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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Rafa v. 2.0 Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5691 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 1 of 6 24 July 2009 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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OK, so I am preparing a paper and I've got a silly dilemma - which version is correct?
A) There was also a documentary called “Let Poland Be Poland” (about the Solidarity movement), which was produced by the United States Information Agency and – as such – couldn’t be shown in the territory of the USA (so that the governmental entity wasn’t used as a tool of domestic propaganda). B) There was also a documentary called “Let Poland Be Poland” (about the Solidarity movement), which was produced by the United States Information Agency and – as such – couldn’t be shown in the territory of the USA (so that the governmental entity wouldn't be used as a tool of domestic propaganda). Please help! Thanks in advance! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5619 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 2 of 6 24 July 2009 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The second one. Your "couldn't" is subjunctive, so you need "wouldn't" as subjunctive there, rather than "wasn't" (past).
"Could" be the past tense of "to be able" and the subjunctive as well sucks, I know. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rafa v. 2.0 Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5691 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 3 of 6 24 July 2009 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you so much!
And one more thing: should I say that "solutions should be sought" or "solutions should be sought for"? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6019 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 4 of 6 24 July 2009 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
"As" here is essentially a reduced "because". You could also say "wasn't allowed to be" in place of "couldn't be", but it feels clumsy to me. To me it flows better in terms of cause-and-effect to use a modal of permission rather than a bald "be". If you want to stick to "be", you'll have to use the progressive:
One more thing -- you're going to ask why I removed the comma, given that the "which" here is non-defining (ie it gives additional information rather than clarifying or specifying the film). It's because the comma says "the clause that comes next is not as important as what comes before it". This suggests that the main point of your sentence is "There was also a documentary called “Let Poland Be Poland”", when the main point you're aiming for is that the film "couldn’t be shown in the territory of the USA". Removing the comma "promotes" the second clause to a main clause, giving it the importance it requires. Edited by Cainntear on 24 July 2009 at 5:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6019 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 6 24 July 2009 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
No, in this case "couldn't" is functioning as the past tense. He said "there was a film [that] couldn't be shown" -- the present equivalent would have been "there is a film that can't be shown". It's pure indicative. So Rafa, as well as dropping the comma, you need to change "which" to "that" -- this is not additional information, it's the main purpose of the sentence. It is "a film that couldn't be shown" -- the additional information is the name of the film. You could put it in parenthesis (brackets or commas) if you wanted (There was a film, ''Let Poland be Poland'', that couldn't be shown) but I feel it works better without any extra punctuation. Edited by Cainntear on 24 July 2009 at 5:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rafa v. 2.0 Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5691 days ago 36 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 6 of 6 25 July 2009 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for the tips, Cainntear!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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