[Grammar] Detract From

Status
Not open for further replies.

QueryDay

Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bosnian
Home Country
Bosnia Herzegovina
Current Location
Bosnia Herzegovina
"He tried to detract from the severity of the accident."
"He tried to take away from the severity of the accident."

Could both be standard English?
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
"To try to detract from" does not sound natural to me. Normally, we say that something "did/did not detract from" something else. It's not normally something which is attempted.
 

QueryDay

Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bosnian
Home Country
Bosnia Herzegovina
Current Location
Bosnia Herzegovina
Then, "He tried to take away from the severity of the accident" is okay English?
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Then, "He tried to take away from the severity of the accident" is okay English?

I think we need some context. My initial reaction is that "He tried to take people's attention away from the severity of the accident" or something similar is more natural but without knowing what it is he is actually doing, it's impossible to tell.
 

QueryDay

Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bosnian
Home Country
Bosnia Herzegovina
Current Location
Bosnia Herzegovina
More context:

nytimes.com/2008/07/15/nyregion/15adopt.html?pagewanted=print

" 'While nothing can detract from the severity of defendant’s criminal acts,' the lawyers wrote, 'these children are also victims of a system that repeatedly failed at every turn to uncover the most basic and fundamental factual truths.' "
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
More context:

nytimes.com/2008/07/15/nyregion/15adopt.html?pagewanted=print

" 'While nothing can detract from the severity of defendant’s criminal acts,' the lawyers wrote, 'these children are also victims of a system that repeatedly failed at every turn to uncover the most basic and fundamental factual truths.' "

On that basis, why did your original question involve "He tried to detract from ..."?

I realise that your basis question appears to be "Can I use "take away from" in place of "detract from" but I can't see why you would change the whole thing. You could have posted the quote from the New York Times in the first place and simply asked if the writer could have used "take away from" instead.

I concentrated on the use of "He tried ..." in both of your examples.
 

QueryDay

Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bosnian
Home Country
Bosnia Herzegovina
Current Location
Bosnia Herzegovina
Thank you, emsr2d2!

So, the newspaper got it wrong due to poor editing?
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Thank you, emsr2d2!

So, the newspaper got it wrong due to poor editing?

What on earth gives you that idea? Their sentence is absolutely fine. As I said, we normally say that something does or does not (or in this case "can/cannot") detract from something. What I said was that saying that "someone tries to detract from something is incorrect".
 

QueryDay

Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bosnian
Home Country
Bosnia Herzegovina
Current Location
Bosnia Herzegovina
Thank you for your reply, emsr2d2!

Making a few changes:

"Nothing can detract from the severity of the accident."
"Nothing can take away from the severity of the accident."

Only the first sentence is real English and the second is fake English?
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Thank you for your reply, emsr2d2!

Making a few changes:

"Nothing can detract from the severity of the accident."
"Nothing can take away from the severity of the accident."

Only the first sentence is real English and the second is fake English?

They're both fine. What is "fake English?"
 

QueryDay

Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bosnian
Home Country
Bosnia Herzegovina
Current Location
Bosnia Herzegovina
Thank you, emsr2d2!

Most dictionaries seem to imply that only 3 & 4 are possible:

1 "Nothing can detract from the severity of the accident."
2 "Nothing can take away from the severity of the accident."

3 "Nothing can detract from the success of the team."
4 "Nothing can take away from the success of the team."
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
Most dictionaries seem to imply that only 3 & 4 are possible:

1 "Nothing can detract from the severity of the accident."
2 "Nothing can take away from the severity of the accident."

3 "Nothing can detract from the success of the team."
4 "Nothing can take away from the success of the team."
Would you care to provide links to dictionaries that seem to imply this?
 

QueryDay

Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bosnian
Home Country
Bosnia Herzegovina
Current Location
Bosnia Herzegovina
Add "www" and "." to the heads of:


macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/take-away-from

macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/detract
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
There is nothing I can see there that seems to imply what you suggested in post #7
 

QueryDay

Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bosnian
Home Country
Bosnia Herzegovina
Current Location
Bosnia Herzegovina
The definitions from those ( in message #13) are:

"to make something seem less good, attractive, or important"
"to reduce the positive effect or success of something"

Both imply unambiguously that the direct object of take away from and detract from should be something positive, like success, achievement, victory, a good day, etc....
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Top