Re: Aspects of English Grammar

Philippe Caquant wrote:
>
> Maybe it is in English, although in French it looks
> rather natural:
> Demain matin, a la meme heure, je serai sur le point
> de prendre le train pour Madrid.
> or:
> dans douze mois, je serai sur le point de prendre ma
> retraite (in 12 months, I'll be about to retire)
>
> As I can easily understand the idea, I can't see why
> it couldn't be expressed, one way or another, in
> English.
Well, it's probably *correct*, it just sounds (to me, at least) very
awkward.  Of course, talking about a future event being just a little
before another future event isn't exactly a common topic.  The
retirement example, however, sounds okay to me.  I'm not really quite
clear on why the one sounds fine and the other doesn't.

To be honest, I can't think of any other way of expressing your Madrid
train example, except perhaps in something like "At this time tomorrow,
I'll be waiting for the train to Madrid".  "Will be about to" is just
clumsy (although probably grammatical)

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