sentences

[contiluo]

Are the following sentences acceptable?

1. Tina didn't know that she abused compassion for the stray cat until this event.

2. From this story, we get a lesson: compassion is a virture, but abusing compassion can be a disaster.

[TheParser]

Are the following sentences acceptable?

1. Tina didn't know that she abused compassion for the stray cat until this event.

2. From this story, we get a lesson: compassion is a virture, but abusing compassion can be a disaster.

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

Hello, Contiluo.

(1) I very respectfully feel that most native speakers would not

understand your first sentence. But after reading your second sentence,

I think that I know what you wish to express.

(2) Tina thought she was being compassionate in her actions but

in reality she wasn't. Is that the general idea?

(3) If it is, then maybe your sentence could be something like:

Until this event, Tina did not know that she had exercised/ shown

misguided compassion for the cat. (In other words, she had wanted to

help the cat by her actions, but her actions -- whatever they

were -- actually hurt the cat or made things worse. )

(4) I apologize if I did not understand your question correctly.

Thank you

[contiluo]

Hi, TheParser

In sentence 1, it originally meant that Tina did some actions that caused her such big trouble. e.g. Prompted by compassion, Tina took a stray cat home as a pet. Consequently, there was a sudden unexpected change in the situation. She was astonished to find the stray cat ganged up its companions to make a mess in her house. Therefore, Tina regretted her folly that get her into trouble. Here, Tina's folly means her "compassion abuse." I don't know whether or not there is an official collocation of "compassion abuse."

Best regards

[TheParser]

Hi, TheParser

In sentence 1, it originally meant that Tina did some actions that caused her such big trouble. e.g. Prompted by compassion, Tina took a stray cat home as a pet. Consequently, there was a sudden unexpected change in the situation. She was astonished to find the stray cat ganged up its companions to make a mess in her house. Therefore, Tina regretted her folly that get her into trouble. Here, Tina's folly means her "compassion abuse." I don't know whether or not there is an official collocation of "compassion abuse."

Best regards

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

Hello, Contiluo.

(1) Thank you for your kind note.

(2) I for one have never heard of compassion abuse.

(3) After reading your post, I would say that Tina was the

victim of misguided compassion.

(4) By the way, one of the great teachers at this site recently

told us about COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English).

I guess if you google it, you will find many examples of how

compassion is used by Americans.

Thank you

P. S. If Tina had helped Tom, and Tom had caused trouble for Tina, then


I think we could say that Tom had abused Tina's compassion. Is that

close to what you wish to express? Perhaps we could call that

abuse of compassion. But I do not think that compassion abuse is

idiomatic (the way native speakers use the language).

[Barb_D]

I agree with Parser.

Misguided compassion makes sense to me.