View Single Post
  #3 (permalink)  
Old 06-Jun-2007, 18:05
BobK's Avatar
BobK BobK is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Country: England (South East)
Posts: 4,974
Current Location: England (South East)
First Language: English
Thanks: 36
Thanked 383 Times in 340 Posts
BobK is just really niceBobK is just really niceBobK is just really niceBobK is just really nice
Default Re: How goes it to you?

Quote:
Originally Posted by fannycgr View Post
I just recently listened to this phrase on a cd that teaches how to speak german....
Aha. 'How goes it?' is acceptable, though not - I think - very common. It is syntactically quite unusual (normally a question takes the form 'how does it V?, but it is impossible to ask 'how does it go?' without meaning something else ['what is it that makes it function?' - the sort of thing you'd say when looking under the wheels of a strange toy, for example!]). And although I have heard - and used - 'How goes it?' I don't believe I've ever heard 'How goes it for you?' (except, perhaps, in a jocular context). (Anglika's right though: 'How does it go for [or sometimes "with"] you?' is infinitely better than 'to you' - which is just wrong.

I suspect the person who wrote the CD script was influenced by the German Wie geht es dir?.

b
Reply With Quote