2
   

Written by pencil...

 
 
Jaqen
 
Reply Mon 22 Feb, 2016 11:13 pm

"Written by pencil on the notepad quite some time ago, the numbers and letters are hard to distinguish"

I need your input on the sentence above. Before I go any further, a bit of background story: I contribute to a Korean discussion board that is very similar to A2K. There is this guy who answers every single question on English. This is his profile:

"a full-time painter / a part-time English tutor. MFA(Master of Fine Arts) at PAFA(USA) / BFA(Bachelor of Fine Arts) at UPenn(USA) ........... major: painting / minor: English"

Anyways... his sentence I quoted above is supposed to be a translation from Korean, meaning:
1. Numbers and letters were written "by" pencil on a notebook.
2. It's been a long time since the text was written.
3. So it faded away and now it's hard to see what's written on the notebook.

My questions are:
1. Any grammatical errors?
2. Is 'distinguish' a right choice of word given the original meaning?
3. Anything else that sounds off?
4. Does this sentence represent a well-spoken native English speaker that he claims to be? He often emphasizes that he's Korean only on the outside and he talks and thinks like an American.
 
View best answer, chosen by Jaqen
engineer
 
  2  
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2016 08:23 am
@Jaqen,
1. No, it is fine.
2. Yes, that is a good word.
3. No. I might have said "Written in pencil" but there is nothing wrong with how it is written.
4. Hard to tell on a single sentence, but I don't see anything suspicious here.
Lordyaswas
  Selected Answer
 
  4  
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2016 08:45 am
@engineer,
I would also have said "written in pencil" .

Distinguish is fine.

jespah
 
  4  
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2016 08:49 am
Agreed - 'written in pencil' is more idiomatic, but the remainder is just fine as it is.
0 Replies
 
Jaqen
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2016 08:55 am
@Lordyaswas,
I thought 'distinguish' has something to do with telling A from B. What the original Korean text was trying to say was that the letters & numbers have faded and they're not legible (?).
Lordyaswas
 
  2  
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2016 09:00 am
@Jaqen,
It also means that you can manage to discern (something barely perceptible).
Jaqen
 
  1  
Reply Tue 23 Feb, 2016 09:03 am
@Lordyaswas,
Oh I see thanks!
0 Replies
 
ascribbler
 
  2  
Reply Wed 24 Feb, 2016 03:52 am
@Jaqen,
Some of the previous advice is incorrect.

My questions are:
1. Any grammatical errors?
2. Is 'distinguish' a right choice of word given the original meaning?
3. Anything else that sounds off?
4. Does this sentence represent a well-spoken native English speaker that he claims to be? He often emphasizes that he's Korean only on the outside and he talks and thinks like an American.

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes
4. No

The script is illegible because it was written in pencil a long time ago.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Wed 24 Feb, 2016 04:15 am
Ascribbler is incorrect. Lordy's responses are correct.
0 Replies
 
 

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