Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Hisha]

I know "lose your weight" is not good. I would like to know why.

[CP]

I have not heard that expression. Can you quote the whole sentence or paragraph? Thanks.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[Hisha]

Thank you, CP. I know "lose weight" is good, but many Japanese students often say "lose your weight", which I know is wrong. I would like to know the reason why "lose your weight" is wrong.

[LucentShade]

I'd say it's wrong because "your" is redundant; when I say, "Have you lost weight?", it automatically means weight from "yourself." In a similar way, "I lost my weight" is wrong because the expression "I lost weight" can only mean that I lost weight from my own body. Strange, considering that from what I know, Japanese tends to omit pronouns and possessives if they're implicit or understood.

[Hisha]

Thank you very much.