ohmyrichard
Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2008
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- China
- Current Location
- China
Dear teachers,
Please tell me which of the following versions of the sentence is what you native speakers use and very comfortable with:
1. Why do you think your mom is not a helicopter parent?
2. Why do you not think your mom is a helicopter parent?
3. Why don't you think your mom is a helicopter parent?
This question came to me when this afternoon I was thinking about how to conduct my English classes next week where I would like to discuss the topic of "helicopter parent" with my students before I ask them to write a body paragraph on this topic as an in-class writing activity. I plan to first introduce them to the concept of "helicopter parent" and then ask them, "Is your mom/dad a helicopter parent?" To this question, no doubt there will be either an affirmative answer or a negative answer from my students(Certainly some students may say that they find it hard to decide whether their mom/ dad is or not). Then, in order to help them generate ideas for their writing, I need to ask the follow-up questions of "Why do you think she/he is a helicopter parent?" and "Why do you think he or she is not a helicopter parent?" corresponding to students' positive answer and negative answer. My Collins COBUILD English Usage tells me on p.714 that:
Instead of saying that you think something is not the case, you usually say that you don't think it is the case.
I don't think they really represent the people.
I don't think there is any doubt about that.
However, the dictionary does not tell me how to structure a wh-question involving "think" in the negative case. Which one or two of 1, 2 and 3 is/are correct? Please do not overthink, just tell me what you native speakers of English use very often when you are in this situation-- that is, which one(s) sound(s) quite natural to your native ears? Thanks a lot.
Richard
Please tell me which of the following versions of the sentence is what you native speakers use and very comfortable with:
1. Why do you think your mom is not a helicopter parent?
2. Why do you not think your mom is a helicopter parent?
3. Why don't you think your mom is a helicopter parent?
This question came to me when this afternoon I was thinking about how to conduct my English classes next week where I would like to discuss the topic of "helicopter parent" with my students before I ask them to write a body paragraph on this topic as an in-class writing activity. I plan to first introduce them to the concept of "helicopter parent" and then ask them, "Is your mom/dad a helicopter parent?" To this question, no doubt there will be either an affirmative answer or a negative answer from my students(Certainly some students may say that they find it hard to decide whether their mom/ dad is or not). Then, in order to help them generate ideas for their writing, I need to ask the follow-up questions of "Why do you think she/he is a helicopter parent?" and "Why do you think he or she is not a helicopter parent?" corresponding to students' positive answer and negative answer. My Collins COBUILD English Usage tells me on p.714 that:
Instead of saying that you think something is not the case, you usually say that you don't think it is the case.
I don't think they really represent the people.
I don't think there is any doubt about that.
However, the dictionary does not tell me how to structure a wh-question involving "think" in the negative case. Which one or two of 1, 2 and 3 is/are correct? Please do not overthink, just tell me what you native speakers of English use very often when you are in this situation-- that is, which one(s) sound(s) quite natural to your native ears? Thanks a lot.
Richard