作者paulchi (paul)
看板Eng-Class
標題Re: [文法] ____ it rains, go into the building.
時間Wed Feb 8 01:28:21 2012
Despite the heated exchange I enjoyed both sides of the argument. But I am
not a scholar, and I resent over-analyzing simple, everyday English.
Central to this argument is the strength, or the degree of certainty contained
in the adverb 'soon', which in my opinion can be easily clarified with just a
little elaboration of the original dialogue...
-----
Tina: It is raining soon.
Mary: How do you know? Maybe it is just cloudy.
Tina: Just cloudy? Didn't you hear the distant thunder roaring?
Mary: Nope. I was in the basement.
Tina: Trust me. It is raining soon. I can smell it in the air.
Mary: Fine. Let's go take our clothes in WHEN it does.
But IF it doesn't, you better see a doctor about your nose.
-----
Tina: It is raining tomorrow.
Mary: How do you know?
Tina: The forecast said so.
Mary: pfff. They ain't always right.
Tina: They are usually right around this time of year.
Mary: Oh well. I won't go out to jog IF it does then.
--
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1F：→ lim10337:I just asked one of my friends from the U.S. He said 02/08 02:19
2F：→ lim10337:there's no such thing as "it's raining soon/tomorrow" 02/08 02:20
3F：→ lim10337:or at least he and other native speakers won't even 02/08 02:21
4F：→ lim10337:say that. They'd rather say "its gonna/will rain 02/08 02:22
5F：→ lim10337:soon/tomorrow. 02/08 02:22
6F：推 tengharold:an important issue is that the sentence occurred in 02/08 02:56
7F：→ tengharold:a test question; test questions should be decided 02/08 02:57
8F：→ tengharold:without any context other than directly supplied 02/08 02:57
9F：→ tengharold:by the test question itself. I CAN write a short 02/08 02:58
10F：→ tengharold:conversation in which I supply enough context to 02/08 02:58
11F：→ tengharold:make the sentence "it is raining soon" make sense, 02/08 02:59
12F：→ tengharold:even to a native speaker; my point is, as it has 02/08 02:59
13F：→ tengharold:always been, is that "it is raining soon" is 02/08 03:00
14F：→ tengharold:incorrect as it stands in that Tina/Mary conver- 02/08 03:00
15F：→ tengharold:sation. 02/08 03:00
16F：→ tengharold:And by extension, "it is raining soon" cannot stand 02/08 03:02
17F：→ tengharold:by itself as an English sentence. 02/08 03:02
18F：推 tengharold:Correction: I'm not sure I can write "it is raining 02/08 03:05
19F：→ tengharold:soon" and make it make sense in a conversation. I 02/08 03:05
20F：→ tengharold:think I can write "it is raining tomorrow" and have 02/08 03:05
21F：→ tengharold:THAT make sense... 02/08 03:05
22F：→ tengharold:I agree with lim, I'll have to make a pretty big 02/08 03:06
23F：→ tengharold:stretch to make the sentence work... 02/08 03:06
24F：推 leoblack:"It is raining soon"is not a formal but still makes 02/08 13:23
25F：→ leoblack:sense. 02/08 13:25
26F：→ leoblack:This is conversation, don't be 八股.If it is a 02/08 13:28
27F：→ leoblack:composition, I totally agree with you! 02/08 13:29
28F：→ leoblack:"It's raining soon" in a composition is a bad writing 02/08 13:30
29F：推 leoblack:Wrong typing.There should be no "a" in my first bump. 02/08 13:37
30F：推 tengharold:This is a test question. If I can't be 八股 here, 02/09 00:59
31F：→ tengharold:there is no point in studying English. 02/09 01:00
32F：推 leoblack:Don't you know 教改 is to be un-八股? There are more 02/09 10:19
33F：→ leoblack:and more informal usages in dialogue quiz.If you have 02/09 10:22
34F：→ leoblack:taught secondary shool students English, you may know 02/09 10:24
35F：→ leoblack:that. 02/09 10:24
36F：推 l10nel:There is informal English and there is semantic anomaly 02/09 10:25