Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[stevenukd]

Dear Teachers,

1. What tailor's did you have your clothes sewed at?
- I had my clothes sewed at John taior's.

- Are these natural?

Thanks very much to Teachers,

Stevenukd

[bud]

"What tailor's did you have your clothes sewed at?"

Oddly enough, "sewed" is not a natural verb for this question. (And anyway, you would need to use the past participle here - sewn.) It may be because "sewn" does not distinguish between an alteration, a repair, or the manufacture of the clothes - any of which could be done at a tailor's shop.

Here are a few of many possibilities:

What tailor does your alterations?
What tailor alters your clothes?
Where do you have your clothes repaired?
I know you have your clothes custom made. What tailor do you use?


"I had my clothes sewed at John taior's."

This is pretty good, except you would use the actual name of the tailor's shop instead of John tailor's. "Sewn" would probably work OK here, as the context is probably established by the question you are responding to. Even so, "altered," "repaired" or "made" is more likely.

I had my clothes sewn at John's Expert Tailoring.
I had my clothes altered at Betty's Custom Tailoring.

[iitimone7]

using an apostrophe with tailor can only be used when the tailor is possessing something.

the tailor's shop
the tailor's house
the tailor's sewing machine

John's tailor shop
Betty's tailor shop
the shop belongs to the tailor

which tailors did you hire to alter your suit?

'at' should not be used at the end of a sentence, even though we speak this way, it's incorrect.

hope this all makes sense and is helpful. iitimone7