Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[takashi_k]

Which of the following four sentences is the most normal?

1. I hate to go shopping, but went to market today.
2. I hate to go shopping but went to market today. (No comma exists
between 'shopping' and 'but.'')
3. I hate to go shopping, but I went to market today. (The subject 'I'
is repeated after 'but.'
4. I hate to go shopping but I went to market today. (The same as
2 above.)

Thanks for your help and time.

takashi_k

[bud]

I believe that when you start a new clause with "but," you always end the previous clause with a comma. Therefore, 1 or 3 would be the best choice. Both are correct, but 3 is what I would use. It sounds better to my ear. (If the comma is in fact optional, you won't be wrong by using it).

By the way, "to go to market" is correct, but it seems archaic to me. It conjures up the image of a producer (for example, a farmer) bringing his goods to a place where sellers and buyers meet to trade.

Better would be to use "to go to THE market," which would usually mean to go to a supermarket (food store). More generallly, you could use "to go to the mall" or "to go to the stores." I would use this (naming the place) to emphasize WHERE I went shopping if that's what I wanted to stress: "I hate to go shopping, but I went to Macy's in Times Square today!" This would convey that not only did I go shopping, but I even went to an incredibly crowded store.

If I wanted to emphasize the fact that I DID go shopping, and where is unimportant, then I would replace "to go to [wherever]" with "did go." "Did" would be stressed in voice and would emphasize your meaning: "I hate to go shopping, but I DID go today!"

I know that's more than you asked, but I hope it answered your question.

PS: It could be that "to go to market" is still used outside of the northeast U.S. Perhaps someone else will add their thoughts.

[marksesl]

"Going to market" would suggest to me animals being sent off to be slaughtered: "We're sending the pigs to market" Certainly, "to THE market" is correct American English.

However, I wouldn't use "market" to mean "supermarket." I believe that that's the distinction: a market is small and a supermarket is big, so why call a supermarket a market? Where I grew up in Kansas, we usually just called supermarkets "stores;" "I'm going to the store, do you want anything?" We would sometimes say "I'm going to the supermarket" though.

I would like for people to post some message on my grammar forum at:
http://eslwideworld.com/forums/cgi/access/grammar_help.cgi

Bye, Mark McDowell
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Visit Mark's ESL World for many ESL resources.

[dduck]