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girigiri (Offline)
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Posts: 60
Join Date: Jun 2009
06-29-2009, 02:55 PM

With some exceptions, I substantially agree with OzukakiBurasuki.
Quote:
If I lived in country side and I had enough land to bury them, I would have a grave in a yard,
This being subjunctive, the wording is reasonably acceptable. Unless one prefers the academic "Were I to live in the country-side, with land enough to bury them in, they would have a grave in the (back) yard." that is. Note: it is the cats' graves, "I would have a grave" is unexpected - though understood. "I would give them graves" would pass without comment.

"When the cat died, I paid them 16,000 yen to them to cremate it." - "When the cat died, I paid 16 000 yen for them to cremate it." A variety of variants would be acceptable.

"but here in Kawasaki, people... " - I agree with the analysis for this sentence, but not with the proffered solution. "But" shouldn't be used to begin a sentence***, but "however" doesn't have that same restriction. " . However, here in Kawasaki" would preserve the contrastive structure.

still have a cat of my mother? - There were once three cats. "still have one of my mother's cats" - "mom" is American (and I believe, Canadian) English - it won't pass in British English or Australian without causing a raised eyebrow. "Mother" is perhaps formal, but it has international usage.

"So, of course the cat named Chihsuke is very cute." - "So, of course" declares the foregoing statement to be the reason for the stated following condition. Effectively, the statement is then, "the cat named Chihsuke is very cute because I still have her."

For ordinary purposes, the passage passes muster in its original form. Only careful reading will show any deficiencies.


*** Whoever made that rule ignored at least 400 years of normal usage in doing so. However, we are now stuck with the said ridiculous rule for written passages.

Last edited by girigiri : 06-29-2009 at 03:16 PM.
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