[Vocabulary] in person or personally

[Joern Matthias]

Hello everybody,


Which of the two underlined would you use in each of the following example sentences and
why?


1) The mayor gave me a present in person/personally.

2) The pope shook my hand in person/personally.

3) My father went to the bank in person/personally to sort out a problem with his account.

If I negated each of the 3 sentences above, which of the two underlined would you use and why?

Looking forward to your answers.

Joern

 

[Rover_KE]

Tell us first which you would choose and why, Joern.

 

[Tarheel]

I have two questions. First, how does a person negate a sentence? Second, is this a game where I am supposed to guess what words you left out?

 

[Joern Matthias]

I have two questions. First, how does a person negate a sentence? Second, is this a game where I am supposed to guess what words you left out?

Hello Tarheel,

Thanks for your reply!

What I meant by negating was using 'not'.

1) The mayor did not give me a present personally/in person.

2) The pope did not shake my hand personally/in person.

3) My father did not go to the bank personally/in person to sort out a problem with his account.

I do not have the intention of having anyone guess what words I left out.
All I asked was what is correct in each sentence-personally or in person.
Hope this makes it clearer.

 

[Joern Matthias]

Tell us first which you would choose and why, Joern.

Hello Rover,

Thanks for your reply!

My gut feeling tells me that it is `in person` in all 3 sentences because of going to/being in a certain place or at a certain scene, but I am not 100% sure.
The same goes if I turn these affirmative sentences into negative ones. So, what do you think, Rover?

 

[Rover_KE]

I would use 'in person' in #1 as 'personally' is usually placed earlier in the sentence.

'The mayor personally gave me a present.' 'The mayor didn't personally give me a present.' (He delegated his deputy to do it.)

In #2 both options are redundant. He either shook hands with me or he didn't.

I agree with your choice and reasoning in #3.

 

[Joern Matthias]

Thank you so much.

Just imagine if the pope delegated somebody to shake hands with me, ha, ha, ha.

 

[Tarheel]

Which of the two underlined words would you use in each of the following example sentences and
why?




If I negated each of the 3 sentences above, which of the two underlined words would you use and why?

I'm looking forward to more questions.