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English grammar and vocabulary: quick questions thread

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Original post by Kallisto
Let us see, if I have understood your explanation well. I will form some sentences. Here we go!

I'm in a hurry! I have to catch the train quickly!
I'm so quick, if I compete in a marathon.

The cars in formula 1 are very fast.
I would rather take a Jetski than a hovercraft. Its very fast in comparison to a hovercraft.

And what about people who are using certain things in sports as in these cases?

The skier comes the slope down quickly.
Look at the kite surfers! they are pretty quickly, aren't them?

Is it right to refer to the persons or does I have to refer to the things?


I'd say...

I'm in a hurry! I have to catch the train quickly!
I'm very quick when I compete in a marathon. (But weird anyway)

The cars in formula 1 are very fast.
I would rather take a Jetski than a hovercraft. Its very quick in comparison to a hovercraft.

The skier comes the slope down quickly.
Look at the kite surfers! they are pretty fast, aren't they?
Original post by L'Evil Fish
I'd say...

I'm in a hurry! I have to catch the train quickly!
I'm very quick when I compete in a marathon. (But weird anyway) (...)


And what is so weird about this sentence, if I may ask? what would you write, if you were in my position?
Original post by Kallisto
And what is so weird about this sentence, if I may ask? what would you write, if you were in my position?


I wouldn't write it at all.

When I run in the marathon, I'm quite fast.
Original post by L'Evil Fish
I wouldn't write it at all.

When I run in the marathon, I'm quite fast.


So 'fast' can be used too when it refers to a person? is there not a crucial difference at all in terms of using the words 'fast' and 'quick'?
Original post by Kallisto
So 'fast' can be used too when it refers to a person? is there not a crucial difference at all in terms of using the words 'fast' and 'quick'?


I'd say quick is more of a comparative word, but also used as an adjective.

There's no hard cut difference, it's just a really subtle thing I can't explain
Original post by L'Evil Fish
I'd say quick is more of a comparative word, but also used as an adjective.

There's no hard cut difference, it's just a really subtle thing I can't explain


What did you mean with comparative exactly? examples?

So it would not be bad for English speakers when I used the word which comes just into my mind during speaking?
Original post by Kallisto
What did you mean with comparative exactly? examples?

So it would not be bad for English speakers when I used the word which comes just into my mind during speaking?


It'll be quicker to take the alternative route.

Nope. Do you have a strong accent?
This is more of a Google It, but this is why StackExchange is always the answer for such questions:

Capture[1].PNG88.9KB
Original post by L'Evil Fish
It'll be quicker to take the alternative route.

Nope. Do you have a strong accent?


I see. As far as I can judge my own voice I have a German accent. My proounciation doesn't sound British.
Original post by Kallisto
And what is so weird about this sentence, if I may ask? what would you write, if you were in my position?

This example almost makes me want to say that quick is more to do with something requiring brain power of some kind (which it certainly can be if you refer to someone as quick on the uptake or similar), and a marathon does not require that. Though you can say someone is quick at getting dressed, which I wouldn't say is associated with brain power too much... though it does require some coordination/planning. You would describe someone as quick if they completed/solved a puzzle in very little time. You can use fast in all these examples though (not when referring to someone's brain power specifically though - you can't say someone is fast and expect people to know you mean mentally, or say someone is *fast on the uptake).
Original post by Ronove
x


Brain power you said? How about those:

This young chess player realize the strategies of his opponents quickly.

The passion of this young man are crossword puzzles. He solves them quickly.

This pupil is very good in mental calculation. No matter how difficult the arithmetic problem is, it is solved so quickly.
Original post by xDave-


Personally, I would use elder/eldest as a noun and older/oldest as an adjective. Elder/eldest can of course be an adjective too, but it seems to have different connotations to older/oldest; I would say that "elder" implies some sort of rank superiority due to, for example, wisdom, whereas "older" just means in terms of age.


Okay cool thank you, personally I don't currently use elder/eldest because I'm unsure, perhaps now I can
Original post by Kallisto
Brain power you said? How about those:


This young chess player realizes the strategies of his opponents quickly. Realise/realize is wrong here. You are using it in the realise, that .../realise (+ clause) sense, but to realise (+ direct object) means to bring something into being/to fulfill something, eg he realised his plans to open a coffee shop [he opened a coffee shop]; her worst fear was realised [the thing she most dreaded would happen, happened]. You could instead use picks up on or sees through instead, depending on what exactly you were going for.

The passion of this young man is crossword puzzles. He solves them quickly. It would sound more natural if you said 'crossword puzzles are this young man's passion'.

This pupil is very good at mental calculation. No matter how difficult the arithmetic problem is, it is solved so quickly. So sounds a bit off here. The person saying the sentence would have to be trying to convey genuine surprise/awe at the pupil's ability to the listener/reader, almost in a gossipy, whispered fashion. Extremely quickly would sound much better if that was not what you were going for.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Kallisto
So 'fast' can be used too when it refers to a person? is there not a crucial difference at all in terms of using the words 'fast' and 'quick'?

Sorry, I think I might've confused you there. I didn't mean that "fast" was exclusively limited to inanimate entities, I just meant that it seems to fit with them better. But it can be applied to animate entities too e.g. "Usain Bolt is very fast".

The words seem very synonymous to be honest, I can't think of any situation where it'd be completely inappropriate to use one or the other. L'Evil Fish mentioned "quick" being better used comparatively, but you can say "he finished quicker than her" or "she was faster than him", so either word can be used like that. Unfortunately, most native speakers just seem to intuitively know when to use each word, but I'm sure you could get to that proficiency after a while. With regard to the sentences you wrote, "fast" and "quick" made sense to me in them, but you made grammar errors instead :P I've fixed the broken for you below.


I'm so quick, if I compete in a marathon.
> I must be quick if I compete in a marathon (I think that's what you meant!)

The skier comes the slope down quickly.
>The skier came down the slope quickly (or you could say fast!)

Look at the kite surfers! they are pretty quickly, aren't them?
>Look at the kite surfers! They are pretty quick, aren't they? (again, you could say "fast")

Language isn't particularly well defined; there are a lot of instances where it's unclear why you'd select one word over another. I think you could've used "fast" in all of those sentences above and it wouldn't have matter tbh.

Original post by the-black-lotus
Okay cool thank you, personally I don't currently use elder/eldest because I'm unsure, perhaps now I can

Elder is quite an archaic word anyway, I don't think I've ever called someone "my elder" or said "(s)he's the eldest". It was probably more likely to use that word in the past, in cults and such, where the wise elder had much respect and power within the group!
Original post by Ronove
x


Very kind of you that you have improved my careless mistakes and shown me up more proper vocabularies/expressions. What would I do without you? :smile:
Original post by xDave-

Elder is quite an archaic word anyway, I don't think I've ever called someone "my elder" or said "(s)he's the eldest". It was probably more likely to use that word in the past, in cults and such, where the wise elder had much respect and power within the group!

It seems to be pretty commonly used by parents when they're talking about their children... 'My eldest is 12 years old now', stuff like that.
Can I ask a quick question? Doing an application form and not sure if it's:

Rather than imposing an idea that they felt uncomfortable with

or

Rather than imposing an idea they felt uncomfortable with

:erm:
Original post by Slowbro93
Can I ask a quick question? Doing an application form and not sure if it's:

Rather than imposing an idea that they felt uncomfortable with

or

Rather than imposing an idea they felt uncomfortable with

:erm:


I prefer the latter but grammatically the former but I'd say which instead of that

Or

Rather than imposing an idea with which they were uncomfortable...
Original post by L'Evil Fish
I prefer the latter but grammatically the former but I'd say which instead of that

Or

Rather than imposing an idea with which they were uncomfortable...


Thanks :h: Yeah I prefer the sounds of the latter but was convinced the former was correct. :tongue:
Original post by Slowbro93
Thanks :h: Yeah I prefer the sounds of the latter but was convinced the former was correct. :tongue:

Both work but the former is for formal writing. Dunno if you want to know - or even care - but it's a null (aka dropped) complementiser. It makes a reduced relative clause. Woo English.

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