Blankety Blanks

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:05 pm

What words would you choose to fill in the gaps below?

What (___1___) did you get ___2___ the/your ___3___?

1 should be completed with a word like 'grade(s)', 'mark', 'score' or 'result'. In the complete question, this word could perhaps be omitted.
2 should be a preposition.
3 should be a noun or noun phrase like 'assignment', 'paper', 'test', 'exam', 'O levels', 'A level History', 'degree', SAT(s?)' etc etc.

I am particularly interested in what words you think could complete gaps 1 and especially 2 most satisfactorily in combination with any of the words possible in 3 - I am trying to create a single sentence with as wide a coverage/use as possible.

Thanks.

ouyang · Post by **ouyang** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:46 pm

Why is this sentence in the form of a question? The use of "what" as a determiner limits the possibilities.

woodcutter · Post by **woodcutter** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:01 pm

What mark/grade did you get for/on your exam/test?

What present did you get for your birthday?

I can't think of a great one which works well in both US and UK.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:06 am

Thanks woody, that's pretty much what I was thinking (what probing questions I ask! Not as probing as ouyang's, though!).

ouyang wrote:Why is this sentence in the form of a question? The use of "what" as a determiner limits the possibilities.

How would you rephrase things to generate more (or at least not so limit the) possibilities?

Hmmmmm (sound of fluffy thinking hard for 1am in the morning), 'I got ___1.1___ ___2___ my/the ___3___' might be "better" for a start (where 1.1 stands for the actual grade or result e.g. an A/B/C ("a grade A"), 99% ("a score of 99%") "etc").

Right, that's me knackered. Time to microwave some of that leftover bread and butter pudding...

ouyang · Post by **ouyang** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:04 pm

I don't think I'm totally following this, but ...

I got an award at the meeting.

I got a prize for my singing.

I got some beer in the fridge.

I got a mouse in my house.

I got a message on my cellphone

I got a crick in my neck

I got a tatoo on my butt.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:47 pm

The context is "talking about our academic performance/history" - note that there are no words like 'tatoo' or 'butt' for gaps 1 and 3 in the original post.