Mark my words!

[sister_luck]

I'm in marking hell again and as always there are a couple of language issues you might be able to help me with. (And no, I'm perfectly fine with ending sentences with prepositions, that's a non-issue for me, most of the time. Call me a sloppy teacher if you will, but I just don't care about this silly rule.)



Again, this is mostly stuff that is not quite idiomatic and I'm not sure how to fix it.

One of my students is very fond of this construction:

...it wasn't that funny evening
...it wasn't that good idea

Now I know that this does not work - it's probably easiest to tell him to switch the sentence around: the evening/idea wasn't that funny/good, but what about that good of an idea - is that possible, too?

Could you say that one hears muffled music?

Reflexive pronoun issues

I'm not sure whether the reflexive pronoun is just plain wrong here or whether it's just an added extra:

he doesn't know how he should behave himself
he steals himself out of the window

Looking up words in the dictionary:

One girl was looking for a way of saying Draufgänger in English. She got go-getter. What she actually means is a word for a guy who is fond of the ladies and likes taking risks. Any ideas what might be better?

Someone who keeps drinking lemonade the whole evening while everyone around him gets drunk, could be said to stick to lemonade, right?

Getting close to one another

(Mostly for your amusement, but a better way of saying it would be appreciated though one of them might not need fixing:)

They have each other in arms and dance wild and hot
...she tries to kiss him with her tongue
the girls kiss him left and right of his face

Also, what adjective would you use for a person who is making advances to someone? I know that she becomes obstrustive - which I guess is a misspelling of obtrusive is wrong.

And, how would you fix he is in forbidden love with an English girl?



Thanks in advance - I value and enjoy your input very much!

Comments

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

(And no, I'm perfectly fine with ending sentences with prepositions, that's a non-issue for me,

It used to bother me. I was pretty sure it was wrong to end sentences with prepositions yet I saw everybody doing it on LJ, in fictions I read, or even in blogs, so I began to think I might have been wrong about the whole thing. Now I'm just confused.

As for your questions, about the first construction

...it wasn't that funny evening
...it wasn't that good idea

but what about that good of an idea - is that possible, too?

I've seen constructions like "it wasn't that good an idea" or "it wasn't that big a deal" a lot of times.

But again shall I trust the uses I see?

[simonf.livejournal.com]

...it wasn't that funny evening
...it wasn't that good idea

I would go with:

It wasn't that funny an evening.
It wasn't that good an idea.

he doesn't know how he should behave himself
he steals himself out of the window
The first sentence is fine but I'm sure what the person is trying to say in the second one.

One girl was looking for a way of saying Draufgänger in English. She got go-getter. What she actually means is a word for a guy who is fond of the ladies and likes taking risks. Any ideas what might be better?


Ladies man or a casanova.


They have each other in arms and dance wild and hot
...she tries to kiss him with her tongue
the girls kiss him left and right of his face

They hold each other in their arms and dance passionately.
She tried to french kiss him.
The girls kiss him on both cheeks or the girls air kissed. Depending on whether they kissed on the face or away from the face.

Also, what adjective would you use for a person who is making advances to someone?

Forward. He was being forward. Or he was hitting on her.


And, how would you fix he is in forbidden love with an English girl?

His love for the English girl was forbidden.

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

They have each other in arms and dance wild and hot.

For some reason I think he or she is indicating gay cowboy sex with guns.

[gillo]

...it wasn't that funny evening
...it wasn't that good idea

Now I know that this does not work - it's probably easiest to tell him to switch the sentence around: the evening/idea wasn't that funny/good, but what about that good of an idea - is that possible, too?

In British English none of these work. And I'm very wary about "funny evening" in any context, because it is often used to mean "enjoyable", rather than "hilarious". It is not a synonym for "amusing" used to describe an evening.

I'd use:

It wasn't that good an idea.
It wasn't such an amusing evening.

Could you say that one hears muffled music?

Yes.

he doesn't know how he should behave himself
he steals himself out of the window

"He doesn't know how

to

behave himself" is fine. "How he should behave himself" is long-winded and clunky. The second one sounds like larceny - definitely to be avoided!

One girl was looking for a way of saying Draufgänger in English. She got go-getter. What she actually means is a word for a guy who is fond of the ladies and likes taking risks. Any ideas what might be better?

I'd suggest "a Lothario" or possibly a "ladies' man", though that lacks the risk-taking element.

They have each other in arms and dance wild and hot
...she tries to kiss him with her tongue
the girls kiss him left and right of his face

First one - using adjectives instead of adverbs is the main problem. They would "hold each other in their arms and dance wildly and hotly". But stylistically that feels like too much. "Holding each other close, they danced passionately." is simpler and clearer.

Second - she tries to "French kiss him". (Yes, the traditional English use of "French" to define anything naughty!)

The third one isn't clear. Are they both kissing him at once or air-kissing each cheek in turn? "each side of his face" would be better than "left and right", too.

"His love for the English girl is forbidden." Or, more romantically (if a little cheesy)"He felt all the power of his forbidden love for the English girl."

Hope these help.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

it wasn't that good idea
Either "it wasn't that good an idea" or "it wasn't such a good idea" would be right.

Technically, you should probably say "the muffled sound of music", but "muffled music" is a more concise way of getting the same idea across.

'Draufgänger' - it depends on context and mood, really. 'Lothario' is quite old fashioned and Victorian, whereas 'Jack-the-lad' is still slightly dated, but much more earthy. Or you could say 'a real chancer' or 'a smoothie'.

'Sticking to lemonade' - exactly right.

They have each other in arms and dance wild and hot.
They hold each other in their arms and dance wild and hot. (Techically those last two words should be adverbs not adjectives, but 'wildly and hotly' sounds clumsy).

she tries to kiss him with her tongue
She tried to french-kiss him. (or 'tongue-kiss him')

the girls kiss him left and right of his face
The girls kiss him on either side of his face.

Making advances - forward or pushy if it's unwelcome, perhaps flirtatious (or flirty) if it's fun?

he is in forbidden love with an English girl?
'Ours is a forbidden love', to quote Willow Rosenberg. :-)