on CD B and vice versa.)
2. It sounds as if planes are flying over us. (this is what I said after hearing some noise from an apartment above us)
3. If he was here, we would have shouting matches here every day.
Thanks,
MG.
Are the following sentences natural to a native ear?
1. These CDs are not correctly labelled. Several labels have switched ( I am trying to say that the label of CD A is on CD B and vice versa.)
2. It sounds as if planes are flying over us. (this is what I said after hearing some noise from an apartment above us)
3. If he was here, we would have shouting matches here every day.
Thanks,
MG.
Top answer
Everything is good, except your underlined sentence should be in passive voice: Several labels have been switched . ) If you say "Bill and Jack switched teams," you mean that they did it themselves - accidently or on purpose. Of course it's ambiguous as to whether Bill went to Jack's team and Jack went to Bill's, OR each of them went to an unspecified (different) team.
- Everything is good, except your underlined sentence should be in passive voice: Several labels have been switched .
- ) If you say "Bill and Jack switched teams," you mean that they did it themselves - accidently or on purpose.
- Of course it's ambiguous as to whether Bill went to Jack's team and Jack went to Bill's, OR each of them went to an unspecified (different) team.
- But the labels cannot "switch themselves"!
- "Switched" and "swapped" are generally synonymous, but I think "swapped" has the greater sense that they have been exchanged for each other .
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5 Answers
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Everything is good, except your underlined sentence should be in passive voice:
Several labels have been switched. (Somebody, or something switched them.)
If you say "Bill and Jack switched teams," you mean that they did it themselves- accidently or on purpose.
Several labels have been switched. (Somebody, or something switched them.)
If you say "Bill and Jack switched teams," you mean that they did it themselves- accidently or on purpose.
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Another common usage is "The labels are switched."
(the verb "to be" plus adjective complement - past participle as adjective.)
This grammar can be confusing. This can also be seen as passive voice, present tense.
In a narrative, or historical present usage:
The train pulls into the station. In the confusion, the suitcases are switched.
(Cou
(the verb "to be" plus adjective complement - past participle as adjective.)
This grammar can be confusing. This can also be seen as passive voice, present tense.
In a narrative, or historical present usage:
The train pulls into the station. In the confusion, the suitcases are switched.
(Cou
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AvangiAnother common usage is "The labels are switched." (the verb "to be" plus adjective complement - past participle as adjective.)
I propably used 'have' instead of 'are' in my orignal sentence, just to say that the action is complete.
However, recently I leared that 'is/are' can also be used to show the state of an object. For example,
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