Don't know how to title this

[sane]

Are these sentences correct?

1. Our group was a weird combination of people, from the most brilliant to borderline idiots. “Idiots” may be an exaggeration, but it really felt like that at times.


2. He was not only a sports fan, he was a sportsman himself and played soccer for the college team.

[iKitty]

NOT A TEACHER

I'd say they're both fine, although personally (and I may be in a minority of one here!) I don't like this use of weird. Using it this way in informal English speech and writing is not only perfectly acceptable, it's heard very frequently – but really weird means 'unearthly', and I think it's more effective to keep it to this use. You could say bizarre or strange instead, which I think would be stronger.

[TheParser]

Are these sentences correct?

1. Our group was a weird combination of people, from the most brilliant to borderline idiots. “Idiots” may be an exaggeration, but it really felt like that at times.


2. He was not only a sports fan, he was a sportsman himself and played soccer for the college team.

NOT A TEACHER


(1) Maybe (maybe!) some native speakers would be expecting an "also" after

"not only" and would find its absence a little bit strange or incomplete.

(a) He was not only a sports fan, he was also a sportsman himself and ....

(2) In fact, on further consideration, maybe (especially in writing), some speakers

might (might!) be expecting the conjunction, too:

He was not only a sports fan, but he was also ....

[Rover_KE]

@ sane,

Ask unrelated questions in separate threads.

The first could be titled Our group was a weird combination of people and the second He was not only a sports fan.

Rover