without our being aware of it vs without our awareness of it

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anhnha

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Ideomotor action is an activity that occurs without our noticing it, without our being aware of it.
Can I replace the bold phrase by "without our awareness of it"?
Are there other ways to say it?
 

Gillnetter

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Ideomotor action is an activity that occurs without our noticing it, without our being aware of it.
Can I replace the bold phrase by "without our awareness of it"?
Are there other ways to say it?
There are many ways to express this. I bet that you can come up with at least five different ways to express this. Why not give a try?
 

anhnha

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There are many ways to express this. I bet that you can come up with at least five different ways to express this. Why not give a try?
I am not sure if they are correct or not.
1. "without our awareness of it"
2. "without our knowing about it"
3. "without our realizing it"
4. "beyond our awareness of it"
5. "out of our awareness of it"
I feel a bit hard to using "being" in a sentence. In the sentence above, is there any difference in meaning between two sentences if I replace "being aware" by "awareness"?
 

emsr2d2

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I am not sure if they are correct or not.
1. "without our awareness of it"
2. "without our knowing about it"
3. "without our realizing it"
4. "beyond our awareness of it"
5. "out of our awareness of it"
I feel a bit hard to using "being" in a sentence. In the sentence above, is there any difference in meaning between two sentences if I replace "being aware" by "awareness"?

"... without our being aware of it" is absolutely fine.

4 doesn't work. We don't refer to things being "beyond our awareness" usually. An argument could be made for "outside our awareness" perhaps.
5 doesn't work at all.
 

bhaisahab

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I am not sure if they are correct or not.
1. "without our awareness of it"
2. "without our knowing about it"
3. "without our realizing it"
4. "beyond our awareness of it"
5. "out of our awareness of it"
I feel a bit hard to using "being" in a sentence. In the sentence above, is there any difference in meaning between two sentences if I replace "being aware" by "awareness"?

The original is by far the most natural. You will also hear "without us being aware of it".
 

emsr2d2

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The original is by far the most natural. You will also hear "without us being aware of it".

I agree. In fact, these days you'll probably hear "us" more frequently than "our" in this kind of construction, much to the disappointment of many grammarians.
 

5jj

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In fact, these days you'll probably hear "us" more frequently than "our" in this kind of construction, much to the disappointment of many grammarians.
To the disappointment of some writers of style guides perhaps. Serious grammarians have more sense than to be disappointed by changes in language; they merely note them.
 
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