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Stevenukd Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Towards = to?

1. My girlfriend is rude at times towards me.

- Can I say "My girlfriend is rude at times to me" to mean the same meaning as the sentence above?

Thanks a lot to Teachers,

Stevenukd
  

Top answer

Towards means 'in the direction of' (OED), so the first sentence doesn't make sense. My girlfriend is rude to me at times is the way to construct it. I put at times at the end for purely stylistic reasons -- it reads better.

— Jason.oconal

  • Towards means 'in the direction of' (OED), so the first sentence doesn't make sense.
  • My girlfriend is rude to me at times is the way to construct it.
  • I put at times at the end for purely stylistic reasons -- it reads better.
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6 Answers
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Towards means 'in the direction of' (OED), so the first sentence doesn't make sense. My girlfriend is rude to me at times is the way to construct it. I put at times at the end for purely stylistic reasons -- it reads better.
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Hi,

I wouldn't find 'towards' all that odd if I heard it in the given sentence. To me, it makes what is said sound a bit weaker, a bit less definite.

Clive
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Clive: My girlfriend is rude at times in my direction. How can that be a good sentence? Perhaps there's another meaning of towards which I am missing.
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Hi

Perhaps you'll disagree with me, but I think you are being a bit too restrictive in how you look at the word.

Would you also object to this?

'She was very kind towards me'.

I feel about this as I feel about the original.

Finally, I just looked in my own dictionary and found

towards

1. In the direction of
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Clive, I think you are right. There is that second sense which I was not taking into account.
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Hi Jason,

Come on, it's no fun if you agree with me.Emotion: stick out tongue

But here in Canada, it's past midnight, so goodni
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