Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi there!

I'd like to ask someone who speaks English as their native language.

Could you take a look at the question below?

If it rains tomorrow, we will have to ( ) the game till Sunday.

１．cancel ２．delay ３．postpone ４．stretch

It seems to me both #2 and #3 can be fine. Do you agree with me, or do you think I'm missing something important?

yoshi-pooh

[dragn]

Yes, I agree with you (because you're right). You're not missing anything. The person who wrote the question is.

It's a bad question. Although postpone might be considered a better answer, both delay and postpone convey essentially the same meaning in this sentence.

I know what the person who wrote the question was thinking. They were thinking that the word delay means to put something off for an indefinite period of time, and that postpone means to arrange for something to be rescheduled and completed at a definite time in the future. I won't argue with that.

However, it's not just the words delay or postpone that are being used here: it's the phrases delay or postpone something till a definite future time. These two phrases are equivalent because the definite time of completion is stated (Sunday).

Greg

[redset]

2 and 3 are fine, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear 1 in informal conversation either. Technically if something's cancelled then it's not happening anymore, and maybe a new plan has to be made - so you'd have to arrange a new game on Sunday. Informally, people would still understand what you meant by the sentence.

[2006]

[yoshi-pooh]

Dragon, redset, 2006, thank you for your replies. I've learned a lot from them. I guess this question may have been written by a non-native speaker of English.

Thanks again!

yoshi-pooh

[peterteacher]