Moon
Which one is better? Which one is casual? To everyone who's read this, I'm sorry I think this phrase I've just made up totally wrong. But I can't find a remove button anywhere. So, I try explaining what I just want to say is like that below. The husband was a criminal. His wife visited the police station with his finger prints. The criminal's finger print was the thing everybody in the police station had been looking for. Even though she was there with an important clue to find a criminal, none of police officer passing by paid attention to her. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Even though the woman came forward with her husband's finger prints every officer desired to look for in the police station. None cared about her. Even though the woman came forward with her husband's finger prints every officer craved to look for in the police station. None cared about her.
Oct 7, 2019 9:37 AM
Answers · 5
2
Thanks for editing the question. It's quite a complicated sentence, and therefore there are a number of possible ways to say it. So I'll try to respond directly to your questions 'which is better/more casual'. I think that I would probably say something like 'Even though the woman came forward with her husband's finger prints, which every officer in the police station had been looking for, nobody paid her any attention.' I noticed that you used 'desired' and 'craved', presumably as alternatives to 'want'. If I was going to choose one of those words it would be 'craved' (like this 'Even though the woman came forward with her husband's finger prints, which every officer in the police station craved, nobody paid her any attention.') I wouldn't need to say 'craved to look for' because 'craved' means they wanted - and they wanted the fingerprints, they didn't want to look for them (they had already been looking). I wouldn't use 'desired', because although it does mean to strongly want something, it is so connected with sexual desire that we tend not to use it primarily in that context - and it wouldn't feel natural (to me) to use it in this sentence. Hope this helps.
October 7, 2019
1
English does not use “for to” as often as you might think. It may have been used a thousand years ago but not so often now. As such, the answer may not be the one you want.
October 7, 2019
I'm not quite sure what you mean with this sentence. Do you mean that the policeman looked at the police station instead of looking at the woman? Or did they go there instead of remaining with the woman? If they fixed their attention to the building, you could say: "the officers would rather look at the police station".
October 7, 2019
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