Does this sound OK in English

Hi dear experts. Could you tell if the following sounds OK in English:

"Consequently, they have become critical and ironical of themselves, which in turn has given rise to nihilism – the Bulgarians blame themselves, other people, the government and everything labeled Bulgarian. The Bulgarian phrase “That’s a Bulgarian job” is used for describing anything that is considered bad or incomplete".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snade17

Hi dear experts. Could you tell if the following sounds OK in English:

"Consequently, they have become critical and ironical of themselves, which in turn has given rise to nihilism – the Bulgarians blame themselves, other people, the government and everything labeled Bulgarian. The Bulgarian phrase “That’s a Bulgarian job” is used for describing anything that is considered bad or incomplete".

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It sounds fine -- at least, without further context.

I might use " . . . anything considered bad or . . . " leaving out "that is"; but it's a matter of personal writing taste.

Hope this helps!:up:

Thank you very much RedMtl. You were most helpful.

My personal taste: I'd leave it in. It fits the formality of the tone of the passage. Leaving it out is more as in colloquial speech.

I don't know whether this is a Canadian thing, but in Br English it's unusual (if not wrong - I'd need to check more widely before suggesting anything so extreme ;-)) to say 'ironical of' - it would need some periphrasis like 'they take an ironical attitude to themselves'/'their self-image is ironical'/'they regard themselves with irony'. I agree that the rest seems fine though. :up:

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