alt.languages.englishPrev. Next
Re: Prepositions after verbs SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com
Peter Dune (pdr@michigan.net) 2004/05/18 20:56

Path: news.nzbot.com!not-for-mail
From: Peter Dune <pdr@michigan.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: Prepositions after verbs
Message-ID: <r4jla0l2l150d4387bh7lj342c050l7fen@4ax.com>
References: <c8do58$26v$1@nsnmpen3-gest.nuria.telefonica-data.net> <40aa9862$0$11228$626a14ce@news.free.fr>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 2.0/32.646
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 39
NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.39.176.69
X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net
X-Trace: newssvr28.news.prodigy.com 1084935406 ST000 67.39.176.69 (Tue, 18 May 2004 22:56:46 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 22:56:46 EDT
Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com
X-UserInfo1: S[O]C[CFLZUMBQH]]RKB_UDAZZ\DPCPDLXUNNH\KMAVNDQUBLNTC@AWZWDXZXQ[K\FFSKCVM@F_N_DOBWVWG__LG@VVOIPLIGX\\BU_B@\P\PFX\B[APHTWAHDCKJF^NHD[YJAZMCY_CWG[SX\Y]^KC\HSZRWSWKGAY_PC[BQ[BXAS\F\\@DMTLFZFUE@\VL
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 02:56:46 GMT
Xref: news.nzbot.com alt.languages.english:283

On Wed, 19 May 2004 01:12:34 +0200, Julien Pourtet <yulinux@gmx.net>
wrote:

>migmam wrote:
>> Hello everybody.
>>
>> Question:
>>
>> is "Whom did you tell this story" equals or similar to "Who did you tell
>> this story to"?
>
>Grammar constructions mainly depend on verbs specificities.
>
>i.e. "tell" has a unique construction: to tell someone something
>
>This cannot work another way. Don't be confused between "tell" and
>"say", whose construction is different (to say something to someone).
>
>Hence, you can't have something like "Who did you tell this story to?",
>for "tell" doesn't require any preposition after.
>
>Anyone, if I am wrong, feel free to correct me ;o)

I think whay you said is not entirely right.

One can use the verb 'tell' in both ways.

to tell someone something.
to tell something to someone (especially when someone is a pronoun.)

In a way, this usage is similar to the following:

to give someone something
to give something to someone.

I just looked it up in a Coubild dictionary to be sure.




Follow-ups:123456789
Next Prev. Article List         Favorite