Are these correct?

[jibou]

Teachers,

If you were to tell that there's no more possible ways to try:

　There's no other way but to give up.
　There's nothing anyone can do but give up.
　There's nothing I[we] can do but give up.
　There's nothing you can do but give up.

Are these correct? Do these make any sense?

Thank you.

 

[Offroad]

[Not a teacher]

They're correct.

 

[vekarppe]

[Not a teacher]

One more: there is nothing to do but give up.

 

[Gundl]

The first sentence does not sound right. Giving up is not a way but something you do.

 

[jibou]

The first sentence does not sound right. Giving up is not a way but something you do.

Then,

There's no other way but give up.

I took out 'to' from the sentence. Is this correct?

 

[jctgf]

Then,

There's no other way but give up.

I took out 'to' from the sentence. Is this correct?

i am just a student but i would say that you can`t take `to` from the sentences.
hope a teacher can clarify.
regards.

 

[David L.]

While we understand what you are getting at in each of those sentences, they are not how a native speaker would express it> Firstly, the expression "there's no other way' is used to mean, that there's no other way to get round a problem other than some way that they are reluctant to follow.
Say, a man has lots of debts that need to be paid. One way would be to go to the bank for a loan...but he has a poor credit rating, no job, and so the bank won't loan him the money. He has no car or other item that he could sell that would give him enough money to pay the bills. His only other option is to ask relatives to lend him the money which he absolutely doesn't want to do. When he talks it over with his friend, his friend might say, "there's no other way - you'll have to ask your uncle."
The point is, that 'no other way' implies other than this way of dealing with a problem (asking your uncle in the example), and 'giving up' is not really regarded as 'a way' of dealing with a problem : giving up means resigning yourself to the fact that there's 'nothing else you can do', there is no way to deal with the problem.

"There's no other way but to give up."
Native speaker would say - There's nothing else we can do but give up


　There's nothing anyone can do but give up.
- There's nothing anyone can do. You'll just have to give up.

　
　There's nothing else you can do but give up.
Good - as a native speaker would say it.

 

[Offroad]

　There's nothing anyone can do but give up.
- There's nothing anyone can do. You'll just have to give up.

Good - as a native speaker would say it.

yes, David, but I remember I heard that sentence from a native (probably a movie), so one can say it is usual. I don't know, I am not a teacher, but I guess this is about the (big) difference between spoken and written English. :-D

and whether you google it:
"nothing you can do but give up" - Google Search

There's over 2700 entries on the internet!;-)

 

[Anglika]

yes, David, but I remember I heard that sentence from a native (probably a movie), so one can say it is usual. I don't know, I am not a teacher, but I guess this is about the (big) difference between spoken and written English. :-D

and whether you google it:
"nothing you can do but give up" - Google Search

There's over 2700 entries on the internet!;-)

A Google search is not a great indicator. A great deal of what is on the internet is poorly written English.

I only get 10 references on this search and four of these are the same reference, one is a song, two are this question, and the other two are part of a fuller context.

 

[Offroad]

So, nobody talks like that? even the ones who are not from UK?

I am not saying that you who are not from UK have a bad spoken English.

Thanks in advance.

 

[David L.]

"There's nothing anyone can do but give up" : tell me, who's going to give up? Is 'anyone' the person who is going to give up??

- There's nothing anyone can do, (John). You'll just have to give up.
That makes it clear: there's nothing that anyone can do to help John out of this situation, so 'you'll just have to give up' - John will have to give up.

"There's nothing anyone can do but give up" : tell me, who's going to give up? Is 'anyone' the person who is going to give up??

- There's nothing anyone can do, (John). You'll just have to give up.
That makes it clear: there's nothing that anyone can do to help John out of this situation, so 'you'll just have to give up' - John will have to give up.

I contribute to this forum because I believe it tries to help learners speak grammatically correct English, both in formal and colloquial speech...and to express themselves clearly and correctly. Someone, sometime or other in a TV report must have said, talking about some trauma, "The scars will never heal." Now, you hear people repeating it whenever they have been through a bad time, and read in on the net - there are nearly 5,000 hits on google for it.
It's certainly grammatically correct, but an anyone see what is wrong with that expression?

DL
DL

 

[Offroad]

David, thanks for your help, but my coin has not dropped yet. Let me explain why:

one could say:

That child does nothing but watch TV. Who does watch TV? That child.
She is not interested in anything but skiing. Who is interested in skiing? She.
There's nothing you can do but give up. Who is going to give up? You.


As for the "to" usage:

The train was cancelled, so I had no alternative but to take a taxi.

English is not that simple, actually, what language is?

Interesting thread. Thanks.

 

[David L.]

"There's nothing anyone can do but give up" : tell me, who's going to give up? Is 'anyone' the person who is going to give up??

- There's nothing anyone can do, (John). You'll just have to give up.
That makes it clear: there's nothing that anyone can do to help John out of this situation, so 'you'll just have to give up' - John will have to give up.

I contribute to this forum because I believe it tries to help learners speak grammatically correct English, both in formal and colloquial speech...and to express themselves clearly and correctly. Someone, sometime or other in a TV report must have said, talking about some trauma, "The scars will never heal." Now, you hear people repeating it whenever they have been through a bad time, and read in on the net - there are nearly 5,000 hits on Google for it.
It's certainly grammatically correct, but can anyone see what is wrong with that expression?

 

[David L.]

There's nothing you can do but give up.

This is correct.


I took issue with , 'there's nothing anyone can do but give up."

Do you mean, someone is lamenting having thrown in the towel, and a friend is consoling them by saying, "There's nothing else anybody could do but give up."

 

[Offroad]

The scars will take a long time to heal.

right?

 

[albertino]

Then,

There's no other way but give up.

I took out 'to' from the sentence. Is this correct?

The crux of the problem is that
if there is an action verb "do" appearing in the main clause before the conjunctions of "except" and "but", we usually omit the use of "to" after "except" and "but". Look at these examples, "The rival can do nothing but/except surrender vs. The rival had nothing to choose but/except to surrender. "(Not a teacher);-)

 

[David L.]

Again, you have made it clear - it 's 'rival' who is going to surrender. In each of the examples, it's 'John', 'you', 'rival'. For the life of me, I can't get my brain to accept the construction, 'there's nothing anyone can do but give up'.
If it makes sense to you, then let's call it an idiosyncracy of my brain - there's nothing I can do here but give up.

 

[Offroad]

I don't know, at first sight, I'd say this sentence is right:

there's nothing anyone can do but give up.

Who is going to give up? Anyone, it may be me, she, he, even you.

in my view, anyone here means any person in the world.

there's nothing any person in the world can do but give up.

 

[riverkid]

I don't know, at first sight, I'd say this sentence is right:

there's nothing anyone can do but give up.

Who is going to give up? Anyone, it may be me, she, he, even you.

in my view, anyone here means any person in the world.

there's nothing any person in the world can do but give up.

You're right, it's right and your description of its meaning is right. That's three rights and three rights make three rights, Marcio.

 

[riverkid]

I contribute to this forum because I believe it tries to help learners speak grammatically correct English, both in formal and colloquial speech...and to express themselves clearly and correctly.

Who is 'someone', below, David, and when is 'sometime or other'?

Someone, sometime or other in a TV report must have said, talking about some trauma, "The scars will never heal." Now, you hear people repeating it whenever they have been through a bad time, and read in on the net - there are nearly 5,000 hits on google for it.
It's certainly grammatically correct, but can anyone see what is wrong with that expression?

Who is 'anyone', David?

Can anyone ask you to explain what is wrong with, "The scars will never heal"?



DL
DL

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