Brighton is meant to be very beautiful at this time of year.

[aliakar86]

I want to ask a question about ''be intend to be'' which you dont mentioned.I found these sentence in the macmillan dictonary ''You were meant to keep the children out of trouble.'' does it convey that keeping the children out of trouble was my obligation but I failed I mean it has same meaning with You should have kept the children out of trouble but you didnt.
I dont understan what meant to be means ''I thought we could be friends, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.''
3.Another meaning of be meant to be is expected like be supposed to and should be and I can use ''be supposed to'' or ''should'' instead I use ''be expected to '' for below sentences
The buses are meant toarrive every 15 minutes.

Brighton is meant tobe very beautiful at this time of year.


The buses are meant to arrive every 15 minutes.
My last question is last two last sentenced are used for telling ''we expect something likely happen soon .I ask this last question because I want to be sure how I use it.Thanks for Advance

 

[Barque]

I found these sentence in the macmillan dictonary ''You were meant to keep the children out of trouble.'' does it convey that keeping the children out of trouble was my obligation but I failed

The speaker means the other person was supposed to keep the children out of trouble. It doesn't say specifically whether the other person failed to do so or not. It implies that the other person failed to do so, but I can also think of a context where the other person didn't fail to do so.

I dont understan what meant to be means ''I thought we could be friends, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.''

This means: I thought we could be friends, but destiny/fate didn't allow us to be.

The buses are meant toarrive every 15 minutes.

This doesn't sound natural.
The buses are supposed to arrive every fifteen minutes. That's their schedule. Using "meant to" sounds as if the buses are constructed in such a way that they'll arrive every fifteen minutes, which of course isn't the intention.

Brighton is meant tobe very beautiful at this time of year.

This sentence sounds as if someone has decided that Brighton is to be made to look beautiful at a certain time of year.

If you're talking of a fact, and you want to say that at a certain time of year Brighton is naturally a beautiful city (for example because of flowers in spring), or due to something that's customarily done every year (for example decorations at Christmas time), the right sentence is:
Brighton is very beautiful at this time of year.

 

[Tarheel]

@aliakar86 The first sentence should have been: "I have a question about 'intend to be'".

Write shorter, simpler sentences.

Rather than explaining things like the definitions of words or whatever it would be better to get right to the question.

Make more paragraphs.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[jutfrank]

Brighton is meant to be very beautiful at this time of year.

The buses are meant to arrive every 15 minutes.

These two sentences are perfectly natural in British English. I don't know about other varieties.

The first is a report of what people generally say. Its indirectness comes as a result of the speaker having no direct experience of Brighton at this time of year. The second is about what is supposed to happen, according to a fixed schedule.

Both contexts could use be supposed to without any significant change. Neither context could use be expected to or should and still keep the same meaning.

 

[Tarheel]

I would say: "Brighton is very beautiful at this time of the year," And: "The buses arrive every fifteen minutes."

I would take "meant to be" as meaning "supposed to be".

 

[jutfrank]

I would say: "Brighton is very beautiful at this time of the year," And: "The buses arrive every fifteen minutes."

As I tried to explain in post #4, neither of your sentences say what the original sentences mean.

 

[Barque]

These two sentences are perfectly natural in British English.

I see.

I suppose I wouldn't be too surprised by "The buses are meant to arrive every fifteen minutes", though I consider "supposed" the more natural choice if the buses were running late and you were speaking of their usual schedule. If I was making a general statement on what usually happens, I'd say "The buses arrive ..."

I'm however surprised to hear that "Brighton's meant to be very beautiful at this time of year" would be considered natural in BE if "meant" is meant to be a substitute for "supposed". I'd only use "supposed", because I'd read "meant" as meaning "intended" in this sentence. But you'd know better than me of course.

By the same logic, would you also consider "England's meant to be very pleasant in the summer" a natural sentence? An acceptable substitute for "England's supposed to be very pleasant in the summer"?

 

[aliakar86]

Thanks for all your answers .were helpful for me.I would say in all that cases I can use ''be suppose to '' instead of ''be meant to be''

 

[Tarheel]

While it is not, I think, often used, "It wasn't meant to be" is, I think, well understood. (@Barque explained it in post #2.)

 

[5jj]

I can use ''be supposed to''

.

 

[jutfrank]

By the same logic, would you also consider "England's meant to be very pleasant in the summer" a natural sentence? An acceptable substitute for "England's supposed to be very pleasant in the summer"?

Yes, that's identical to the Brighton sentence.

It's interesting to learn that you don't use 'meant' in this way of reporting what is generally believed. Perhaps it's a British thing only.

 

[Barque]

Yes, that's identical to the Brighton sentence.

It's interesting to learn that you don't use 'meant' in this way of reporting what is generally believed. Perhaps it's a British thing only.

To be frank, I'm having a hard time getting my head around it. I still don't like your Brighton sentences.

I'm curious to know what 5jj and emsr2d2 would say in reply to my post #7.

I use "meant" to mean "intended". In some cases, I agree it can mean "supposed".

 

[emsr2d2]

It's absolutely fine for me.

Helen: I'm going to see the new Top Gun film tonight.
Mark: Lucky you. It's meant to be fantastic.

Bill: The new boss starts tomorrow.
Sarah: We'd better be on time then. He's meant to be an absolutely stickler for punctuality.

In both dialogues, "meant to be" is the equivalent of "it's generally thought/believed/said to be".

 

[jutfrank]

To be frank, I'm having a hard time getting my head around it. I still don't like your Brighton sentences.

I see what you mean—it's sounds as if there must be some sense of intention. That must be hard to hear if you're not used to the usage; however, I can assure you it's very common in my part of the world.

 

[Tarheel]

Apparently, that particular usage never crossed the Atlantic.

 

[Barque]

I see what you mean—it's sounds as if there must be some sense of intention. That must be hard to hear if you're not used to the usage; however, I can assure you it's very common in my part of the world.

I was thinking about this. I can imagine someone saying "England's meant to be pleasant in the summer" in a complaining tone, if some year the summer wasn't pleasant. I'd take that to mean "It doesn't seem right that this year, summer isn't pleasant as it usually is". But yes, it's hard to get used to thinking of it as also meaning "generally thought to be".

 

[jutfrank]

I was thinking about this. I can imagine someone saying "England's meant to be pleasant in the summer" in a complaining tone, if some year the summer wasn't pleasant. I'd take that to mean "It doesn't seem right that this year, summer isn't pleasant as it usually is". But yes, it's hard to get used to thinking of it as also meaning "generally thought to be".

Yes, I understand how that must be. It doesn't make much analytical sense, and I wouldn't teach it to learners. I'm concluding that this must be characteristically British usage.

 

[Skrej]

These two sentences are perfectly natural in British English. I don't know about other varieties.

I find them both completely natural in AmE as well.

In AmE, the use of 'meant' suggests that something has gone awry to change the expected outcome. The busses aren't arriving every fifteen minutes for whatever reason, and Brighton isn't as pretty as it was designed to be, because of X problem.

 

[Barque]

and Brighton isn't as pretty as it was designed to be, because of X problem.

I think you might have misunderstood Jutfrank's point. What you're saying seems closer to the point I was making.

The point wasn't just about whether they were natural. It was about whether "meant" could be taken as a perfect synonym of "supposed".
Brighton's supposed to be beautiful.
Brighton's meant to be beautiful.
Do these two sentences have the exact same meaning? Two BE speakers say they do, in BE.

 

[Skrej]

I did not. I'm simply stating that they're natural in AmE as well, albeit with slightly different meanings. Hence my clarification on how I'd interpret them in AmE.

However, I don't have any issues with the BrE use of 'meant' either. I'm not quite sure whether an AmE speaker would interpret them that way, but I clearly see the point he's making.