Quote:
Originally Posted by albertino "That said", it should understand that Hong Kong has a mature and responsible population that has earned the right to a larger voice in the running of affairs."
Is "That said" in the above sentence just another way to say "Having said that"? What does it mean? Is it grammatical?
Heaps of thanks. |
The question is, who did the
saying. Presumably it was the PRC. In that case, 'Having said that' is fine; it means 'After
it [the PRC] had said that...'
If the person doing the saying is the writer of the sentence, 'That said' is better (in the opinion of some sources - who dislike having participles lying around not referring to anything). It means 'It having been said' - impersonal, so it doesn't need to fit in with any other part of the sentence
Having said that, I must add that many native speakers aren't aware of this; that some who are [aware of it]* either don't care about it or believe strongly that it doesn't matter; and that others who would prefer to 'get it right' (in the terms used by their schoolteachers back in the '60s and '70s) don't.
PS *Added this for clarity - even
I couldn't make sense of it 22 hours after writing it!
b