Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[leslie]

Hi Teachers,

In English, when you want to express that something is good for you, you say 'it will do you good', but what do you say when you want to express the other way round? Do you say: it will do you bad. Or, you simply say 'it won't do you good.' Or, what is the most natural way to express that it is not good for you and it will bring disaster/ bad luck/bad result to you? Thanks!

Leslie
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Less Is Blessed

[CP]

Leslie: No, you do not say "it will do you bad," although you can say, "it will do you harm" (will hurt you) or "it will do you no good" (not beneficial to you) or "I doubt this will do you any good," but you probably wouldn't want to say "it won't do you good." It just doesn't sound like what a native speaker would say.

You will also hear, "It couldn't hurt!" (give it a try, what do you have to lose?), "This can't be good" (I expect something bad will happen), "This can't turn out well!" (this will be a disaster), "That's a recipe for disaster!" (same).

Hope this will do you some good.

Yours truly, CP

[leslie]

Thank you , CP, for showing me many semantic nuances. I really appreciate it. As a non native speaker of English, all these comparisons do help a lot. Thank you.
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Less Is Blessed