2.gave a nudge to Helen ?

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notletrest

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Now that we can say I paid a visit to some old friends, why not I gave a nudge to Helen ?
Please give some help to me.Is it correct?
Thanks a lot.
 

tedtmc

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Now that we can say I paid a visit to some old friends, why not I gave a nudge to Helen ?
Please [STRIKE]give some help to [/STRIKE] help me.Is it correct?
Thanks a lot.

why not give Helen a nudge?
The two parts of the sentence do not seem related.
The first part sounds strange.

not a teacher
 

chester_100

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Now that we can say I paid a visit to some old friends, why not I gave a nudge to Helen ?
Please give some help to me.Is it correct?
Thanks a lot.

It can be meaningful but very situational.
By the way, the sentence seems to be stylistically ill-formed, because pay a visit to somebody sounds to be sort of formal, but using give a nudge to a person to mean visit a person can be somehow informal.
Here are some less formal choices:

-I'll look Helen up.
-Now that I have visited my old friends, I think I'm going to go around to Helen's.
 

tedtmc

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Now that we can say I paid a visit to some old friends, why not I gave a nudge to Helen ?

It is the underlined part that is strange.

Using give a nudge to a person to mean visit a person can be somehow informal.
In fact, it is wrong use of the word. You nudge a person to get his/her attention, not visit the person.
 

chester_100

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Now that we can say I paid a visit to some old friends, why not I gave a nudge to Helen ?

It is the underlined part that is strange.

Using give a nudge to a person to mean visit a person can be somehow informal.
In fact, it is wrong use of the word. You nudge a person to get his/her attention, not visit the person.

Wrong use of the expression. I suggested some other ones, and that's why I call it situational.
Sure it's strange! In the second example of my previous post, I made some grammatical changes to the first clause that might improve it?
 
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Raymott

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Now that we can say I paid a visit to some old friends, why not I gave a nudge to Helen ?
Please give some help to me.Is it correct?
Thanks a lot.
Back to the point of the second half of this sentence:
I've never heard of this saying. However if it's correct, you'd need to say, " ... why don't I give a nudge to Helen?"
But it's possible I've misunderstood what you're trying to say.
Could you perhaps rephrase it?
 

Tdol

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I've never come across 'a nudge' meaning a visit- it could be a reminder, etc.
 

BobK

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I've never come across 'a nudge' meaning a visit- it could be a reminder, etc.
:up: - though I suppose the visit might offer the opportunity to give someone a nudge. As the word 'nudge' suggests only a brief contact, perhaps the OP was looking for the expressions 'look in on' or 'touch base with'. :?:

b
 

Jaskin

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hi,
Please note I'm not a teacher nor a native speaker,

Now that we can say "I paid a visit to some old friends", why not "I gave a nudge to Helen" ?
Please give some help to me. Is it correct?
Thanks a lot.

I think the OP might be asking why one grammar structure is preferred to another.

I visited some old friends.
I paid a visit to some old friends.
I paid some old friends a visit.

I nudged Helen.
I gave a nudge to Helen.
I gave Helen a nudge.

Please help me.
Please give some help to me.
Please give me some help.

I'm not the best mind reader so please don't quote me on that.

Cheers,
 
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tedtmc

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I thing the OP might be asking why one grammar structure is preferred to another.

Yes, there are different ways to arrange a sentence to express the same thing. It is matter of choice.
In general, I'd go for brevity and clarity.
 

notletrest

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hi,
Please note I'm not a teacher nor a native speaker,
I think the OP might be asking why one grammar structure is preferred to another.
I visited some old friends.
I paid a visit to some old friends.
I paid some old friends a visit.
I nudged Helen.
I gave a nudge to Helen.
I gave Helen a nudge.
Please help me.
Please give some help to me.
Please give me some help.
I'm not the best mind reader so please don't quote me on that.
Cheers,
Quite sorry that I waste much time of so many peiple for my dim description.Please let me speak again.
Now that we can say : " I paid a visit to some old friends",why caanot we say:" I gave a nudge to Helen ?" Because Randolph Quirk's A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language P.753,and P.1396 point out that sentence is not good.Of course he has his reasons.
Here nudge is not a visit.
Thank you for discussion!

 

Raymott

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Quite sorry that I waste much time of so many peiple for my dim description.Please let me speak again.
Now that we can say : " I paid a visit to some old friends",why caanot we say:" I gave a nudge to Helen ?"
Excellent. This shows what a bit of punctuation can do!
I'd suggest:
Now, we can say, "I paid a visit to some old friends". So, why can't we say, "I gave a nudge to Helen"?

Because Randolph Quirk's A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language P.753,and P.1396 point out that sentence is not good.Of course he has his reasons.
Here nudge is not a visit.
Thank you for discussion!

There's no reason why we can't say that. We can.
But it would probably be more common to say, "I nudged Helen", or "I gave Helen a nudge."

Quirk does explain his reasons, but I'm not sure I understand them either. I think he's saying that the focus is on the verb, "nudge", as in "I nudged Helen", rather than on the noun, "a nudge, nudging (gerund)".
Intuitively, I'd use the alternatives that I've given, but I wouldn't call your version incorrect.

There are some verbs where it would sound strange.
I kissed Helen.
I gave Helen a kiss.
I gave a kiss to Helen.

The first two are more common. Play around with verbs of this type, and you'll probably find some that just don't sound right.

 
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notletrest

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There's no reason why we can't say that. We can.
But it would probably be more common to say, "I nudged Helen", or "I gave Helen a nudge."

Quirk does explain his reasons, but I'm not sure I understand them either. I think he's saying that the focus is on the verb, "nudge", as in "I nudged Helen", rather than on the noun, "a nudge, nudging (gerund)".
Intuitively, I'd use the alternatives that I've given, but I wouldn't call your version incorrect.

There are some verbs where it would sound strange.
I kissed Helen.
I gave Helen a kiss.
I gave a kiss to Helen.
The first two are more common. Play around with verbs of this type, and you'll probably find some that just don't sound right.
I am satisfied with you /Thank Raymott very much!
 

tedtmc

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I am satisfied with you
Again, there is nothing wrong with this sentence and I know what you mean.

But it is not something one would say to express one's appreciation in English. It is more like what a teacher would say to a student I think. :-D
 
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