qazwsxed Newbie United States Joined 5017 days ago 18 posts - 17 votes
| Message 1 of 2 23 March 2011 at 2:04am | IP Logged |
Which of you can differentiate / differentiate between the transitional and intransitional usage of the verb to differentiate?
For instance, can you use the following example sentence with and without preposition. If so, does it make any (tiny nuance of a) difference?
1) The students have learnt to differentiate (between) different parts of speech.
Recently, I´ve stumbled on the following construction:
2) The students can differentiate the long-term and immediate causes of the French revolution.
Apart from the fact that it seems to me that long-range is not used here properly as it implies bridging a period of time ahead, but not back in time, wouldn´t differentiate between be preferable here?
1 person has voted this message useful
|
mr_chinnery Senior Member England Joined 5758 days ago 202 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 2 of 2 23 March 2011 at 2:14am | IP Logged |
You can use it without the preposition. It doesn't affect the meaning, but using the
preposition would be more 'proper'.
I don't think 'long range' would work here at all. It implies distance, rather than a
period of time. But yes, 'differentiate between' would be preferable, but again only from
a stylistic point of view.
2 persons have voted this message useful
|
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum
This page was generated in 0.1094 seconds.