[General] What is the meaning of These two sentences?

[saba_001]

What is the meaning of these two sentences?

1- You couldn’t be more wrong.

2- They do have keen business sense.

 

[Boris Tatarenko]

Not a teacher nor a native speaker.

I'm wondering what confuses you in the sentences above.

1. You're terribly wrong. It's not possible for you to be more wrong than you're right now.

As for the second sentence, have you looked up the word "keen" in a dictionary?

 

[saba_001]

Thanks a lot sir, you are reason, I doubted that i,m wrong. Ok, thank you.

 

[emsr2d2]

Thanks a lot. [STRIKE]sir[/STRIKE] You are [STRIKE]reason[/STRIKE] right. I [STRIKE]doubted[/STRIKE] thought that [STRIKE]i,m[/STRIKE] I was wrong. [STRIKE]Ok,[/STRIKE] Thank you.

Note my corrections above. It's important to start every sentence with a capital letter and to capitalise the word "I" every time you write it. Please don't refer to everyone here as "Sir". Many of us are not male.

You have been confused by a "false friend" - that's why you used "reason". The French "Tu as raison" does not translate to "You are reason". It's "You are right/correct".

 

[GoesStation]

1. You're terribly wrong. It's not possible for you to be more wrong than you are [STRIKE]you're[/STRIKE] right now.

Note my correction above. There are certain situations where you can't use a contraction. I failed to find an explanatory page after a few minutes' searching; perhaps another member can find one.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I suspect the problem with the contraction is that it follows "than".

 

[Rover_KE]

In future, saba, please ask unrelated questions in separate threads, with a suitable title for each.

 

[teechar]

2- They do have a keen business sense.

.

 

[TheParser]

There are certain situations where you can't use a contraction.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


I found some information that may interest some people.

1. Are you tired? Yes, I am. (NOT: Yes, I'm.)
2. Do you know where he is? (NOT: Do you know where he's?)

The explanation from Raymond Murphy in his Grammar in Use (1989): "Because the verb is stressed in this position."

*****

Can Mr. Murphy's explanation be applied to the sentence in question?

"It's not possible for you to be more wrong than you are [stressed] right now."

 

[saba_001]

Thanks alot.

 

[Rover_KE]

saba, click here and read post #4.

Please click Like to show that you have read and understood it.