That's where I'm planning to retire. Still a long ways from that but it's where I wa

[B45]

My friend asks me if I'm planning to retire in California. I reply with:

That's where I'm planning to retire. Still a long ways from that but it's where I want my kid's to grow up and go to school.

VS

That's where I'm planning to retire. Still a long ways from it but that's where I want my kid's to grow up and go to school.

Are both useable here?

 

[probus]

There are multiple problems with both sentences.

The most important is this: you don't retire to a place where you want your kids to grow up. If you want your kids to grow up there, you move there while your kids are still young. To retire to a place means to move there when you have grown old and given up work.

Also please note: "They are my kids", no apostrophe. "I like my kid's drawings." The apostrophe indicates the possessive, not the plural.

If you fix those up and retry your query, we can try to deal with the other issues.

 

[B45]

My friend asks me if I'm planning to retire in California. I reply with:


That's where I want to retire. I'm still a long ways from that/there/it but that's/there's/it's where I want my family to be and where my kids grow up and go to school before I retire.


Do the corrections make the sentences better? What combinations would a native use?

 

[probus]

In my opinion all the combinations now work grammatically, but would not be uttered by a native speaker. I cannot say which is the most natural because having said "That's where I want to retire" I would never say any of them. You simply do not discuss items that occur earlier in life after a declaration about retirement. Retirement takes place after all those things are over and done with. When you are talking about your kids growing up and where you want to be, you put that first. Retirement come later.

 

[B45]

In my opinion all the combinations now work grammatically, but would not be uttered by a native speaker. I cannot say which is the most natural because having said "That's where I want to retire" I would never say any of them. You simply do not discuss items that occur earlier in life after a declaration about retirement. Retirement takes place after all those things are over and done with. When you are talking about your kids growing up and where you want to be, you put that first. Retirement come later.

I'm still a long ways from that/there/it but that's/there's/it's where I want my family to be and where my kids grow up and go to school before I retire.

Is this combination correct as well -

1. (California)That is where I want to retire after the kids are all grown up and gone to college.

A. I'm still a long ways from that but it's where I want my family to be and where my kids grow up and go to school before I retire.

When I'm saying I'm still a long ways from that - that replaces retire - and it's - replaces California.

So you're saying all three combinations are now useable?

Even the one I particularly picked out and marked in red?


Wouldn't it be better to say: I'm still a long ways from it(retire) but that's(California) where I want my family to be and where my kids grow up and go to school before I retire.

Since I used that for California in the very first sentence?

Or do all three combinations work no matter the word choices?

Thanks!

 

[B45]

Can someone please help with this question.

 

[bhaisahab]

"A long ways from..." is incorrect in my dialect of English.

 

[Raymott]

Your sentences don't work semantically because you're saying contradictory things.
First you say you want to retire in California after the kids finish college. Then you go on to say you want your kids to grow up and go to school in California.
It's like saying, "I want to live in California after I'm 55. I also want to live in California before I'm 55."

Assuming you want to live where your kids are, why not say simply say you want to move to California before you children start school, and stay there til you die? If you don't want your children living with you, you should explain that too.

 

[probus]

"A long ways from..." is incorrect in my dialect of English.

Understood, but it is okay in AmE.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Between this thread and the other one on the same topic, this is becoming "Night of the Living Sentence". The sentence that wouldn't die. :shock: