Re: Question about English

Article View: fj.sci.lang

Article #452

#452

From: Gerald B Mathias
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 00:00

29 lines
2057 bytes

In fj.sci.lang student <k815@hotmail.com> wrote:

: $B0J2<$NEz$($,@5$7$$$+Ez$($F2<$5$$!#$^$?2r@b$r$*4j$$$7$^$9!#(B

: Q1,
: It seemed that he was a famous singer.
: =It seemed ( ? )( ? ) a famous singer

: A, It seemed to be a famous singer.

Mongaikan-kara-wa nan-desu-kedo...

Avoid using "it" to refer to a known human.  "Who is it?" when someone
knocks on the door is OK, as well as the reply, "It's me/I."  

But "Who is that person?"  "He/She (not It) is my friend."  The same with 
"He/she seemed to be a famous singer."  "It" is unlikely here.

Dropping "that" to get "It seemed he was a famous singer" is OK.  (But it
raises the question, "Why doesn't it seem that way now, but only did in
the past?")

: A,Not a star was (could) (not) (seen) in the sky.

Not a star was to be seen in the sky.

(Chotto muzukashii-hoo-no shiken-datta-deshoo.)

Bart Mathias

Technical Details

Message-ID: <85igk2$etu$2@news.hawaii.edu>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!unknown!not-for-mail

References: <85ec63$t8s$1@news0.hi-ho.ne.jp>

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

X-Google-Language: Japanese,JIS
X-Google-Thread: 10b7c5,20029b80e7d7bd33
X-Google-Attributes: gid10b7c5,public
X-Google-Thread: 10ed3b,20029b80e7d7bd33
X-Google-Attributes: gid10ed3b,public
X-Google-Thread: 108b73,20029b80e7d7bd33
X-Google-Attributes: gid108b73,public
X-Google-Thread: ffb0e,20029b80e7d7bd33
X-Google-Attributes: gidffb0e,public
X-Google-Thread: 1003e1,20029b80e7d7bd33
X-Google-Attributes: gid1003e1,public
From: Gerald B Mathias <mathias@uhunix3.its.hawaii.edu>
Subject: Re: Question about English
Date: 2000/01/12
Message-ID: <85igk2$etu$2@news.hawaii.edu>
X-Deja-AN: 571736263
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
References: <85ec63$t8s$1@news0.hi-ho.ne.jp>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
X-Complaints-To: usenet@hawaii.edu
X-Trace: news.hawaii.edu 947701186 15294 128.171.44.52 (12 Jan 2000 18:19:46 GMT)
Organization: University of Hawaii
Mime-Version: 1.0
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-19990624 ("Dawnrazor") (UNIX) (SunOS/5.6 (sun4u))
NNTP-Posting-Date: 12 Jan 2000 18:19:46 GMT
Newsgroups: fj.sci.lang,misc.education.language.english,sci.lang.english,news.admin.education.language.english,fj.education

Reply to Parent Message