|
Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Hiroaki Sone
Joined: 29 Oct 2005
Posts: 32
Location: Sendai, Japan
|
 Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:14 pm Post subject: Ask Sb St, and Ask St of Sb |
 |
|
If you would like to ask a question, and want to add the information of who you are directing that question at, how would you add it? I think 2 is more likely as you may want to place the people you are asking the question at the end to emphasize it.
[1] "What would you ....?" --- I'm asking native speakers this question
[2] "What would you ....?" --- I'm asking this question of native speakers.
Hiro/ Sendai, Japan
_________________
JH7JHH/ First Class ham radio operator. N9COW in U.S. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
redset
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 582
Location: England
|
| Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| 1) is definitely the most common. As far as I'm aware 2) is also acceptable, but more formal - it's definitely in use, and you see it in older literature too. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
lenin95
Joined: 17 May 2009
Posts: 17
Location: Seoul, South Korea
|
| Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:27 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I'm not a native speaker, but I'd like to add my two cents to the discussion.
I think the word order also changes when you use the pronouns.
How do these sentences sound to you?
(The best way is to) ask this question a native speaker. (with stress on "native speaker" when speaking)
Ask a native speaker about that (question).
Don't ask me these questions. - Ask it him.
So my question is if that would be correct and whether the natives speakers say it this way. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
redset
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 582
Location: England
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| lenin95 wrote: |
(The best way is to) ask this question a native speaker. (with stress on "native speaker" when speaking) |
This doesn't work - you'd need to include the of in this kind of structure ('ask this question of a native speaker'). Basically we have these two forms:
1) ask (who) (what) <- easily the most common form
2) ask (what) of (who)
Where (who) should be 'a native speaker' and (what) is 'this question'. In your example though, with the of missing, it looks like 1) - and that makes it seem like (who) is 'this question' and (what) is 'a native speaker'. So the sentence seems backwards and doesn't exactly make sense.
| lenin95 wrote: |
| Ask a native speaker about that (question). |
This almost fine, but when you ask about something you're looking for information on a subject. A question is the thing you actually say to get that information.
John was late for work. (subject)
Gail asked about John's late arrival. (Gail asked something about the subject)
Gail asked John why he was late. (Gail specifically asked this question: 'why were you late?')
So we ask questions, but we ask about subjects. Just to slightly complicate things, a question can be a subject, but you're asking for some information about the question, not asking the question itself. For example, a maths test might have this question:
What is the product of 2 and 4?
You could call me over and ask this question (saying 'what is the product of 2 and 4?'), or you could ask about it (saying 'what does product mean?', or 'did we study this?' etc.).
| lenin95 wrote: |
Don't ask me these questions. - Ask it him.
|
(You said these questions - plural, so the pronoun needs to be them). Following the first example up there, it should be 'ask him them' or 'ask them of him'. You might actually hear people say 'ask them him' in very informal/colloquial English, but it's not really correct and it's a little confusing. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
