ohmyrichard
Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2008
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- China
- Current Location
- China
Is "so" omitted after "seem" and "be" in these two sentences
Dear teachers,
When I think more deeply about the structures of some English sentences which seem to be easy to understand, I often find that I actually do not have a sound understanding of them. For example, we can change "It is a pity that you must go." back to "That you must go is a pity." to understand "it" refers to the deferred subject of "That you must go". However, this reasoning does not apply to "It seemed that he needed help." In my opinion, it is insensible to say that "It seemed that he needed help." actually means "That he needed help seemed." I guess there must be something missing after "seemed" in this sentence. Could it be "so" that is habitually omitted here by you native speakers? By the way, this morning, I read in a news report a sentence going, "Intrigued by their findings, Carroll's team started to look into the reasons why this might be." Could it also be "so" that is left out in this sentence?
Looking forward to your replies. Thanks.
Richard
Dear teachers,
When I think more deeply about the structures of some English sentences which seem to be easy to understand, I often find that I actually do not have a sound understanding of them. For example, we can change "It is a pity that you must go." back to "That you must go is a pity." to understand "it" refers to the deferred subject of "That you must go". However, this reasoning does not apply to "It seemed that he needed help." In my opinion, it is insensible to say that "It seemed that he needed help." actually means "That he needed help seemed." I guess there must be something missing after "seemed" in this sentence. Could it be "so" that is habitually omitted here by you native speakers? By the way, this morning, I read in a news report a sentence going, "Intrigued by their findings, Carroll's team started to look into the reasons why this might be." Could it also be "so" that is left out in this sentence?
Looking forward to your replies. Thanks.
Richard