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Barry
Why have you not yet checked the tires?/Why haven't you checked the tires yet?...
1. Why have you not yet checked the tires?
2. Why haven't you yet checked the tires?
3. Why haven't you checked the tires yet?
Are the sentences above all correct? I know that sentence 3 must be correct, and it seems that sentence 1 and 2 are both grammatically correct, but sounds a little weird to my ears, especially for sentence 2. Do you English native speakers have the same feeling? What's the problem with sentence 1 and 2. Thanks for your help!
2016年1月28日 14:53
回答 · 3
1
1 and 2 are definitely unnatural sounding, and number 2 especially. Number 1, I could imagine someone saying in rare circumstances, although it would still sound stiff and overly formal, but never number 2.
I believe the reason is because the first thing after "why haven't you..." is the most important part of the sentence, and the focus. In general, in this situation, the focus should be on the "checking the tires" part, so it has to come first. It would be an unusual circumstance for the time ("yet") to be the focus of the sentence. In the very rare circumstance that the time should be the focus, it has to be "not yet", because the collusion of "not yet" would be the reason you are upset. Separating the "not" out into "haven't", and then putting an extraneous word ("you") in between completely kills any reason for saying this sentence.
2016年1月28日
You are right. They are all technically correct, but number 2 doesn't sound right to my native English ears.
Although since mine are "English" ears they think tires looks strange as we'd use tyres. Tires is right in US English though.
2016年1月28日
all are correct!
2016年1月28日
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Barry
語学スキル
中国語 (普通話), 英語, スペイン語
言語学習
英語, スペイン語
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