Question
Updated on
27 Sep 2017
- Japanese
-
English (US)
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Question about English (US)
I couldn't do anything but listing to him, when one of my friends failed an interview. Does this sound natural?
I couldn't do anything but listing to him, when one of my friends failed an interview. Does this sound natural?
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27 Sep 2017
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- English (US)
A little unnatural
-I wouldn’t use a comma after “him.” A conjunction would work fine. (But, and, or, so, etc.) But the sentence structure needs a little work.
-listing: you probably meant listening, but that is still incorrect. Listening is more of a verb. Like running and building. It could be used as a subject or topic. But in this circumstance listen would be more appropriate. “I couldn’t do anything but listen to him”
- your sentence is just about correct, try switching around the wording a little bit.
- “my friend failed his interview recently and I couldn’t help but listen to him”
“My friend failed his interview so I couldn’t do anything but listen to him”
“When my friend failed an interview I got the brunt of his distress”
-starting with “I couldn’t do anything about it” sound like the middle of a sentence, or a very dramatic opening book sentence. :p
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- English (US)
- Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)
Unnatural
I had no choice but to listen to one of my friends rant after he/she failed an interview.
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- Japanese
What do you mean by rant? It seems like your corrections are not quite what I was tring to say.
Thanks anyway.
@ngistks
Thanks anyway.
@ngistks
- English (US)
A little unnatural
-I wouldn’t use a comma after “him.” A conjunction would work fine. (But, and, or, so, etc.) But the sentence structure needs a little work.
-listing: you probably meant listening, but that is still incorrect. Listening is more of a verb. Like running and building. It could be used as a subject or topic. But in this circumstance listen would be more appropriate. “I couldn’t do anything but listen to him”
- your sentence is just about correct, try switching around the wording a little bit.
- “my friend failed his interview recently and I couldn’t help but listen to him”
“My friend failed his interview so I couldn’t do anything but listen to him”
“When my friend failed an interview I got the brunt of his distress”
-starting with “I couldn’t do anything about it” sound like the middle of a sentence, or a very dramatic opening book sentence. :p
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- Japanese
Thank you for spending your time helping me.
@AbsentElk
@AbsentElk
- English (US)
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