Re: Aspects of English Grammar

On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 21:01:17 -0800, Adam Walker <carrajena@...>
wrote:

> --- "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh@...> wrote:
>> On Fri, Mar 12, 2004 at 10:07:57PM -0600, Nik Taylor
>> wrote:
>> > Philippe Caquant wrote:
>> > >
>> > > "To be about to" is possible in the future
>> tense:
>> > > Tomorrow morning, at the same time, I'll be
>> about to
>> > > take the train to Madrid...
>> >
>> > To this native speaker, that sounds, at best, only
>> semi-gramatical.
>> [snip]
>>
>> To this L2 speaker, that sounds decidedly weird.
>> (And I'm known for coming
>> up with weird ways of saying things. Such as, "it's
>> a quarter to half
>> past, let's go in." :-P)
>>
>>
>> T
>>
>
> To this native it sounds fine.  English has too many
> dialects.
Seconded, on both counts.

Weirdly, it sounds like it ought to come from a Celtic L1 speaker, but
beyond that, I could possibly even picture myself saying it, if pressed.




Paul