[General] repel

[Silverobama]

Hi.

Are my sentences natural with "repel"?

1) They repelled the enemy. (good)
2) His manner repels me. (good)

Source: Personal notebook of sentences with unknown origins.

 

[GoesStation]

Both okay.

 

[Silverobama]

I have to say, Silver that many of the sentences you have been posting recently would have been 'natural' with a large number of other words.

We could say, for example: They attacked/defeated/avoided/feared/hated/skirted/charged/bombed/fooled/etc the enemy. You need to provide more context if you wish to be certain that you are using the words you are asking about appropriately.

I'll try, Piscean, to learn how to use English words. These sentences are from my notebooks; they're stand-alone sentences. Usually I just want to know if the sentence is natural with the word and it's enough. I know this is not the way you learn a language and it looks stupid, but please trust me that I'm not irritating my teachers here.

In China, we learn and remember English words. When I was young, I learned how to remember them without context. I have studied English by myself for 20 years and I met Rover on WR, later I became a member of this good place. If I were born in the UK or the US, I would have thrown my stupid notebooks away. But now I'm doing is for my students and me, I want to know if these sentences are good so that I can use them in the future.

Yes, we can say "They attacked/defeated the enemy". And you need more context. But for me, I just want to know if the sentence is okay. If it is, I'll keep it for future reference. If it's not, I'll leave it out.

I'm sorry for keeping bothering you. But please help me with my sentences if you don't mind. I'm always trying my best to be a nice person here, sincerely.

 

[Skrej]

I believe what Piscean is suggesting is that asking if a given sentence is natural with a specific word is somewhat misleading about what you're asking. It's also kind of redundant.

If you want to know if your sentences are natural, don't specify which word because they can be natural with many words. Simply ask "Are these sentences natural?"

If you are concerned whether you've used a specific word or phrase correctly, then ask something like "Have I used X correctly in these sentences?" I forget the username, but there is a member who frequently posts questions that go something like "I've tried using X in these sentences. Please check them." That tells us that while they're still concerned about the overall grammar, they're focusing on using one particular word.


If you give us a sentence that's grammatically correct, but not a natural use of the word in question, someone will point that out.

 

[tedmc]

I have to say, Silver that many of the sentences you have been posting recently would have been 'natural' with a large number of other words.

We could say, for example: They attacked/defeated/avoided/feared/hated/skirted/charged/bombed/fooled/etc the enemy. You need to provide more context if you wish to be certain that you are using the words you are asking about appropriately.

The sentences are too simple to show that the writer understands the word in question and to illustrate how it is used. There are countless words which can replace the verb in the sentences.

 

[jutfrank]

I agree with all the comments above.

What I understand from Silver's questions about the 'naturalness' of these rather artificial sentences is that he's really asking whether they serve as good examples of whichever word it is they include.

It's quite possible I think that a sentence can in theory be an excellent example to show the meaning/use of a word while at the same time sounding old-fashioned, or stilted, or forced, or whatever.