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Nugso Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
Use of Can
Hi.
At 2.32 in the video below, R. Feynman says "But it is curiosity as to where we are, what we are. It is very much more exciting to discover that we are on a ball, half of us sticking upside down and spinning around in space. It is a mysterious force which holds us on. It's going around a great big glob of gas that is burning by a fuel by a fire that is completely different than any fire that we can make, but now we can make that fire – nuclear fire."
It's easily understanble, but shouldn't Feynman have said That is completely different than any fire that we could make, but now we can make that fire —nuclear fire.
https://youtu.be/lmTmGLzPVyM?t=2m33s
At 2.32 in the video below, R. Feynman says "But it is curiosity as to where we are, what we are. It is very much more exciting to discover that we are on a ball, half of us sticking upside down and spinning around in space. It is a mysterious force which holds us on. It's going around a great big glob of gas that is burning by a fuel by a fire that is completely different than any fire that we can make, but now we can make that fire – nuclear fire."
It's easily understanble, but shouldn't Feynman have said That is completely different than any fire that we could make, but now we can make that fire —nuclear fire.
https://youtu.be/lmTmGLzPVyM?t=2m33s
Top answer
It kind of works for me when he says it, with the second part understood as an update. Written down it does look a bit more contradictory. Because even "could" does not unambiguously refer to the past, a belt-and-braces solution would be to say "any fire that we used to be able to make".
- It kind of works for me when he says it, with the second part understood as an update.
- Written down it does look a bit more contradictory.
- Because even "could" does not unambiguously refer to the past, a belt-and-braces solution would be to say "any fire that we used to be able to make".
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5 Answers
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It kind of works for me when he says it, with the second part understood as an update. Written down it does look a bit more contradictory. Because even "could" does not unambiguously refer to the past, a belt-and-braces solution would be to say "any fire that we used to be able to make".
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Hi, GPY. Thanks for the reply. So it's like one of those sentences where it makes sense and is used by many when you say it but is gramatically incorrect/unambiguous when written down.
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NugsoHi, GPY. Thanks for the reply. So it's like one of those sentences where it makes sense and is used by many when you say it but is gramatically incorrect/unambiguous when written down.(Did you mean ambiguous?) It is not grammatically incorrect. Nor is it a particular recognised form of expression "used by many". It is just the words that came into
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No, I didn't mean it was gramatically incorrect.
There's lots of apples over there.
People say the above expression a lot, and by people I mean the native speakers of English. But, when written down, it looks wrong. I just compared the sentences in the sense that people might and do say such sentences, but it looks weird or is incorrect when written down.
There's lots of apples over there.
People say the above expression a lot, and by people I mean the native speakers of English. But, when written down, it looks wrong. I just compared the sentences in the sense that people might and do say such sentences, but it looks weird or is incorrect when written down.
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NugsoPeople say the above expression a lot,Right. However, this is not true of the original "can ... can ..." phrasing. One could go a very long time without using that pattern in that way.
NugsoBut, when written down, it looks wrong.It wouldn't be suitable for very formal writing, but in informal or everyday w
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