Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[puzzle]

Dear teachers,
I have a few questions to ask,can you help me?
1. "As a queen"& "As queen", which is right?

2. Do the following sentences have the same meaning?
a. Clare thinks human cloning will come soon.
b.I (Clare)suppose it�ll (human cloning)come one of these days.

3.Is the following sentence right?
Mr. Wang, my child's teacher, will be visiting us on tuesday.
Must we use "the teacher of my child" or "my child's teacher" is also ok?

Thank you very much!

[redset]

1. It depends what you want to say, 'a queen' means no queen in particular, just someone who holds that title. 'As queen' usually means a specific queen in power - the phrase is usually used when talking about the rights or powers or actions the ruler can take.

"As a queen I'm used to wearing a crown" (Queens tend to wear crowns, so because I am a queen I'm used to wearing one)

"As queen I will build a huge palace!" (Because I'm the queen in power - or when I am in power, if I'm not right now - I will build a huge palace (meaning I'll make other people do it, queens don't tend to do the hard work )

The other two are fine! One of these days is less immediate than soon (it feels more like 'it will happen in the future at some point' than 'won't be long now!') but the meaning is basically the same, the other person would know what you mean. My child's teacher sounds much more natural than the teacher of my child, which sounds very formal.

[puzzle]

Thank you very much! You helped me a lot!