Question
Updated on
11 Feb 2021
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English (US)
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Question about English (US)
What is the difference between she put a finger to her lips, signaling for the boy to be quite and she put a finger to her lips, signaling the boy to be quite ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
What is the difference between she put a finger to her lips, signaling for the boy to be quite and she put a finger to her lips, signaling the boy to be quite ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
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11 Feb 2021
Featured answer
- English (US)
@ilike0225 Both "signaling for the boy" and "signaling the boy" are commonly used. Both ways to say it are even listed as examples side by side in the Cambridge dictionary as valid forms:
[ + obj + to infinitive ] The children's mother signalled them to be quiet.
[ + to infinitive ] The children's mother signalled to/for them to be quiet.
[that is on this page https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/eng... ]
So both "signaling for" and "signaling" are valid. But English is a very big language, with a lot of different opinions on how to use it. Even the experts don't always agree on which things are rules vs which things are suggestions vs which things are regional variations. Even the major dictionaries don't always agree 100% with each other. So you have to take rules in English with a grain of salt. In this case, both are in common use so that means they are acceptable to use. And both are considered valid by at least one major dictionary, which reinforces that both are valid forms to use. But maybe one is less common in some regions, so it sounds odd to people from those places. That is incredibly common with English, so it might explain the confusion here. I don't know. Both are valid though, so that means you can use both.
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- English (US)
The second one, by the way I think what you mean is “quiet” instead of “quite”.
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- English (US)
I think "signaling for the boy to be quiet" is a little more correct/proper, and would be better to use when writing something or to impress someone important.
And that "signaling the boy to be quiet" is a little more informal/slang/casual, so it sounds very natural to say in everyday conversation with friends. The "for" becomes implied.
Also "quiet" means "not being loud", but "quite" is a completely different word. It is an easy typo to make though.
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- English (US)
The difference is that the second phrase is correct as the first is not. It's common for people to misuse prepositions.
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- Korean
- English (US)
@ilike0225 Both "signaling for the boy" and "signaling the boy" are commonly used. Both ways to say it are even listed as examples side by side in the Cambridge dictionary as valid forms:
[ + obj + to infinitive ] The children's mother signalled them to be quiet.
[ + to infinitive ] The children's mother signalled to/for them to be quiet.
[that is on this page https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/eng... ]
So both "signaling for" and "signaling" are valid. But English is a very big language, with a lot of different opinions on how to use it. Even the experts don't always agree on which things are rules vs which things are suggestions vs which things are regional variations. Even the major dictionaries don't always agree 100% with each other. So you have to take rules in English with a grain of salt. In this case, both are in common use so that means they are acceptable to use. And both are considered valid by at least one major dictionary, which reinforces that both are valid forms to use. But maybe one is less common in some regions, so it sounds odd to people from those places. That is incredibly common with English, so it might explain the confusion here. I don't know. Both are valid though, so that means you can use both.
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- English (US)
You are not signaling for anything. The first one is incorrect by meaning. The second one is correct and normal, so go by that. @ilike0225
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