Hi there!
Asking for your help again
Would you accept as (grammatically) correct
(keeping in mind that these sentences were written by 11-year-old non-native speakers)
1)"It was raining cats and dogs" in the past tense simple as well as
it rained cats and dogs - it does sound a a tad strange
2) He bought a hamburger with extra cheese.
3) He came out of the fast - food restaurant.
He saw his car swimming in the lake.
He watched his car as it went down in the lake.
He saw his car in the lake.
Thank you.
Last edited by beascarpetta; 30-Dec-2007 at 13:08.
I have no problem at all with anything in 1) and 2) (except that 1 is a cliché), although I don't know the context, so I don't know if the tenses are appropriate.
In 3) :-
We don't normally talk about cars swimming in lakes. "Floating" or "sinking" might have been intended here. And I'd suggest "sank" instead of "went down".
thank you very much for your suggestions, rewboss
"raining cats and dogs" is an idiom. I think that these are terrific sentences, especially considering the age and the fact that the writer is a second language learner.
I don't see why we couldn't use 'car swimming' in a figurative sense. It could capture a humorous situation quite well, though the writer may not have intended this.
Thank you , riverkid, for pointing out facts I always seem to forget.Originally Posted by riverkid
So I probably shouldn't tell you that they've only got one year of English below their belts.
I have to confess I always have a good laugh while correcting their tests, but after doing thirty of them I am a bit knackered.
Still, the pun was definitely not intended and I am supposed to offer advice /hard and fast rules.
And you sadly never get extra points for capturing humorous situations within our linguistic performance assessment system.
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