his surprise when she entered the room

navi tasan

Key Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2002
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
Persian
Home Country
Iran
Current Location
United States
1) I can't describe his surprise when she entered the room.
2) I can't describe her anger when he winked at her.
3) I can't forgive his arrogance when he introduced himself to me.

Which of the above sentences are correct?
 
They're all grammatical but I wouldn't word any of them the same way. With the first two, in BrE at least, we have a very similar way of telling someone how hard you're finding it to convey something but it involves two (sometime three) more words - "[even] begin to".

I can't [even] begin to describe ...

Also with the first two, I believe the majority of BrE speakers would use "how + adjective", rather than "possessive pronoun + noun".

I can't [even] begin to describe how surprised/angry he was/she was when ...

In #3, bear in mind that while it is possible to forgive behaviour, especially if it's done by someone you otherwise like or admire, we generally talk about forgiving people.

I can't forgive him for the [level of] arrogance he showed when ...
 

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