John O'Flaherty
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 10:01 pm
Post subject: Re: Uses of "that" |
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Curious J. wrote:
| Quote: | To summarize the follow-ups to my OP, it seems to me that most folks here
(of course, not all) agree that at least the sentence (1) is okay, while
(4) is definitely not. But, nobody has tried to explain why? Anybody?
(1) Remember the place that we used to live?
(2) Remember the street that we used to live?
(3) Remember the location that we used to live?
(4) Remember the house that we used to live?
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The need for a preposition at the end varies according to the kind of
place referred to. The next level of 'why' is a mystery. Not everything
has an explanation in terms of something else. I found the thread where
this was discussed before:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/browse_frm/thread/8016f5bac2206135/cfb96868669e61bc?lnk=st&q=place+street+house+%22i+lived%22+group:alt.usage.english&rnum=1&hl=en#cfb96868669e61bc
Google Groups : alt.usage.english
If that link doesn't get to the right place, the thread was June 22,
2005, it was titled "Re: I saw the street that John lived."
One of the responders was your relative, Curious George.
I have to say that I find 'the place we used to live' goes down a
little easier than 'the place that we used to live', but either one is
alright without a final 'at'.
--
john
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Odysseus
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 7:01 am
Post subject: Re: Uses of "that" |
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Iain wrote:
| Quote: |
Curious J. wrote:
Hello,
Are the following sentences all okay to you? If not, would you try to
explain why?
1. Remember the place that we used to live?
2. Remember the street that we used to live?
3. Remember the location that we used to live?
4. Remember the house that we used to live?
They are all wrong because they are questions worded as orders.
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The omission of the subject marks them as colloquial, but that
doesn't make them "wrong". I agree with the others who've said that
only #1 is idiomatic (but would be better without "that", allowing
the reader to supply "where" instead).
| Quote: | The best way is: "Remember you the street we lived on?", although
dashed unusual (I have a pet dislike for "do" as "What do I do?").
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"Remember you ... ?" strikes me as quite archaic (or dialectical):
although not necessarily Shakespearean, where the form is pretty
common, it would seem stilted even in XIX-c. writing. "Do you
remember ... ?" is the usual expression having an explicit subject.
--
Odysseus |
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