What's new

Question The government announced the meeting to be a great success.

hirashin

Sempai
Donor
8 Apr 2004
2,720
63
63
Hi, native English speakers.
Could you help me?

Do you ever use this type of sentence?
"The government announced the meeting to be a great success. "

An American says this sounds perfectly natural while an Australian says
it sounds a little odd.

What do you think?

Hirashin
 
It's a little odd.

If you change 'announced' to 'declared' or 'proclaimed', then it is fine.

There are probably a few other words that would work there, too.
 
Thanks for the help, joadbres and mdchachi. Mmm...interesting. You are divided in your opinions.

How about this one? It's from a dictionary published in Japan.
This dust announces the article to have been long exposed in the shop.
 
Last edited:
Another word that can be used in this context is 'pronounced' - usually used like this: to pronounce something a great success. This sounds similar to 'announced', which is probably why 'announced' sounds OK to some people.
 
I would say:

The government announced/proclaimed that the meeting was a great success.
(The government announced/proclaimed that the meeting would be a great success.)

The government declared/proclaimed the meeting to be a great success.
The government declared/proclaimed that the meeting would be a great success.

This dust showed/revealed that the article had been on display in the shop for a long time.
The faded colors showed that the article in the shop had been exposed to the sun for a long time.
 
Thanks for the help, mdchachi. English-Japanese dictionaries that are edited by Japanese people sometimes have sentences that native speakers would not use today.
 
This dust announces the article to have been long exposed in the shop.


Sensei!

The English in your example sentence is terrible.

I thought you might like to here your example sentence rendered into 'good' English:

"The dust on the items in the shop show they have been sitting there for a long time."
 
Hello, Simon V. Are you a native English speaker? Do you mean "show" should be "shows"?
 
Hello, Simon V. Are you a native English speaker? Do you mean "show" should be "shows"?
Yes and yes. It's very hard for Japanese adults to develop thought habits that NES acquire as children. As a NJS, you probably have the same situation regarding whether to use は or が: You don't have to think about which to use, but you can't explain how you choose. It just comes naturally.
 
Back
Top Bottom