to buy dishes

[navi tasan]

Which are correct?

1) I took my wife to buy dishes.
2) I took my wife to buy dishes for her.
3) I took my wife to buy dishes with her.
4) I took my wife to buy dishes together.

In '1', who is going to buy dishes?

 

[Tarheel]

My guess is all of them are grammatically correct, but I wouldn't use any of them. Perhaps: "My wife and I went to the store to buy some dishes."

 

[Tarheel]

**I took my wife to buy dishes.**

The two of you went to buy dishes. I don't know who was doing the buying. In fact, I can't be sure you bought dishes. I only know what your intentions were.

 

[Piscean]

In '1', who is going to buy dishes?

It could be either or both of you.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's not really clear in any of them who's actually going to pay for them. #2 comes closest because "to buy dishes for her" makes it sound like the dishes are a present, in which case you'd be paying for them.
#4 is very unnatural. We don't "take someone somewhere together" when there are only two people involved.

Tarheel's suggestion in post #2 is what you need. What were you trying to practise when you wrote those four sentences?

 

[Skrej]

#4 is very unnatural. We don't "take someone somewhere together" when there are only two people involved.

I parsed that one differently, with them buying dishes together, rather than taking someone someplace together. I agree the latter doesn't work with only two people, but the first one certainly does. As such, I don't really have a problem with #4.

#3 sounds odd to my ear with only two people. It sounds to me like the husband is either taking his wife and one additional person to buy dishes or he's taking his wife to meet up with a third person to buy dishes. Either way it's unclear who the dishes are for, or who's paying.

As far as that goes, the antecedent of 'her' isn't clear either in #2. It's possible that he's taking his wife to buy dishes for yet another woman.

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you all very much,

I was trying to figure out what they meant. Your responses have been very helpful. Emsr2d2 and especially Skrej thought of possibilities that had not even crossed my mind. Tarheel has, as usual, found an elegant and straightforward way to get the idea across.

Thanks again.

 

[Tarheel]

Thank you all very much,

I was trying to figure out what they MEAN. Your responses have been very helpful. Emsr2d2 and especially Skrej thought of possibilities that had not even crossed my mind. Tarheel has, as usual, found an elegant and straightforward way to get the idea across.

Thanks again.

Why use present tense there? Because there's no reason to expect the meaning to change any time soon.

I am a little puzzled. Aren't those your sentences?

(Thanks for the compliment. Nobody has ever used the word "elegant" in connection with me before.)

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you very much, Tarheel,

Even your name is elegant!

I was just backshifting. Since the first verb was 'was trying' I backshifted 'mean'.

They are my sentences. But I had heard a sentence like '1' in a TV series.. I constructed '2', '3' and '4' by adding stuff to '1'. I thought '1', '2' and '4' were unremarkable. Like Skrej I find '3' odd. I read '4' like Skrej. That's why I found it natural.

Gratefully,
Navi

 

[Tarheel]

@navi tasan I thought you were talking about something that had really happened. (My mistake. ) Because of that I didn't understand you asking people what they (the sentences) mean.

A conversation. (See below.)

Abe: My wife and I went to Walmart the other day.
Frank: Did you spend a lot of time there?
Abe: Yeah. We were going to just get some dishes, but we wound up getting this, that and the other thing.
Frank: They do have just about everything there.
Abe: Yeah, they have a lot of food items there, and well, you know.
Frank: You can't beat their prices.
Abe: That's for sure!

I don't know for sure if they have dishes at Walmart, but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[emsr2d2]

Thank you very much, Tarheel, Even your name is elegant!

I was just backshifting. Since the first verb was 'was trying', I backshifted 'mean'.

They are my I wrote all four sentences no full stop here but I had heard a sentence like '1' the first in a TV series. I constructed created '2', '3' and '4' [sentences] 2, 3 and 4 by adding stuff words to '1' 1. I thought '1', '2' and '4' 1, 2 and 4 were unremarkable. Like Skre,j I find '3' 3 odd. I read '4' 4 like Skrej. That's why I found it natural.

Gratefully, Unnecessary
Navi Unnecessary

Note my changes and comments above. It's really messy to put the sentence numbers in quotes - they're unnecessary. If you want to put something other than just a plain number, put # before each number.