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Re: Does "work for compensation" sound naturally in English?
Bob Cunningham (exw6sxq@earthlink.net) 2008/08/23 02:13

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From: Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@earthlink.net>
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Subject: Re: Does "work for compensation" sound naturally in English?
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:13:18 -0700
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 On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:11:20 +0200, Einde O'Callaghan
<einde.ocallaghan@planet-interkom.de> wrote:

>little_cat wrote:
>> Can I say "I don't want to do homework now, but I will do it for
>> compensation tomorrow"? Does it sound naturally in English? Thanks in
>> advance.
>
>No - I think you mean "I don't want to do any homework now; I'll do it
>tomorrow instead."

Seems to me your suggestion fails to cover the tone of making amends
connoted by the word "compensation".

How about "I don't want to do homework now, but to make amends I'll do
it tomorrow"?

Incidentally, Little Cat's "naturally" is a typical example of the
"-ly" hypercorrection that leads people to say erroneously "I feel
badly" when they mean "I feel bad".  In "Does it sound natural",
"natural" is an adjective describing the sound, not an adverb
describing the manner in which the sound is made.
--
Bob Cunningham
Greater Los Angeles, California, USofA
Western American English

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