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shuhuang
Joined: 09 Mar 2009
Posts: 33
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 Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 4:54 pm Post subject: the former/the latter |
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Hi, teachers
I've come across the following sentecces in a test--I saw two girls in front. The former was Mary; the latter was Jane.
I feel rather uncomfortable about the use of "the former" and "the latter" here. Is my feeling justified? Or is it perfectly ok to use the two phrases in the above context?
Thanks. |
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dragn
Joined: 17 Feb 2009
Posts: 450
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 2:41 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
I've come across the following sentecces in a test--I saw two girls in front. The former was Mary; the latter was Jane.
I feel rather uncomfortable about the use of "the former" and "the latter" here. Is my feeling justified? Or is it perfectly ok to use the two phrases in the above context? |
You have good reason to feel uncomfortable: it's utter nonsense.
One of the special uses of the words former and latter is to indicate that the order of two things mentioned follows the same order in which they were mentioned previously. In other words, think of the former as meaning the first of two people or things just mentioned, and think of the latter as meaning the second of two people or things just mentioned. For example:
I saw Mary and Jane at McDonald's. The former is my best friend, and the latter is her sister.
That is, Mary (the first one mentioned) is my best friend, and Jane (the second one mentioned) is Mary's sister.
Greg |
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shuhuang
Joined: 09 Mar 2009
Posts: 33
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| Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 4:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks a lot, Greg. |
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