seem Adj AND to be | WordReference Forums

John seems sick. John seems to have skipped today's class. Can these sentences be conjoined to form the following sentence? Forums Dictionarysearch:  English-Spanish English-French English-Italian English-German English-Dutch English-Russian English-Portuguese English-Polish English-Romanian English-Swedish English-Czech English-Greek English-Turkish English-Chinese English-Japanese English-Korean English-Arabic Spanish-English French-English Italian-English German-English Dutch-English Russian-English Portuguese-English Polish-English Romanian-English Swedish-English Czech-English Greek-English Turkish-English Chinese-English Japanese-English Korean-English Arabic-English Spanish-French Spanish-Portuguese Spanish-Catalan French-Spanish Portuguese-Spanish Englishdefinition Englishsynonyms Englishcollocations Englishusage Italiandefinition Spanishdefinition Spanishsynonyms Catalandefinition Spanish French Italian Login Register What'snew Search Rules/Help/FAQ Members InterfaceLanguage Menu Login Register Installtheapp Install Forums EnglishOnly EnglishOnly Youareusinganoutofdatebrowser.Itmaynotdisplaythisorotherwebsitescorrectly.Youshouldupgradeoruseanalternativebrowser. seemAdjANDtobe Threadstarter kanadaaa Startdate Nov11,2018 kanadaaa SeniorMember Vancouver Japanese(Tokai) Johnseemssick. Johnseemstohaveskippedtoday'sclass. Canthesesentencesbeconjoinedtoformthefollowingsentence? Johnseemssickandtohaveskippedtoday'sclass. I'dappreciateitifyouletmeknowwhetherornottheseareacceptable. Thanksinadvance.   Lastedited:Nov11,2018 dojibear SeniorMember FresnoCA USEnglish 1.Johnseemssick. 2.Johnseemstohaveskippedtoday'sclass. No,thesecan'tbecombined. Theverbin1is"seems",meaning"appears"or"lookslike".ItmeansJohnlookslikeasickperson. Theverbin2is"seemstohaveskipped".ThatdoesnotmeanJohnlookslikea"tohaveskipped".Insteaditmeans: Thesituationseemstobethis:Johnhasskippedtoday'sclass. Ifyouwanttocombinesentencesusingthesameverb,itmusthavethesamemeaning.Otherwiseitisapun(ajoke).   UncleJack SeniorMember Cumbria,UK BritishEnglish "Seems"hasdifferentmeaningsinthetwoexpressions,sotheycannotbecombinedinordinaryEnglish—unlessyouareapoetorahumorouswriter: HereThou,greatAnna!whomthreeRealmsobey, DostsometimesCounseltake–andsometimesTea.(AlexanderPope,TheRapeoftheLock) Whenheasked"Whatinheaven?"shemadenoreply,uphermind,andadashforthedoor.(FlandersandSwann,HaveSomeMadeiraM'Dear)​Thisiscalledzeugmaorsyllepsis,arhetoricaldevice,butwronginordinaryEnglish. Inyourcase,Irecommendfindingadifferentverbforoneorotheroftheexpressions,aseven"Johnseemssickandheseemstohaveskippedtoday'sclass"soundsalittleoddwiththerepeatedverb.   kanadaaa SeniorMember Vancouver Japanese(Tokai) dojibearsaid: No,thesecan'tbecombined. Clicktoexpand... Thankyouforyourcomment,thatreallyhelps!   Lastedited:Nov11,2018 Youmustloginorregistertoreplyhere. Share: Facebook Twitter Reddit WhatsApp Email Share Link Forums EnglishOnly EnglishOnly Top