 Re: what nobody bought was any beer
Hi again, and thanks,
I don't really mean to complicate matters but I'm getting used to all that rephrasing stuff and there are a lot of rules in my head. I just try to put them to the test whenever I can. I'm just trying to work out some kind of rule as to how to keep the balance and the meaning when dealing with these non-assertive words. In an exercise, I reckon, the original sentence will be: 'Nobody bought any beer' and then we will be asked to rephrase it: What.... (What nobody bought was any beer -I've been told the emphasis is on the verb/action here) or It... (to place emphasis on any other part of the sentence). I didn't really know whether 'It was any beer that ....' was ok or we had to introduce the negative part first -for emphasis- and transfer 'any' to 'anybody'- 'It was no beer that anybody bought'. Just trying to 'loop the loop' you may think, but the exercises they give us are just like this. If they are all possible, then I think 'It was beer that nobody bought' is the best, but I'm not sure whether we are missing part of the information conveyed by 'any' or whether that information is really important. Thanks, anyway.
Regards.  |