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"I see forward to" vs "I look forward to" | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5870 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 1 of 13 16 July 2012 at 3:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I just had a discussion with a non-native English speaker about using the expression 'I see forward to ...". I have never heard that expression before and pointed out that I would use "I look forward to". However, I put "I see forward to" in quotes into Google and got 450,000 hits. I scanned through the first 300 "I see forward to" hits, and most (maybe all) seem to be written by non-native English speakers.
So: 1. Have I been living in a bubble and "I see forward to" is used by native English speakers? 2. Is this simply a literal translation from many different languages, and is only used by non-native English speakers? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5134 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 2 of 13 16 July 2012 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
Certainly not a literal translation from any of the romance languages I know. The romance languages that I'm familiar with would translate to something much more awkward in English (Espero con ansias/Tengo ganas de, Non vedo l'ora, etc.) Where was the speaker from? R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5539 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 3 of 13 16 July 2012 at 5:12am | IP Logged | ||
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This is the first time I recall ever seeing or hearing the phrase "see forward to" being used, so it's not a native usage from my experience either. My guess is that non-native speakers are making the assumption that since "look" and "see" are synonyms they can be interchanged freely, but languages don't always work that way, especially for set phrases like "look forward to". Edited by Warp3 on 16 July 2012 at 5:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4872 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 4 of 13 16 July 2012 at 5:14am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm certainly no expert, but "I look forward to" strikes me as quite idiomatic and specific to English. But it doesn't have to be a direct translation, it could be a case of the native language using only one word for the concepts of looking and seeing.
I can see a German making this mistake, even though the equivalent to "I look forward to" is "ich freue mich auf", which has nothing to do with the verb "look". But "look" and "see" can both be translated as "sehen" - If people have a vague memory of the phrase and then mix up their verbs they could easily end up saying "I see forward to". 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5539 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 5 of 13 16 July 2012 at 5:19am | IP Logged | ||
True. 보다 in Korean often covers both of those concepts with its varied usage. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6383 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 13 16 July 2012 at 6:55am | IP Logged | ||
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"I look forward to" got 469,000,000 hits so 450,000 is less than 0.1% of the total so I think it's safe to say "I see forward to" is not commonly used even if its overall number of hits is big.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5870 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 7 of 13 16 July 2012 at 12:51pm | IP Logged | ||
Denmark. But the Google hits suggest many different countries. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5851 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 13 16 July 2012 at 1:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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In my Business English courses I have only learned "I am looking forward to" or "I look forward to" as the accetpted ways of expression.
Fasulye 1 person has voted this message useful |
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