Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hanygeorge38]

Dear Teachers,

the follwing sentence :-

(Despite his years in prison, Mandela is dedicated to equality and fairness).

i thinks it was better to say Mandela dedicated himself to equality and fairness


Thanks In advance
_________________
hany

[bud]

The original uses 'dedicated' as an adjective along with the present tense verb 'is.' The meaning is that despite his own victimization in the past, today he strives for equality and fairness.

Your version uses 'dedicated' as a past tense verb. It means that in the past he strove for those values. It does not exclude the possibility that he still dedicates himself to those values today, but neither does it confirm it.

Hope that helps.

PS: In another post, you asked about 'thin,' with 'fat' being the opposite in the first example. In the second example, I would use 'thick' as the opposite. In yet another sense of 'thin,' 'wide' would be the antonym. I answer here because I could not answer your last question.