[Grammar] He is pleasing/amazing/surprising/exciting.

Status
Not open for further replies.

wotcha

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Korean
Home Country
South Korea
Current Location
South Korea
My grammar book says some adjectives such as 'amazing, surprising, exciting, pleasing..'

can't take a person as a subject and I wonder if it it true.
 
Last edited:
My grammar book says some adjectives such as 'amazing, surprising, exciting, pleasing..'

can't take a person as a subject and I wonder it it true.

When was your grammar book published?
 
My grammar book says some adjectives such as 'amazing, surprising, exciting, pleasing..'

can't take a person as a subject and I wonder if it it true.

So according to your grammar book "amazing friend" is incorrect, right?
 
So according to your grammar book "amazing friend" is incorrect, right?

It might mean that you can't say like "She is exciting, she is pleasing etc", which I totally disagree, though.
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
Try to find a grammar book written by a native speaker. I'm not suggesting that they are all perfect but there is a much less danger of such bad mistakes than with books written by non-native speakers.
 
This appears to be a Korean book, but my comments may not be completely irrelevant.

Having worked in China, I have immense respect and sympathy for Chinese teachers of English, most of whom have not had the opportunity to visit an English-speaking country, and many of whom have to teach classes of 60 or more. Life is not made easier for them by the fact that they are obliged to use course books and grammars written 'famous professors', whose knowledge of English appears to have been acquired at a great distance half a century ago. Despite these handicaps, many teachers enable many of their students to acquire a reasonable command of English. Indeed, some of them do a far better job than I did when I, with much better resources, was teaching French and German in English comprehensive schools. I feel rather embarrassed when some native-speaking teachers mock their Chinese colleagues.

I have no prejudice at all against non-native speakers who write books on English. Our understanding of English grammar has been enriched by the work of such grammarians as Borik, Christophersen, Declerck, Jespersen, Kruisinga, Poutsma, Sandved, Schibsbye and Zandvoort (to name only those whose books grace my bookshelf). However, these people were internationally respected scholars, who spent their working lives in serious study of English. Some of the 'famous professors' whose books I was shown in China seem never to have studied real English at all. They either regurgitate what they themselves were taught (by similar people) many years before, or simply make up rules based on the flimsiest of evidence. I suspect that the same may be true of some 'famous' Korean professors.

I have, in my long career, seen some embarrassingly bad grammars written by native speakers, and some fine grammars written by non-native speakers. However, for learners who do not know whether the writer is good or not, I agree with emsr2d2: Try to find a grammar book written by a native speaker. I'm not suggesting that they are all perfect but there is a much less danger of such bad mistakes than with books written by non-native speakers.

As far as British English is concerned, books published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Pearson-Longman, HarperCollins and Macmillan are generally sound.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ask a Teacher

If you have a question about the English language and would like to ask one of our many English teachers and language experts, please click the button below to let us know:

(Requires Registration)
Back
Top