0

I found this sentence in one of my student's notebook.

Life really is short.

And Class teacher also mark that answer as correct. Just wanted to know which one is correct and should use.

Life really is short.
Life is really short.

As always! Thank you so much.

Improve this question
13
  • 2
    Both are correct and mean the same.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jul 7 at 18:22
  • 2
    "Is really short" is explaining how short/long, "life really is short" is contrasting with "life isn't short". So there's not really a difference in meaning but they'd be used in different circumstances. There are a lot of existing questions on adverb placement which will cover this in much more detail.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jul 7 at 18:30
  • 1
    Really, life is short and Life is short, really are also perfectly valid. But arguably those both feature traditional "whole sentence adverbs* that emphasis the truth of the assertion as a whole,
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 7 at 19:01
  • 6
    They have different meanings. The first means "It is true that life is short", the second "Life is very short".
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Jul 7 at 21:13
  • 2
    What do you mean by “correct”? Both are valid English utterances in terms of their syntax. But whether they correctly convey any particular meaning depends on which meaning(s) one intends. That’s what @timchessish is saying.
    – Paul Tanenbaum
    Commented Jul 8 at 9:25

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

Both are correct English utterances in terms of their syntax.

So there's not really a difference in meaning but they'd be used in different circumstances.

There are a lot of existing questions on adverb placement which will cover this in much more detail. But arguably those both feature traditional "whole sentence adverbs* that emphasis the truth of the assertion as a whole.

So in short.

They have different meanings. The first means "It is true that life is short", the second "Life is very short" whether they correctly convey any particular meaning depends on which meaning(s) one intends.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .