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Hans51 Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

"They cannot speak English well like us."

1) "They cannot speak English well like us."

2) "She is not smart like you."

I know we should consider context first of all but I was wondering if the sentences have two possible meanings respectively.

1.1) They cannot speak English well, but we can speak English well.

1.2) They cannot speak English well, and we cannot speak English well either.

2.1) She is not smart, but you are smart.

2.2) She is not smart, and you are not smart either.

So can we understand the sentences differently, depending on contexts? Thank you so much as usual and have a good day.
  

Top answer

Hans51 can we understand the sentences differently, .... No. 2.

— CalifJim

  • Hans51 can we understand the sentences differently, ....
  • No.
  • 2.
  • CJ
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10 Answers
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Hans51can we understand the sentences differently, ....
No. The meanings are given in 1.1 and 2.1, not in 1.2 and 2.2.

CJ
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Thank you so much and I am trying to understand the sentence,

"Characters in a movie, like people in real life, do not sit down and diagram their sentences with a careful analysis of case, tense, and voice. Real people speak spontaneously".

The meaning of it is that people in real life do sit down and diagram their sentences...or not.
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But if you put commas after well" and "smart", the meanings will be 1.2 and 2.2.

1) "They cannot speak English well, like us."

2) "She is not smart, like you."

or even better...

Like us, they cannot speak English well.
Like you, she is not smart.
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Hans51I am trying to understand the sentence, "characters in a movie, like people in real life, do not sit down and diagram their sentences with a careful analysis of case, tense, and voice."
I am trying to understand it, too.
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Thank you so much and I think you are right and do you agree that the meaning can change with a comma and when we put it in front like canadian45 mentioned? Then, it will not be easy to get right meanings in conversations again to me
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Hans51do you agree that the meaning can change with a comma like canadian45 mentioned?
Yes, I agree, especially with his idea of bringing those phrases to the beginning of the sentence. I agree that that's really the best way to do it if you want that particular meaning.

CJ
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If it is true that commas make meanings different, the intended meaning in ",like people in real life," can mean "people in real life do not..." without changing it to "unlike" in this case. But I know that context is king. I just would like to know any possible meanings. So what do you think? Thank you and I am sorry for taking your time a lot.
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Hans51So what do you think?
I believe there are only two possible meanings — that people do or that people do not! Do you believe there really can be any other meaning?

Moreover, I find the construction insidiously ambiguous, which is why I always advise against it. Encountering this structure, the reader is always faced with the puzzl
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Thank you, and then what is the different usage of comma between "She is not smart, like you." and characters, like people in real life, do not...? I am totally with you but if the first sentence has a different meaning from the sentence without a comma, I think we could apply the rule to the second sentence.
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Hans51I think we could apply the rule to the second sentence
No, playing with commas doesn't work when the like phrase is in the middle of the sentence.

Here are my readings of the different versions.

She is not smart like you. ~ She is not [ smart like you ]. ~ She is not as smart as you are.
She is not smart, like you
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