Quote:
Originally Posted by Columbine
**** To me this sentence reads correctly, but it is what we call a 'fragment'. You could try making it more explanatory. "You dig up the clams with a small rake." or "You use a small rake to dig up the clams".
|
Hi, Columbine.
Thank you!
I have a question.
If I wrote like this, would you think it’s natural?
“Have you ever done this? You dig up the clams with a small rake.”
This is a bit strange to me, because the writer in not sure the reader have dug clams, and the second sentence comes after that. I know that the first “you” means readers, and the second “you” is formal.
However, Japanese (just maybe only me) would think it sounds strange that “
I don’t know whether you have done this. You do this.”
What would you write?
Quote:
The country/countries thing is complicated. I'm not sure 'countries' is ~incorrect~ but to me 'country' sounds more natural. The best way I can thin to describe it is that although the tourists might go to ~many~ different countries, the 'you' you are addressing seems to be singular. That is, it's like you're talking to one person, who of course, can only live in one country at a time. However, even if we're talking to more than one person, you still hear people use plurals like this when they are directly addressing a crowd using 'you'. Politicians do it a lot because it sounds like you're considering each person individually, even if they're part of a big group.
hope that's not too confusing!
|
Do you mean that you would write like you are talking to one person?
When you write something, is it common in your country?
This is very complicated to me because Japanese language is “singular you=anata” and “plural you=anatagata”.
It’s very hard to know which “you” just you said was singular or plural to me.
Thank you!