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Sat 13 Nov, 2010 06:09 am
Jack is too young, too simple, sometimes naive.
Is the sentence above good English or not?
@oristarA,
The sentence is good English as I see it but no American would ever speak like that. What you might hear:
Quote:Jack is too young and simple and he's sometimes naive.
Yes, it's fine. Yes, a native speaker of the American language would say that.
@oristarA,
It's a bit of a tautology. Most people would stop at 'too young, too simple'. 'Sometimes naive' seems redundant. Like saying 'monkeys are too smelly, too hairy, sometimes unpleasant.' But is not incorrect English.
Jack is too young,
Too young for what?
too simple
A person is either simple or not. Nobody would say a person was "too" simple.
, sometimes naive.
OK
@oristarA,
I'd say that it wasn't a sentence, so it's not good English.
It's also not something a native English speaker would say.
@oristarA,
Quote:Would a native English speaker say this?
unlikely
they might say jack knows jack or jacks jejune
@oristarA,
I doubt anyone would ever say this, but someone might write it in a work of fiction or prose.
I can't imagine someone saying that sentence out loud, but I think (as someone stated) in some form of fictional text, it could be written. I don't believe it's incorrect, it's just stylized, but someone could argue that it isn't complete because of the style it mimics.
@ehBeth,
Quote:I'd say that it wasn't a sentence, so it's not good English.
Bullshit.
Poppycock.
Rubbish.
Misleading.
An utterance does not have to be a sentence to be good English, Beth.
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