Peter dropped out of university

[Bassim]

I am wondering if my sentence sounds natural.

Peter dropped out of university after two years - the decision which he would bitterly regret when he had to work all kind of manual work to support himself.

 

[emsr2d2]

I am wondering if my sentence sounds natural.

Peter dropped out of university after two years, [strike]the[/strike] a decision [STRIKE]which[/STRIKE] he would come to bitterly regret when he had to [STRIKE]work[/STRIKE] take on all [STRIKE]kind[/STRIKE] sorts of manual work to support himself.

See above.

 

[jutfrank]

Change the to a. Change work to do. Change kind to kinds.

Edit: See post #2 above.

 

[Bassim]

emsr2d2,
Thank you for your correction.
I am wondering about "come to". Is there any grammatical explanation why I could not use "would bitterly regret, but need also "come to"?

 

[emsr2d2]

It's another way of saying "... a decision that he would later regret". Presumably, he didn't regret his decision instantly. Indeed, your post says that he had to take several manual jobs. It is likely that he regretted the decision a little more each time he realised he was stuck with another menial job.

 

[jutfrank]

I would say that come to regret is a collocation. That's also why it sounds good.

 

[Bassim]

jutfrank,

You are right. It's a collocation. I have probably read it many times in my dictionary. The problem is that I could not remember to use it when I needed it. If emsr2d2 did not tell me, I would probably never come upon it myself.

 

[GoesStation]

If emsr2d2 [STRIKE]did[/STRIKE] had not [STRIKE]tell[/STRIKE] told me, I would probably never have come upon it myself.

See above.

 

[Bassim]

GoesStation,
Thank you for correcting the above sentence.
My initial thought was to use "had" but I wrongly believed I could use "did".

 

[Tdol]

Would bitterly regret is not wrong- it is a question of improvement rather than correction to me, and it does improve things IMO.