[General] My cousin will only be with us for dinner

[Silverobama]

Hi.

I asked my cousin to go out for dinner with me and a friend. My friend and I would practice spoken English. My cousin doesn’t speak English at all.

I said "My cousin will only be with us for dinner; he speaks no English".

Is my sentence natural?

 

[teechar]

My friend and I would practice speaking English.

That sounds better.

My cousin will only be with us for dinner; he speaks no English.

That suggests that your cousin would leave after the meal. Is that what you meant?

 

[Tdol]

Your cousin will only be there to eat.

 

[Tarheel]

Hi.

I asked my cousin to go out for dinner with me and a friend. My friend and I would practice spoken English. My cousin doesn’t speak English at all.

I said "My cousin will only be with us for dinner; he speaks no English".

Is my sentence natural?

I would say:

That's OK. I don't speak any Chinese.
;-)

Yes, it's perfectly natural.

 

[Silverobama]

That sounds better.


That suggests that your cousin would leave after the meal. Is that what you meant?

No. What I wanted to say was that "My cousin will eat dinner with us but speak no English". The sentence I want has nothing to do whether he was leaving after the meal or not. He didn't leave. He had dinner with us and he just didn't speak English.

May I ask for a new sentence?

 

[tedmc]

How about:
My cousin will not join our conversation as he does not speak English.

 

[emsr2d2]

Somewhat off-topic: Isn't it a little mean to invite along someone who speaks no English and then spend the entire meal/evening speaking nothing but English? Even if your cousin only stays for the meal, he's going to be very bored!

 

[teechar]

I suppose it'll be a mix of English and Chinese. Try:

My cousin will come along, but he doesn't know English at all.

 

[Tarheel]

That doesn't mean they didn't speak to him at all.

 

[Tarheel]

Besides, it's not mean if he knew ahead of time about the situation and wanted to go anyway.

 

[Silverobama]

Somewhat off-topic: Isn't it a little mean to invite along someone who speaks no English and then spend the entire meal/evening speaking nothing but English? Even if your cousin only stays for the meal, he's going to be very bored!

I forgot to mention that this friend is a male. We met only once. We kept in touch with each other online because we both like English.

It's really not good to ask a woman out in the evening because I want her to feel more secure. My cousin is okay with that because he just wants to eat. He knows there will be my friend and me. If he doesn't want to come, he won't. The fact is, he was so happy.

 

[tedmc]

I forgot to mention that this friend is a male. We met only once. We kept in touch with each other online because we both like English.

It's really not good to ask a woman out in the evening because I want her to feel more secure. My cousin is okay with that because he just wants to eat. He knows there will be my friend and me. If he doesn't want to come, he won't. The fact is, he was so happy.

Your description is ambiguous whether the friend you are inviting for dinner is a male or female, not that its matters to the original post.

 

[Glizdka]

I forgot to mention that this friend is a male...
It's really not good to ask a woman out in the evening because I want her to feel more secure.

Not a teacher
------
I'm not sure if I misunderstood you, or you actually feel that way.

Are you aware that what you've written implies that you feel you don't need to care about someon's insecurities when you're asking them out because they're male? As in it makes you look somewhat sexist to say it's okay because you're just asking a man out, not a woman.

 

[emsr2d2]

From a cultural point of view, to me, your post about your friend being male is completely irrelevant - it doesn't matter what sex your friend is. You used the word "friend" so we know that person is not your romantic partner (boyfriend or girlfriend).

When I read your piece, it didn't occur to me to wonder what sex your friend is. You could have been going out for dinner with a male friend or you could have been going out for dinner with a female friend. Inviting your male cousin to join you wouldn't make any difference to how I feel.

 

[Tarheel]

I forgot to mention that this friend is a male. We met only once beforehand. We kept in touch with each other online because we both like English.

I

You get along well with each other. That's good.

 

[Tarheel]

It's really not good to ask a woman out in the evening, because I would want her to feel more secure. My cousin is okay with that because he just wants to eat. He knew there would be my friend and me. If he didn't want to come, he wouldn't have. The fact is, he was so happy.

Things turned out well, so that's good.

You have to treat women differently, I guess. (Because they're so delicate.)

 

[Tdol]

Don't expect my cousin to say much at dinner- he doesn't speak English.

 

[Tarheel]

And he'll be busy eating.

 

[emsr2d2]

You have to treat women differently, I guess. (Because they're so delicate.)

Oh yeah. Delicate. That's a word that's been used to describe me a lot. Not. :lol:

 

[GoesStation]

Oh yeah. Delicate. That's a word that's been used to describe me a lot. Not. :lol:

So it wouldn't be a good idea for me to assume you didn't know how to open a car door?