sea,find oneself something, past participle phrase

[jiang]

Dear teachers,

I have four questions to ask:

No.1
He ran away to sea. Is 'run away to sea' a phrase? I can't find it in my dictionary.

No.2
He found himself a job. I can only find 'to find sb. sth'. But I can't find 'to find oneself sth.'. Do they bear the same meaning?

No.3
The following questions have something to do with 'past participle phrase'.
a. His tiepin was a large diamond, oddly set.

Coudl you please explain the function of 'oddly set'

b. The other, hidden in his overcoat, listened with interest.

What is the function of 'hidden in his overcoat'? Is it attribute?

No.4 Please read the sentences:

The dining area looks bigger, brighter and prettier.
The dining area looks bigger, brighter, and more pleasant.

Could you please explain to me which is better?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

[Naamplao]

Dear teachers,

I have four questions to ask:

No.1
He ran away to sea. Is 'run away to sea' a phrase? I can't find it in my dictionary. It is sort of an idiom meaning the person became a sailor, usually at a young age. It does not really apply as much now as it did during the centuries of sailing ships in the past. I suppose young boys dreamed of adventure on the high seas and ran away from home to become a sailor.

No.2
He found himself a job. I can only find 'to find sb. sth'. But I can't find 'to find oneself sth.'. Do they bear the same meaning?

Why cannot learner's of English spell the words "something" or "somebody"!!! This is not a forum for the use of text messaging!!!

Rephrase your question properly and I will answer it.

No.3
The following questions have something to do with 'past participle phrase'.
a. His tiepin was a large diamond, oddly set.

Coudl you please explain the function of 'oddly set'

A diamond is held in a ring or tie pin by means of a setting. So saying that a diamond was "oddly set" means that it is in an unusual setting. It may be unusual and interesting....or it may be unusual and ugly...there is not enough context here to judge.

b. The other, hidden in his overcoat, listened with interest.

What is the function of 'hidden in his overcoat'? Is it attribute?

Well whatever "The other" is it is small enough to hide in someone's overcoat. "hidden in his overcoat" is a participle phrase modifying "the other"

No.4 Please read the sentences:

The dining area looks bigger, brighter and prettier.
The dining area looks bigger, brighter, and more pleasant.

Could you please explain to me which is better?

Well "more pleasant" sounds a lot better than "pleasanter". As far as which sentence is better...it is a toss-up. "Prettier" does not exactly mean the same thing as "more pleasant".

From a "parallelism" point of view sentence #1 flows better.

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

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[jiang]

Dear Naamplao,

Thank you very much for your explanation. Now I understand them.

Jiang

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