Re: Basque genitives

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003, Joe wrote:

> From: "Nik Taylor" <yonjuuni@...>
>
> > Joe wrote:
> > > For me, "Yesterday's dinner" more implies 'the dinner which was made
> > > yesterday'.  As in "You can have yesterday's dinner for breakfast"
> >
> > I'd probably say "You can have leftovers from last night's dinner for
> > breakfast" ("yesterday" just sounds funny to me when talking about
> > something at night or in the evening).  I'd understand that sentence,
> > but it would sound very odd.
> >
> > Actually, I'd be most likely to just say "You can have leftovers from
> > last night for breakfast"
> >
> > Would you say something like "Last night's dinner was very good"?  Or
> > would you have to say "The dinner we ate last night was very good"?
>
> No, I would say "Last night's dinner was very good".  That implies, of
> course, that you know, since you ate it.
I would say either 'Last night's dinner was very good' or 'Dinner last
night was very good'. The former is more general, the latter implies that
my audience was there, and probably means dinner was a social occasion,
rather than just food. I would never say 'The dinner we ate last night',
it sounds very odd.  (Actually, I'd probably saw '... was nice' rather
than '... was very good', but that's not what's on offer today :)

--
Tristan                  <kesuari@...>

Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still
be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.
                -- Snoopy