Jun 20, 2012 21:19
11 yrs ago
English term
MA in Chinese, MA in English
Native in: Chinese
Works in: English to Chinese, Chinese to English
appearance as small and insignificant
English
Art/Literary
Linguistics
Is this sentence right?
"Despite their appearance as small and insignificant, zebra mussels clog pipes in factories. "
I think it should be:
"Despite their appearance as being small and insignificant, zebra mussels clog pipes in factories."
"Despite their appearance as small and insignificant, zebra mussels clog pipes in factories. "
I think it should be:
"Despite their appearance as being small and insignificant, zebra mussels clog pipes in factories."
Responses
+7
11 mins
Martin Riordan
Brazil
Brazil
Native in English
&
English
Brazil
Brazilian lawyer - 40+ years in Brazil
Native in: English (Variants: British, UK, Irish, US, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Scottish) 
, Portuguese (Variants: Brazilian, Mozambican, Angolan, European/Portugal) 
Works in: Portuguese to English, English to Portuguese, English, and 1 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
4
Selected
despite their small and insignificant appearance
I think this would be better.
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Note added at 14 hrs (2012-06-21 12:09:33 GMT)
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Jianwu, I personally feel that "appearance as small and insignificant" does not "sound just right". Maybe it is for the grammatical reasons you give. I'm not sure. Now, if you said "despite appearing small and insignificant", that would "sound right" to my ear.
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Note added at 14 hrs (2012-06-21 12:09:33 GMT)
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Jianwu, I personally feel that "appearance as small and insignificant" does not "sound just right". Maybe it is for the grammatical reasons you give. I'm not sure. Now, if you said "despite appearing small and insignificant", that would "sound right" to my ear.
Note from asker:
| Thanks peer translators. I agree that Martin's version is better. But what I really want to know is whether "appearance as small and insignificant" is correct in terms of grammar. Here, “as” is used as a preposition, which should be followed by a noun, or a noun phrase, not by an adjective itself. For example, you can’t say “in beautiful”. You can say “as good as”, which a different case since is “as” is an adverb, not a preposition. |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Kate Collyer
6 mins
|
|
Thanks, Kate!
|
|
| agree |
jccantrell
: But the way originally written would be fine as well.
22 mins
|
|
Thanks, jccantrell. Yes, it would be.
|
|
| agree |
Jim Tucker (X)
37 mins
|
|
Thanks, Jim!
|
|
| agree |
Suzan Hamer
54 mins
|
|
Thanks, Suzan!
|
|
| agree |
Jack Doughty
1 hr
|
|
Thanks, Jack!
|
|
| agree |
Jenni Lukac (X)
11 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Jenni!
|
|
| agree |
Effie Simiakaki (X)
18 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Effie!
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
37 mins
airmailrpl
Brazil
Brazil
Native in English
&
English
Brazil
Technical - Fast - good price - accurate
Native in: English (Variant: US) , Portuguese (Variant: Brazilian)
Works in: English to Portuguese, Portuguese to English, English, and 1 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
32
Despite their appearance as being small and insignificant,
Despite their appearance as being small and insignificant, => is fine
+1
13 hrs
though they might seem small and insignificant
I know there may seem to be little point in proposing something different when Martin already has six "agrees". However, I think there is a problem with the use of "appearance" here. By rearranging the sentence, I'll try to show what I mean:
Zebra mussels have a small appearance. That is clearly nonsense; either they are small or they are not small - unless they cunningly make people look at them through the wrong end of a telescope.
So, the real meaning is not about the actual size of the zebra mussels, but about the perception people have of zebra mussels due to their size: i.e. that as they are small, they are insignificant.
Zebra mussels have a small appearance. That is clearly nonsense; either they are small or they are not small - unless they cunningly make people look at them through the wrong end of a telescope.
So, the real meaning is not about the actual size of the zebra mussels, but about the perception people have of zebra mussels due to their size: i.e. that as they are small, they are insignificant.
Discussion
as is replaced by a comma and, thus becomes:
Despite their appearance, small and insignificant...