Constructing sentences using the word dance

**Odessa Dawn** · 14-Jan-2013, 11:48

Originally Posted by 5jj

'I dance greatly' is wrong.
'I dance great' is informally acceptable.
'I'm a great dancer' is fine.

^{Originally Posted by BobK

Or 'My dancing is great'.

('His dancing is greatly over-rated! - you can use the -ly adverb there. )

b

"6} But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias's daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him,

⁷ so he promised with a vow to give her anything she wanted."

Please check the following sentences in which I am looking forward to constructing statements that are syntactically and semantically acceptable to native English speakers. I have checked the above sources in order to learn how native speakers build a correct sentence of the word dance and I just to follow suit.

^{1.I can perform a dance that greatly pleases others.}

^{2.Performing a dance in such a way can bring you to wealth and prestige.}

^{3.Your dancing is beyond measure.}

^{4.Her shape means she can dance greatly.}

^{5.She is looking forward to performing a dance in which her situation will improve (earning a lot of money). In other words, putting an end to her misery.}

^{6.She is her family's bread winner and from the lower class. Thus, dancing greatly will set her free from being in debt to debt-free.}

**5jj** · 14-Jan-2013, 12:21

[QUOTE=Odessa Dawn;954095]

#1 and #2 are possible, though unlikely ever be uttered by native speakers, in my opinion. #3 and #4 are unnatural. 5 is just about possible, though very unlikely to be uttered. #6 is not possible,

**BobK** · 14-Jan-2013, 12:27

I don't know what you hope to achieve, but...

Originally Posted by Odessa Dawn

...
^{1.I can perform a dance that greatly pleases others.}OK but unlikely in the 21st century

^{2.Performing a dance in such a way can bring you to wealth and prestige.}OK but unlikely in the 21st century - even less so with the 'to'.

^{3.Your dancing is beyond measure.}Grammatically fine, but meaningless. The thing to measure is verve/energeticness/skill.... You can't measure dancing.

^{4.Her shape means she can dance greatly.}

(And I don't care if an infinite number of monkeys produced that text by randomly typing

)

^{5.She is looking forward to performing a dance in which her situation will improve (earning a lot of money). In other words, putting an end to her misery.} After the tick, there is a dangling participle and then a 'sentence' that lacks a finite verb.)

^{6.She is her family's bread winner and from the lower class. Thus, dancing greatly will set her free from being in debt to debt-free.} See above. Dancing and greatly don't collocate. They can, by an accident of syntax, occur next to each other - as in 'Her dancing greatly pleased him'.

b

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