Korean Job Discussion Forums

[brento1138]

My co-worker needs a couple questions answered, and I just want to verify these... if you could help out!

OK, so I told my co-worker the sentence is wrong:

"every soccer ball means hope."

--> Instead of means, students should write 'represents' or 'symbolizes' but I'm pretty sure "means" is incorrect.

I think it's incorrect because the word "hope" should be followed "for the children" or something like that.

Am I right? Damn, grammar is tough.

[edwardcatflap]

In my opinion, it's not really a grammar issue this one, it's more a question of collocation - words that naturally go together - and style. Your sentence could be fine in the right context but it looks a little odd in that isolated sentence. 'represents' and 'symbolises' are words that go together with 'hope' more often than 'means' I agree but if you always put words together that sound more natural in this kind of text you could be in danger of writing in cliches.

[brento1138]

The context of the sentence. It's about kids who paint soccer balls and send them to poor nations.

I believe the balls "symbolize" hope but am still unsure if "mean" is a good word to put in there. I told my co-worker that it is not grammatically incorrect and the meaning of the sentence can be understood, and that it would be very difficult to explain to a student why it is wrong... therefore, I felt we should maybe just give the student a point even though the word choice isn't the best it is not necessarily incorrect... ?

So we're giving the student a point.