Is there any difference between these two sentences?

learning54 said:

Hi teachers,
Is there any difference between these two sentences?
a) They feed and dress themselves.
b) They can feed and dress by themselves.

Thanks in advance.

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emsr2d2 said:

Yes, b) is incorrect. With the construction "by themselves", we would say "They can eat and dress by themselves".

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learning54 said:

Hi,
Thank you so much for your reply.
Woow! Very interesting! Is it because when you use the verb 'feed' it is understood that it is by, in this case, themselves. That's why you don't need the preposition.

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learning54 said:

Hi,
Thank you so much for your reply.
Woow! Very interesting! Is it because when you use the verb 'feed' it is understood that it is by, in this case, themselves. That's why you don't need the preposition.

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Raymott said:

No, your explanation can't be right, because it's 'by' that is omitted, not "themselves". Both sentences have 'themselves' in them, so it not 'understood.'

Consider the following:
1. The children feed the cats themselves. (The children, themselves, feed the cats. We don't)
2. The children feed the cats by themselves. (The children don't need our help to feed the cats.)
3. The children eat by themselves. (The children don't need our help to eat or to feed themselves.)
4. The children eat themselves. (The children are autophagous).

Do you understand these sentences? Yes, I do. Very well.

PS: The addition of "can" makes another change. If you want to know the difference between two sentences, you should keep the difference to one variable - unless you have two actual sentences that you can't tell apart.

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moonlike said:

Hi
I do agree with what is mentioned above. Also you can use feed in these patterns:
To feed a person or animal : Did you feed the dog?
To feed something to a person or animal : We fed the scraps to the pig.
To feed yourself/themselves/herself... : She was too weak to feed herself.
Of course, it's got other uses as well.
Good luck
You can use

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learning54 said:

Hi Raymott,
Thank you very much for your explanation. What I wish is another sentence that has the same meaning as this one: 'They feed and dress themselves'. Could they be these ones, 'They feed and dress without any help.' or 'They feed and dress alone'?
Is there a better one?

Thanks
L54

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learning54 said:

Hi Raymott,
Thank you very much for your explanation. What I wish is another sentence that has the same meaning as this one: 'They feed and dress themselves'. Could they be these ones, 'They feed and dress without any help.' or 'They feed and dress alone'?
Is there a better one?

Thanks
L54

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Raymott said:

Yes, that's what it means.

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emsr2d2 said:

As far as I'm concerned, you need to specifiy "themselves" in any of these examples unless you are prepared to have some ambiguity.

They feed and dress themselves without any help.
They feed and dress themselves on their own.
They feed and dress themselves alone.

"They feed and dress without any help" might elicit the question "Who/what do they feed and dress?"

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