1) My first question would be, where do we put sure in the sentence like
"It sure is going to be a great party." OK? Can I put it "It is sure going to be...."?
2) Is it OK to put "well" in the sentence like this "It might well have been a great party if you had planed it thoroughly." ?
3) Can we use "sure" similar to the previous context "It sure might have been...." or "It might sure have been......"?
********** NOT A TEACHER **********
Ostap,
Regarding your question No. 3, I wish to cite these sentences from
Professor George O. Curme's
A Grammar of the English Language
(Essex, Connecticut: Verbatim, 1983):
He must
surely have seen him./ He must have
surely seen him./
He
surely must have seen him.
The professor says that all three positions are correct.
*****
Regarding your question No. 1, I have checked my books and the
Web. Remember that you must be very careful when reading
answers from a
non-teacher such as I.
(1)
Surely, it is going to be a great party.
(2) It is going to be a great party,
surely.
As I understand it, you would say these if you were not sure and
were looking for confirmation (that is, you want someone else to
agree with your opinion). For example: Mr. X has lived in the
United States for 50 years.
Surely, he must speak English!!!
(You think that it is true, but you hope someone will answer:
"Yes, you are right! When he came to this country 50 years ago,
he started studying English and now speaks it fluently.")
(3) It is
surely going to be a great party.
I believe that No. 3 is the sentence that many books and teachers
would say follows the "rule." The rule says:
Adverbs such as "surely" go
after the verb "to be."
(4) It
surely is going to be a great party.
Sentence No.4 breaks the rule, but that is OK. There are always
exceptions to the rule. If you put an adverb such as "surely"
before the verb "to be," that means that you want to stress
(emphasize or pronounce strongly/loudly) the form of "to be."
Tom: Is it going to be a great party?
You: It surely
IS (going to be a great party)!!!
Probably learners should follow the rule and produce sentences such as
No. 3. After they really understand English, they can then use
Nos. 1, 2, and 4.
THANK YOU
P.S. As the teacher told you in the first post, native speakers
often use "sure" in sentences No. 3 and 4. If you wish to speak
"correct" English, it is better to use "surely." By the way, it is
not possible to use "sure" in sentences Nos. 1 and 2!!!
(English is
surely a difficult language!)
