Timeline for What grammatical construct is this: "you wouldn't know that to talk to him"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 21, 2016 at 6:31 | vote | accept | vonjd | ||
| Apr 20, 2016 at 19:40 | comment | added | MetaEd | Another variation: he's rich, but you wouldn't know it to look at him. | |
| Apr 20, 2016 at 16:46 | comment | added | rhetorician | If the person about whom you are talking used to have a pronounced stutter but now does not have a stutter, you could say of him, "You wouldn't know that to talk to him." I agree with @Lambie that the wording is informal. However, if I were talking about that former stutterer, I'd say "You'd never know that by talking to him" (or "by hearing him talk"). To me, that sounds a bit more formal, not to mention correct. Don | |
| Apr 20, 2016 at 16:41 | answer | added | user66965 | timeline score: 0 | |
| Apr 20, 2016 at 16:34 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | It is a rather strange usage. I think (but don't know) that it's relatively informal, but I doubt it's "regional, dialectal" to any significant extent. My guess is it's a "shortening by deletion" from, say, You wouldn't know it if you were to look at him - but again, I don't know. | |
| Apr 20, 2016 at 16:32 | comment | added | Lambie | It's used. I'd say informal speech. | |
| Apr 20, 2016 at 16:27 | history | asked | vonjd | CC BY-SA 3.0 |