Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
she always is friendly
English answer:
she is always friendly/he can never remember his name
Added to glossary by
liz askew
Oct 30, 2008 19:00
15 yrs ago
English term
Hansjuerg Kipfer
she always is friendly
Non-PRO
English
Art/Literary
Linguistics
Is it not possiblbe to place the adverb of frequency before an auxiliary verb? He never can remember his name.
Responses
| 4 +4 | she is always friendly/he can never remember his name |
liz askew
|
| 3 +5 | for emphasis |
jccantrell
|
Change log
Oct 30, 2008 19:16: Kim Metzger changed "Language pair" from "English to German" to "English"
Oct 31, 2008 15:18: liz askew Created KOG entry
Responses
+4
7 mins
Selected
she is always friendly/he can never remember his name
....
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Note added at 10 mins (2008-10-30 19:11:07 GMT)
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Just sounds more natural to me, but I wouldn't like to say that you can never say what you have put in your query.
My contribution is based on a gut reaction, not a linguistic analysis :-)
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Note added at 10 mins (2008-10-30 19:11:07 GMT)
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Just sounds more natural to me, but I wouldn't like to say that you can never say what you have put in your query.
My contribution is based on a gut reaction, not a linguistic analysis :-)
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Victoria Porter-Burns
:
10 mins
|
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Thank you!
|
|
| agree |
Angel_7
: The answer is it's better not to split them but it's becoming more common than it used to, and it wouldn't be wrong to. Try to avoid it if you can.
11 mins
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Thank you! I will avoid this as it sounds poor English to me, but then again I am 53!!
|
|
| agree |
Will Matter
: Your answer is correct regardless of whther the alternatives listed are becoming more "popular". Popular or not, they are incorrect. To my NES ear the alternatives smack of German syntax.
34 mins
|
| agree |
Rolf Keiser
: spontaneously I would say the same
2 hrs
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+5
41 mins
jccantrell
United States
United States
Native in English
&
English
United States
Was nicht ist, kann noch werden.
Native in: English (Variant: US) 
Works in: German to English
Related KudoZ points
:
31
for emphasis
also, gut feeling here, but if I was saying this
She always is friendly
I would be putting heavy emphasis on the Always and put it in that order to draw attention to that fact.
Same with your other example.
So, I would say that you can get away with this if the circumstances are right.
My thought from the USA.
She always is friendly
I would be putting heavy emphasis on the Always and put it in that order to draw attention to that fact.
Same with your other example.
So, I would say that you can get away with this if the circumstances are right.
My thought from the USA.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Tony M
: Yes, you should ONLY depart from the usual word order of verb-followed-by-adverb with great circumspection, and usually, for special emphasis; an uniwse practice for those with anything less than native proficiency!
48 mins
|
| agree |
Egil Presttun
: ...and also acceptable in poems and lyrics.
1 hr
|
| agree |
Nesrin
: And I'd add that splitting the noun from it's auxiliary is obligatory in replies to questions, e.g: "Is she ever friendly?" "Yes, she always is".
2 hrs
|
| agree |
Patricia Townshend (X)
10 hrs
|
| agree |
kmtext
: Absolutely and especially with the extra comments from Tony, Egil and Nesrin. Without more context, I can't help feeling it's very sarcastic too.
12 hrs
|
| neutral |
liz askew
: This had occurred to me, but you really need to know what you are doing to use English in this way. I agree with the comment from kmtext. This is why we have to be careful changing correct English.
13 hrs
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Discussion