China locked down Wuhan

[GoodTaste]

The phrase "[FONT=&#24494]China locked down Wuhan" is understandable, but does it sound natural to you native English speakers?

[/FONT]It is equivalent to say "The U.S. locked down Los Angeles", and I doubt that native speakers would have said this way. More likely they would say "The Federal government locked down Los Angeles" or "Chinese government locked down Wuhan". Here's the catch, they are bit tidious compared to "The US" or "China". But "Washington locked down LA" or "Beijing locked down Wuhan" seems not very natural to me. I am not sure.

Is the phrase natural in English?

===============
[FONT=&#24494]Chen, a 54-year-old researcher at the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences, has made major achievements in COVID-19-related basic research and development of vaccine and protective medicine.[/FONT][FONT=&#24494]On Jan. 23, China locked down Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province, to curb the spread of the infectious disease. Three days later, Chen arrived in Wuhan to focus on vaccine development.

Source: China media https://english.dbw.cn/system/2020/09/09/001383811.shtml[/FONT]

 

[teechar]

The phrase "China locked down Wuhan" is understandable, but does it sound natural to you native English speakers?

Yes, it's grammatical, and in this context, it's natural.

It is equivalent to saying "The U.S. locked down Los Angeles", and I doubt that native speakers would have said it this way. More likely, they would say "The Federal government locked down Los Angeles" or "The Chinese government locked down Wuhan". Here's the catch: they are bit tidious compared to "The US" or "China".

I have no idea who the underlined "they" refers to, and note that "tidious" is not a word, but I like the sound of it. ;-)

But "Washington locked down LA" or "Beijing locked down Wuhan" seems not very natural to me. I am not sure.
Is the phrase natural in English?

See above.

 

[GoodTaste]

tidious -->>> tedious

"They" ==>>>"The Federal government locked down Los Angeles" and "The Chinese government locked down Wuhan"

 

[teechar]

they are a bit tedious compared to "The US" or "China".

The shorter versions are okay, as I've said above.

 

[Rover_KE]

I don't know what you mean by 'tedious' in that context.

 

[GoesStation]

I don't know what you mean by 'tedious' in that context.

Probably "heavy".

 

[GoesStation]

GoodTaste, the quotation was written by a native speaker or someone with a native-like command of English. There's nothing wrong with it.

 

[jutfrank]

It's very common and natural in English to use the name of a country to stand in for the administrative body of the sovereign state. In this case, China is the Chinese government.

 

[GoesStation]

It's very common and natural in English to use the name of a country to stand in for the administrative body of the sovereign state. In this case, China is the Chinese government.

In the Navajo language, the word for the US federal government is wááshindoon ("Washington").

 

[Tarheel]

tidious -->>> tedious

"They" ==>>>"The federal government locked down Los Angeles" and "The Chinese government locked down Wuhan"

The equivalents would be the US government and the Chinese government.

 

[jutfrank]

In the Navajo language, the word for the US federal government is wááshindoon ("Washington").

And in English, too. We also use the White House in the same way.

These are good examples of synechdoche.

 

[GoesStation]

And in English, too. We also use the White House in the same way.

These are good examples of synechdoche.

It's not quite the same in Navajo, at least according to the English-Navajo dictionary I have. My dictionary lists it as the only word for it.