Timeline for Does "what makes him good" mean that he asks why?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 25, 2015 at 12:44 | vote | accept | user37421 | ||
| Feb 18, 2015 at 20:13 | vote | accept | user37421 | ||
| Feb 18, 2015 at 20:32 | |||||
| Feb 18, 2015 at 19:53 | history | edited | Ben Kovitz |
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| Feb 18, 2015 at 19:48 | answer | added | Ben Kovitz | timeline score: 2 | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 19:47 | comment | added | user37421 | could it mean that he wants to make his language better and wants to know how? | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 19:36 | comment | added | Adam | And the question is worded exactly as you relayed it? If so, I would respond to the hypothetical friend by saying "I don't know what you mean. Could you rephrase your question?" It could mean In what ways am I good at speaking French. Is it my fine accent? Or is it my excellent grammar? Or it could mean Why is it that I am good at speaking French? Is it because I studied, or did my parents pass on language genes? | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 19:32 | comment | added | user37421 | @Adam No it's a question in my homework it's indirect speech so is there different meaning possibilities? | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 19:25 | comment | added | Adam | @user37421 I am not sure I understand your scenario. Are you saying a native speaker said something like "What makes me good at speaking French?" | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 19:04 | comment | added | user37421 | thanks but what's the direct form for this sentence? | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 19:00 | comment | added | M.A.R. | Wait a sec. "A friend asks you what makes him good at speaking a foreign language." Is "him" the friend that's good at speaking English already? | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 18:57 | answer | added | Neel | timeline score: -2 | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 18:54 | comment | added | M.A.R. | Both can be correct, if we don't take the nitpicky's way to the answer! :) Look at them. If in #1 the first "he" is "the person fluent in English" and the second "a friend"; then both have approximately the same meaning. However, I sense the first is closer to the answer. | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 18:50 | history | edited | user37421 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 18, 2015 at 18:24 | history | asked | user37421 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |