Teacher Discussion Forums

Is it ok to say that

1."Somebody studied Physics and obtained a doctorate"
instead of "earned a PhD"??

- "She is a the first woman who has held the Presidency of her country"

- Refer to "Somebody's labor life" instead of "Somobedy's working life".

- Refer to somebody as a "militant" of a party instead of just a "member" of that party.

- Say that somebody was "Judge and Secretary of State" instead of the usual "a" judge.

Some of these (first) sentences were corrected in an essay and I feel the teacher who did it was actually overcorrecting. Am I right?

This was a general secondary school student essay talking about a person she admired.

Thanks

cftranslate wrote:Is it ok to say that

1."Somebody studied Physics and obtained a doctorate"
instead of "earned a PhD"??

Yes.

- "She is a the first woman who has held the Presidency of her country"

"She is the first woman....." (You can't have "a the")

- Refer to "Somebody's labor life" instead of "Somobedy's working life".

Maybe. I'd prefer "working life."

- Refer to somebody as a "militant" of a party instead of just a "member" of that party.

"militant" and "member" are different. I suppose someone could be a "militant member" heh but I guess I'd have to see the sentence.

- Say that somebody was "Judge and Secretary of State" instead of the usual "a" judge.

I guess I'd prefer "a judge" unless there was only one Judge position. Hard to say without a complete sentence.

Some of these (first) sentences were corrected in an essay and I feel the teacher who did it was actually overcorrecting. Am I right?

This was a general secondary school student essay talking about a person she admired.

Thanks

Those are my ideas. We'll see what everyone else has to say!

Many Thanks Lorikeet, "a the" was a typo.

Somebody's clearly on the lookout for Spanglish.

Quite correct:
obtained a doctorate
the first woman to hold the Presidency of her country

Spanglish:
labor life = vida laboral
party militant = militante del partido
she was judge = fue juez