Question
Updated on
11 Aug 2021
- Simplified Chinese (China)
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English (US)
Question about English (US)
"Anyone saying they wanna go out with you is pretty great, isn’t it? "
This is the quote from Notting Hill. Is the grammar of this sentence right? I know the meaning is " It is pretty great when anyone says they wanna go out with you". However for me the basic structure is "Anyone is pretty great". Could you help me to understand the grammar structure of this sentence? Thanks a lot.
"Anyone saying they wanna go out with you is pretty great, isn’t it? "
This is the quote from Notting Hill. Is the grammar of this sentence right? I know the meaning is " It is pretty great when anyone says they wanna go out with you". However for me the basic structure is "Anyone is pretty great". Could you help me to understand the grammar structure of this sentence? Thanks a lot.
This is the quote from Notting Hill. Is the grammar of this sentence right? I know the meaning is " It is pretty great when anyone says they wanna go out with you". However for me the basic structure is "Anyone is pretty great". Could you help me to understand the grammar structure of this sentence? Thanks a lot.
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- English (US)
The most important word here is "saying". It is the action that is great, not the person. All the other words around "saying" are giving you more information about the action. Who is saying it? Anyone. What are they saying? That they want to go out with you. Other examples of the same structure would be: "You making me dinner is awesome" "Strangers talking to me is scary". Does that make sense?
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- Simplified Chinese (China)
Hi Jennyeather,
Thanks for the reply. Is “saying” a gerund in this sentence ? If yes, “Anyone” is the logical subject, however it is not in the genitive case, such as “ Their coming to help was a great encouragement.” This is why I am confused. Thanks a lot.
Thanks for the reply. Is “saying” a gerund in this sentence ? If yes, “Anyone” is the logical subject, however it is not in the genitive case, such as “ Their coming to help was a great encouragement.” This is why I am confused. Thanks a lot.
- English (US)
Yep, it's a gerund. I think it's less common to use the genitive in today's English. In the example you gave, I would say "Them coming to help was..." although what you had sounds fine too. Using the genitive in the original example "Anyone's saying...." sounds awkward though. I'll try and share a screenshot of some relevant stuff on this from Wikipedia.
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- English (US)
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