Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[stevenukd]

Dear Teachers,

1. Oh no! The traffic jam is happening outside the street.
2. The trafic jam happens on this street every day.
3. I just got stuck in the traffic jam in Washington street for near 3 hours.

- Are these natural?

Thanks a lot to Teachers,

Stevenukd

[bud]

1. Oh no! The traffic jam is happening outside on the street.

-- This is the only one that doesn't sound natural. A traffic jam is more likely. The traffic jam would be OK if it was an expected traffic jam, and therefore the one you and your listener knew to expect.

A bigger problem is the choice of verb. Your sentence is grammatical with "happening," and it conveys what you want it to, but it's not a likely sentence. I think a more natural (and casual) way to say it is something like: Oh no. The traffic is jamming up outside on the street. or Oh no. There's a traffic jam outside on the street.

2. I would replace "The" with "A." Otherwise, it's very natural.

3. I just got stuck in the traffic jam on Washington Street for nearly 3 hours. (It's very natural with the minor corrections. Here, "the" is OK if everyone knows that Washington Street was jammed up today. If not, then "a" would be more likely.)

Very nice, Steven!