Timeline for Can I say "Please find my yesterday’s and today’s daily reports in the documents."
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 12, 2010 at 23:26 | comment | added | Kosmonaut | @Bruno: Descriptive linguists who study syntax use "would not use" and "does not sound natural" as the indicator of ungrammaticality. | |
| Nov 12, 2010 at 9:46 | comment | added | b.roth | @Kosmonaut, @Claudiu: we all agreed that the sentence did not sound natural and that people would not in general use it. The point with which we disagreed was whether this really made the sentence ungrammatical. If it doesn't violate any rule, I don't see why it would be ungrammatical. But, honestly, this is not really relevant. It's what people use that matters. That's why I suggested since the beginning an alternative wording for the sentence. Anyway, one of the best things about this site is that we can all post answers and choose the ones that sound right to us. | |
| Nov 12, 2010 at 4:26 | comment | added | Vincent McNabb | I don't think "yes" is a good answer. English isn't about whether or not things are acceptable by a set of rules. "Rules" should follow common usage, and the above sentence sounds quite wrong. | |
| Nov 11, 2010 at 18:55 | comment | added | Claudiu | yeah it sounds ungrammatical to me too | |
| Nov 11, 2010 at 18:22 | comment | added | Kosmonaut | @Bruno: Native speakers don't write such sentences, and it doesn't follow prescribed rules either. Is there another metric you are using to determine grammaticality? If I saw a sentence like the one in the question, or the one in your answer, I would assume the person was a non-native speaker. | |
| Nov 11, 2010 at 17:03 | history | edited | b.roth | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
added 6 characters in body; deleted 2 characters in body
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| Nov 11, 2010 at 17:03 | comment | added | b.roth | @Kosmonaut, I agree that point #1 is not a good example. I'm changing the example in my post. However, that does not make the sentence ungrammatical. It just does not sound natural. | |
| Nov 11, 2010 at 16:48 | comment | added | Kosmonaut | Point #1 is not valid for this case, because in your example, my is modifying sister, but in the question, my is attempting to modify daily reports, going around the genitive, which is not grammatical. I'm surprised it doesn't just sound ungrammatical to you. | |
| Nov 11, 2010 at 16:47 | comment | added | Steve Melnikoff | Or omit "my": Please find yesterday’s and today’s daily reports in the documents. | |
| Nov 11, 2010 at 16:13 | history | answered | b.roth | CC BY-SA 2.5 |