[Grammar] Use of "Give" and "Close In"

[Operario]

Hi. I was wondering whether the following sentences are grammatically correct:

" The vending machine is all that you need. Whatever it is you want, it will give"

The use of "give" sounds a little off to me... this is actually in a song. Is it acceptable ?

The other one was from a poem in Portuguese translated to English. It read:

" And we peacefully watch as the waves close in". Similar thing here. I was wondering if "close in" is acceptable regarding waves. Should be noted that the narrator in the poem was standing on a beach and about to be engulfed by said waves.

Thanks in advance !

 

[emsr2d2]

"Close in" is a little unusual but it's OK.

With your first example, song lyrics rarely bother about grammar so don't worry about it. If it hadn't been in a song, it would have been "Whatever it is you want, it will give you" or "Whatever it is you want, it will provide".

 

[Operario]

Hi emsr2d2 . Thank you very much for the quick reply ! I was also wondering what kind of verb could be used instead of "close in"that would make it sound more natural. Any ideas ?

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi emsr2d2. Thank you very much for the quick reply! I was also wondering what kind of verb could be used instead of "close in"that would make it sound more natural. Any ideas?

Note, as I have shown above in red, we don't put a space before a full stop, comma, question mark or exclamation mark.

To be honest, I can't actually think of an alternative. The simple fact is that if you stand on a beach when the tide is coming in, the waves will naturally get closer and closer to you. If the tide is going out, they will get further away. In the original piece, I would perhaps have expected to see "... as the tide comes in" but that doesn't give the idea of there being actual visible waves.