Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Konrad]

Hi,

"Strange and Mysterious" seems like the right category for the following.

I have a huge favor for native speakers of all varieties of English. I'm working on a cross-linguistic study of an interesting syntactic situation, and I was wondering what native speakers' perceptions are regarding these sentences:

1. The conductor charmed the music out of the musicians.
2. The conductor threatened the music out of the musicians.
3. The conductor bludgeoned the music out of the musicians.
4. The villagers prayed the rain out of the skies.
5. The girl wept the grade out (obtained a non-fail grade by weeping and sobbing and generally breaking down on the teacher)
6. Jane and Jack danced out the samba contest prize. (won the prize by dancing)
7. David sang out the first place on the top ten hit list.

So if you could evaluate each sentence by marking it from 1 (bad) to 5 (sounds natural), and say which variety of English you speak.

Thanks!

[Hayde]

1- 4
2- 5
3- 2
4- 3
5- 2
6- 1
7- 1

Canadian (with a British mother)
_________________
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein

[Lorikeet]

1. 5
2. 3
3. 2
4. 1
5. 1
6. 1
7. 1

U.S. native. I guess I didn't like them a lot

[bud]

1. 5
2. 4
3. 2
4. 4
5. 2
6. 1
7. 1

Northeastern U.S.