Verb "pinch".

[Bassim]

Here a few sentences in which I have used the verb "pinch". Would you please correct my mistakes.

1. A man pinched Anna's cheek, and she screamed and told him if he did it again, she would call the police.
2. Marina's shoes pinched her terribly, and she had to take them off and walked on barefoot.
3. A woman pinched her nose before diving into the water.
4. The old man could hardly speak, feeling as if someone was pinching his throat.

 

[BobK]

The uses of pinch are OK, but:

1 A bit of a clumsy sentence, with those two ands. You could make the first clause temporal (using 'When' or 'After', or some such preposition). Alternatively, make it into two sentences.
2 The 'her' is unnecessary; they could hardly pinch someone else. 'Her shoes pinched terribly...' would be fine.
3 I find the 'A' a bit surprising. In most contexts, 'the' would be right.
4 'Pinching someone's throat' is a bit unnatural: the pincher would take a fold of flesh between thumb and forefinger. I don't think that's what you mean! Did the man feel as if he was being strangled?

b

 

[teechar]

Here a few sentences in which I have used the verb "pinch". Would you please correct my mistakes.

1. A man pinched Anna's cheek, and she screamed and told him (that) if he did it again, she would call the police.
2. Marina's shoes pinched her terribly, and she had to take them off and walk [STRIKE]ed[/STRIKE] on barefoot.
3. A woman pinched her nose before diving into the water.
4. The old man could hardly speak, feeling as if someone was pinching his throat.

#4 is grammatical but unnatural.

 

[Bassim]

Bobk,
I meant to say that he felt as if he was being strangled. But probably my sentence does not sound natural.

 

[Tdol]

How about squeezing his throat? It's better than pinching for me, because the fingers have to be close together to pinch.

 

[Roman55]

2. Marina's shoes pinched her terribly, and she had to take them off and walked on barefoot.

I am not a teacher.

I would say, 'walk barefoot' or even 'walk barefooted', not 'walk on barefoot'.

 

[emsr2d2]

I took it to be "walked on" (continued walking) + "barefoot".

 

[TheParser]

She had to take them off and walked on barefoot.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Bassim:

Your sentence was corrected in post #3.

I just wanted to expand on the reason in case some learners asked "Why?"

I have noticed that even some native speakers make the same mistake.

I believe that it is a matter of parallelism. That is, both sides of something need to be in balance.

"She had to take them off and to walk barefoot."

(As the teacher showed us, the second "to" is optional.)

As you can see, the infinitive "(to) walk" is necessary in order to match the infinitive "to take."

 

[Bassim]

TheParser,
Thank you for you detailed explanation. I made a mistake believing I could use the infinitive "to take" the then the past "walked". Now I understand it was wrong.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Bassim:

Actually, I believe that "walked" would have been fine in something like this:

"Her shoes pinched terribly, so she had to take them off. She then walked on barefoot." [As post #2 reminded us, a "her" after "pinched" is unnecessary.]

(As the teacher told us in post #7, "walked on barefoot" would mean that she continued walking barefoot. One question: my dictionary tells me that "barefoot" = nothing on one's feet. If she was wearing stockings, should we say that "She then walked on in her stockings"?

 

[Bassim]

TheParser
Many women do not wear stockings on their feet, especially when it is warm outside. I wanted to say she walked on barefoot, but we could say also that she walked on in her stockings. The most important thing is that I have learnt something about the verb "pinch" and also that I have to think about parallelism when I write my sentences. I am really grateful to you and all of you on this forum who share your knowledge with us and teach us your mother tongue.

 

[BobK]

:up: I think that in British English, rather than '...walked on in stockings...' (as TP suggested) we would say '...walked on in stockinged feet...'. And 'stockinged feet' is a very flexible expression; you can apply it to socks as well; and tights (Am Eng 'pantyhose' or 'pantihose'; pop-sox too (those ankle-length stockings) - in fact, stockings are not nearly as common as they used to be.

Pronunciation note; 'stockinged' = /'stɒkɪŋd/ (like 'ringed') not /'stɒkɪʤd/ (like 'hinged').

b

 

[emsr2d2]

I find "stockings" and "stockinged feet" rather old-fashioned. I'd say she walked on in her socks.

 

[BobK]

That‘s me;-) I blame it on my Aunty Katy - a strict(ish) and old-fashioned disciplinarian.

b

 

[MikeNewYork]

For me, "stockings" are not "socks".

 

[MikeNewYork]

I believe the OP's paragraph refers to a woman.

 

[emsr2d2]

I've always thought it strange that stockings are socks for men, but for women they are thigh high sheer/fishnet, footed things held up by a suspender belt (and yes, I know that suspenders in AmE hold up your trousers - they're "braces" in BrE - which fix your teeth in AmE!)

 

[Tdol]

They've been socks for men all my life, apart from the expression in stockinged feet. My school uniform, a bit later than Piscean's, talked of socks.

 

[BobK]

I've always thought it strange that stockings are socks for men, but for women they are thigh high sheer/fishnet, footed things held up by a suspender belt (and yes, I know that suspenders in AmE hold up your trousers - they're "braces" in BrE - which fix your teeth in AmE!)

I really like these nests of inter-related non-equivalences. ;-)

b