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yhemusa
Does this sentence sound natural? I guess this sentence would feel natural to native English speakers' ears: (1) He's easy to work for. ---- But if it's not natural, please tell me. Then is this one natural too? ---- (2) You are easy to give me some good advise. Thank you very much.
Aug 4, 2017 5:07 AM
Answers · 18
2
good question. I would suggest that although 'he's easy to work for' does make grammatical sense, in fact, it's a bit socially awkward to structure the sentence that way... Let me explain, when you suggest that someone is easy to work for, it usually means that they are not too strict, quite loose, and in general, a very easy going person, almost to the detriment of that person. This makes the allocation of authority in the subject of the sentence confusing, and almost makes the sentence seem like a joke. It would be better to say that someone is 'good' to work for. I would go with Gary's answer above as well.. upvote my answer if it helped you, thanks in advance! I'm trying to get students!
August 4, 2017
1
It's great to see an "is this natural?" question, rather than an "is this ok?" question, since it's not always clear what is meant by "ok" (see https://www.italki.com/discussion/146918). :) In this case, though, there's a problem with asking only "is 1) natural", and not asking "is 1) grammatically correct?", or "what does 1) mean?", or "how could 1) be re-worded?". I say that because you're taking the "<someone> is easy to <something>" format from 1) without understanding why the words are in that format, and incorrectly applying it to 2). If you were to ask "is 1) grammatically correct", I would probably offer the argument that it's not (although I think that it could be argued either way). To me, it's the work that's easy, and not "him". So I would argue that the the clause "he's easy" is out-of-place here. It's confusing: and that confusion is probably what led you to the mistake of 2). Anyway "he's easy to work for" is natural, in that it's the kind of thing people say. But I think it's problematic, and it's certainly not intuitive. To better understand what it means, I would imagine that it instead says "I find it easy to work for him." Does that help you to formulate the concept in 2)? Do you mean something like "I find it easy to follow the advice you give me", or "You find it easy to give good advice"? Something like that?
August 4, 2017
1
Number one is great. Number two is not. For two, you might say: "You give good advice" "I appreciate your advice" Also, advice is a noun and advise is a verb. So, you cannot give advise
August 4, 2017
1
1: Yes, 2: No 'easy' doesn't really work with 'give', as 'easy' refers to your experience, and 'give' is something they do. Perhaps 'You are easy to get good advice from'?
August 4, 2017
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