Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Junkomama]

Hello, teachers.
Can sentence a be paraphrased into sentence b in each set ?

1-a His way of talking gave me a good impression.
1-b His way of talking gave me a good feeling.

2-a I was favorably impressed by his way of talking.
2-b I was well impressed by his way of talking.

Thank you in advance.
Junkomama

[Mister Micawber]

.
No.

1b is a little non-native; it is also more emotional and vaguer.

2b can mean strongly impressed.
.

[alan.es]

1-a His way of talking gave me a good impression.
1-b His way of talking gave me a good feeling.

I think these two do have different meanings.

The first made me feel better about him. I considered him to be more sophsiticated/cleverer/better suited for the job because of the way in which he talked.

The second can mean that also but is much more likely to be understood that it made me feel better about myself. I felt more confident/happier/more relaxed because of the way in which he talked.

2-a I was favorably impressed by his way of talking.
2-b I was well impressed by his way of talking.

For me these two mean much the same as each other but as Mr Micawber says the second means that I was more impressed by him than the first.

[Junkomama]

Hello, Mster Micawber.
Hello, alan.es.

Thank you for your replies!!
They were very helpful!!

With regards,
Junkomama

[LucentShade]

For the sentences in 2), you can say, "I was impressed by his way of talking," and it means the same thing. Unless you specify something bad, like "I got a bad impression of him from the way he acted," using "impress" like this has a natural meaning of "good" or "well."

To cite another example, the adjective form "impressive" almost always has a "good" meaning.

Child: "I got a perfect score on the test."
Parent: "That's impressive." ~means "that's great."

[Junkomama]

Hello, LucentShade-san.
Thank you so much for your comment!
I think I have better understanding of the expression now.

With regards,
Junkomama