Yljaha
is it correct? There is expression in the song of music band called Cansas "All we ARE IS dust in the wind" I am confused of two verbs placing together (are is). Is it correct? Could you give me a couple of similar examples, please.
Jan 28, 2017 11:12 AM
Answers · 5
1
Hi Yljaha, Yes, indeed, “Dust in the wind” is one of Kansas most popular songs :) I love such song ;) The sentence “All we are is dust in the wind” is perfectly correct, BUT your confusion may come from the fact that the floating quantifier “ALL” is being used, and it may occur/appear in more than one position in a sentence. If you read it like this, you should be able to see it better: “Dust in the wind is (all) we are” “We are (all) dust in the wind” “We (all) are dust in the wind” In conclusion: WE ARE DUST
January 28, 2017
1
Kansas. Yes, it's correct. That's two adjacent inflections of the same verb (to be). Good catch. :) From a Chris DeBurgh song: "And all she was was a dream".
January 28, 2017
Btw, another way of saying that is "we are nothing but dust in the wind." The "all we are" bit is saying "the limit of what we are", then the copula "is" is linking "the limit of what we are" to the rest of the sentence, which is "dust in the wind". Replacing that linking "is" with an equals sign might be clearer: <The thing that we are no more than> = <dust in the wind>.
January 28, 2017
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