0
Lucas21c Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
To-infinitive
Could you confirm whether the following sentences convey the same idea? If not, could you tell me what the difference is between them? Thank you.
1. He lived up to 79 years old.
2. He lived to be 79 years old.
1. He lived up to 79 years old.
2. He lived to be 79 years old.
Top answer
1. Context: We don’t know exactly how old he became, but we know for sure that it wasn’t more than 79 years. 2.
- 1.
- Context: We don’t know exactly how old he became, but we know for sure that it wasn’t more than 79 years.
- 2.
- Context: We know he reached his 79 th birthday, but not his 80 th birthday.
- The context beyond that is not included; but he might then have done something significant like writing his memoirs…or he might have died.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
3 Answers
0
1. Context: We don’t know exactly how old he became, but we know for sure that it wasn’t more than 79 years.
2. Context: We know he reached his 79th birthday, but not his 80th birthday.
The context beyond that is not included; but he might then have done something significant like writing his memoirs…or he might have died.
2. Context: We know he reached his 79th birthday, but not his 80th birthday.
The context beyond that is not included; but he might then have done something significant like writing his memoirs…or he might have died.
00
lucas21ccould you tell me what the difference is between them?I think the most important difference is that the first one is not a sentence that a native speaker would be likely to generate, whereas the second one is completely idiomatic.
CJ
00
Then, #1 means "he died before he became 80", and #2 means "He (probably) died at 79", right?
0
Related Questions