Elearner
"make friends with somebody" According to the dictionaries online, such as "Longman", "Macmillan", Merriam-Webster", and "Oxford", the idiom - make friends with somebody - does exist. But, it seems that native English speakers don't say "I would like to make friends with you/him/her...etc." when it comes to spoken language. Is that so? If yes, why? How come all the dictionaries mentioned don't show such a perspective? PS. In this clip at 1:25 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0koC2KwaI0), the youtuber explained in Chinese that "I wanna make friends with you." is strange and not good in spoken English.
Sep 22, 2018 5:49 AM
Answers · 3
To say to a person "I want to make friends with you" does seem strange, but socially strange, not in terms of language. It's not a good idea to write "wanna". Although native speakers pronounce "want to" as "wanna" very few write it. I would find it more natural to say "I would like to be friends with him". Dictionaries are fine for meaning, but they don't help as much with information about how native speakers use the language. That's why the forum here is so useful, especially as you will get answers from more than one country.
September 22, 2018
You certainly can say this phrase. Im not sure why you say no natives say it, that would be a broad assumption. However, its probably true its just not said much because it needs to be in the perfect context to use it.
September 22, 2018
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