some sentences....

Hello :D

First of all I would like to say I am here to learn, and obviosly we learn from our mistakes, therefore feel free to correct me at any time, I will really apreciate it. :wink:

I have some doubts (for a change!!!) What do you think about the following sentences? The bold one is the original and the rest are the transformations which should say exactly the same, the underline is the fixed part. Let's see:

1) It was so late that nothing could be done
"It was too late to be able to do anything"
"It was too late that nothing would be done"

2)I asked the hotel porter to wake me at 8 o'clock the following morning
"Please wake me up at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning"
"Please could you wake me up tomorrow at 8 o'clock"

3) The bus takes longer than the train
"The train is faster than the bus"
"The train takes shorter than the bus"


Many thanks for all,
abrilsp

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by abrilsp

Hello :D

First of all I would like to say I am here to learn, and obviosly we learn from our mistakes, therefore feel free to correct me at any time, I will really apreciate it. :wink:

I have some doubts (for a change!!!) What do you think about the following sentences? The bold one is the original and the rest are the transformations which should say exactly the same, the underline is the fixed part. Let's see:

1) It was so late that nothing could be done
"It was too late to be able to do anything"
"It was too late that nothing would be done"

2)I asked the hotel porter to wake me at 8 o'clock the following morning
"Please wake me up at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning"
"Please could you wake me up tomorrow at 8 o'clock"

3) The bus takes longer than the train
"The train is faster than the bus"
"The train takes shorter than the bus"

First of all, welcome to our friendly forum.

Second, I may use several postings to respond to your questions. (The forum pages froze up on me last time, and I lost my response to cyberspace.) Please be patient.

:)

[RonBee]

1) It was so late that nothing could be done
"It was too late to be able to do anything"
"It was too late that nothing would be done"

Use the first alternative sentence but delete be able. You could also say, for example, It was too late for us to do anything. (The other one is not even an English sentence.)

2)I asked the hotel porter to wake me at 8 o'clock the following morning
"Please wake me up at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning"
"Please could you wake me up tomorrow at 8 o'clock"

Both of the alternative sentences are acceptable, but the first one is more likely to be used. ("Could you wake me up...?" is itself a request.) Also, tomorrow would usually be understood.

3) The bus takes longer than the train
"The train is faster than the bus"
"The train takes shorter than the bus"

I would not use either alternative sentence. That is because faster does not mean the same thing as gets there sooner. As you might recall, the hare was faster than the tortoise, but the tortoise won the race. :wink:

You can't use the second sentence, because takes shorter is not an English expression. (It might seem that takes shorter should be the opposite of takes longer, but it isn't.) You can say: "The train takes less time than the bus (to get there)."

:)

[RonBee]

1) It was so late that nothing could be done
"It was too late to be able to do anything"
"It was too late that nothing would be done"

You could say It was so late that nothing would be done, but that means something different than the original sentence.

:)

hi again!

for this first sentence what about "it was too late that nothing could be done" does it mean the same?
thanks again

abrilsp

[Tdol]

You shouldn't use 'too + adjective + that':

Too... to
So...that

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by abrilsp

hi again!

for this first sentence what about "it was too late that nothing could be done" does it mean the same?
thanks again

abrilsp

As Tdol noted, you can't use that. You can say:

• It was too late.
  It was too late to do anything.
  It was too late to do anything about it.
  It was too late for us (or him, or her, or them) to do anything.
  It was too late for that to be of any help.
  It was too late for anything to be done.
  It was so late that nothing could be done.

"It was too late that" is not used. :(

I hope that helps.

:)

Thanks a lot for being so helpful

[RonBee]

You're quite welcome.

:D

[RonBee]

Corrections and suggestions. :)

First of all I would like to say I am here to learn, and obviosly we learn from our mistakes, therefore feel free to correct me at any time, I will really apreciate it.

That one is what is called a run-on sentence. You need to make it into two or three sentences. Try:

• First of all, I would like to say I am here to learn, and obviously we learn from our mistakes. Therefore, feel free to correct me at any time. I will really apreciate it.

:)