[General] Question about similar meanings in 3 sentences

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learning54

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Hi Teachers,
Could you answer my questions please? If they are wrong, could you suggest a better one for the b’s?

Do these sentences have similar meanings?
a) They are talking about a movie.
b) They are having a conversation about a movie.

Do these sentences have similar meanings?
a) Deborah is having breakfast.
b) Deborah is eating and drinking breakfast.

Do these sentences have similar meanings?
a) The maid is carrying a tray with a pot of coffee.
b) The maid is transporting a tray with a pot of coffee.

Thanks in advance
 

Barb_D

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Hi Teachers,
Could you answer my questions please? If they are wrong, could you suggest a better one for the b’s?

Do these sentences have similar meanings?
a) They are talking about a movie.
b) They are having a conversation about a movie.
These are the same.

Do these sentences have similar meanings?
a) Deborah is having breakfast.
b) Deborah is eating and drinking breakfast.
Including "and drinking" makes this very unnatural. You could say simply that she is eating her breakfast.

Do these sentences have similar meanings?
a) The maid is carrying a tray with a pot of coffee.
b) The maid is transporting a tray with a pot of coffee.
Your b sentence is very unnatural. You could say she was taking the tray to the living room, or she was bringing a tray with coffee service to Lady Mondegreen.
Thanks in advance
I don't understand why you want to rewrite these. In my opinion, a is superior to any suggestion I could make to modify b.
 

learning54

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Hi Bard D,
Thank you for your reply.
I don't understand why you want to rewrite these. In my opinion, a is superior to any suggestion I could make to modify b.

Well, it is because my students are very familiar with these verbs:
'are having a conversation, is eating, is transporting'.

So my idea is to give them a close meaning to the verbs mentioned in the a's.
I'm just trying to give explanations to the new verbs for them.
Is it a bad idea to do it so?

Learning
 

5jj

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learning54

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Yes, if the esult is unnatural English.

Hi,
Thank you for your reply. You're very right. That's why I've asked about them. Some of them also have latin roots, so it definitely help them. Knowing that I can't always follow this rule I prefer to ask to see if they natural or not.

Learning
 
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