Is it correct to say, 'Paper fans have to be used by hand'? Your help is greatly appreciated.
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Is it correct to say, 'Paper fans have to be used by hand'? Your help is greatly appreciated.
Paper fans are designed to be used by hand. :up:Quote:
Originally Posted by tuen tuen
Dear Tuen-tuen:
I am not sure why you want to say this. Is it to contrast paper fans with electric fans? or simply to explain how one uses a paper fan?
A couple of possibilities are
Paper fans are hand-held.
One holds a paper fan in the hand.
However, it would be helpful to know the purpose of the sentence.
Best wishes,
Petra
Yes, it is to contrast paper fans with electric fans. So, is it correct to say so? Thanks a lot for your quick reply.
Yes, you could say it that way.
However, using the word 'hold' doesn't convey the fact that paper fans are powered by hand not electricity, so a bit of the contrast seems missing to me.
Yes.
Which is why, after some clarification, we returned to the original sentence. I am still not entirely happy with 'Paper fans have to be used by hand', because it seems vague. I tried to think of a verb that would indicate how/why they are used, but 'Paper fans are powered by hand', seems a bit silly, as do all the other variations that came to mind. Knowing that the sentence is in the context of an established comparison of electric/paper fans, I decided to let it go at 'Paper fans have to be used by hand.' If there's a better sentence, I'd love to read it!:-)
All best wishes,
Petra
I am not a teacher.Quote:
Originally Posted by tuen tuen
Hand held paper fans become effective through the side to side (back and forth) motion of the hand.
:up: And indeed there is a trend, in the UK at least, for little hand-held battery-operated electric fans - de rigueur, I'm told, in discos.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tdol
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