When playing.

[Student33]

Hello,
I know that we can use (when) and (while) with present participle phrases for example:

1.When talking to her ,I feel happy.

But can we use (when) in this way in the past? I mean is it correct to say:

1.When chopping some wood, I hurtmy hand.
or
2.When talking to him, I felt very bad yesterday.:confused:

[Pete]

Hello,
I know that we can use (when) and (while) with present participle phrases for example:

1.When talking to her ,I feel happy.

But can we use (when) in this way in the past? I mean is it correct to say:

1.When chopping some wood, I hurt my hand.
or
2.When talking to him, I felt very bad yesterday.:confused:
#1 is fine.

The use of "when" in #2 is fine, but I'd put "yesterday" in the introductory part:
- Yesterday when talking to him, I felt very bad.
- When talking to him yesterday, I felt very bad.

[JRiddy]

It often sounds more natural to make it a full clause:

"When I was talking to him (yesterday), I felt bad(ly)."

[Nicholas]

It often sounds more natural to make it a full clause:

An interesting sentense. First, I think that "sounds" is not compatible with "often", then "It ... sounds ... to make" is the same that "to make... sounds..." but "to make" does not sound, a sentence can do it, in a figurative sense.

[JRiddy]

Actually, "it," in this instance, is an "anticipatory dummy subject," meaning it looks forward to an infinitive phrase later in the sentence.

"It often sounds more natural to make it a full clause," is equivalent to
"To make it a full clause | often | sounds | more natural."

Using "it" to move an subject infinitive phrase to the end of the sentence is very common in English, so be careful when reading or hearing a sentence like that.

[Nicholas]

I understand this and in my presious reply I placed "to make... sounds...", that is a shortened form of "To make it a full clause | often | sounds | more natural."

I would use other forms to express the idea:

"To make it a full clause is preferably"
"A sentence where it has been made (used as) a full clause sounds more natural."

What's your opinion?

[JRiddy]

I understand this and in my presious reply I placed "to make... sounds...", that is a shortened form of "To make it a full clause | often | sounds | more natural."

I would use other forms to express the idea:

"To make it a full clause is preferably"
"...is preferable" is correct.

"It's preferable to make it a full clause," is more natural to the English speaker.

"A sentence where it has been made (used as) a full clause sounds more natural."

What's your opinion?

"A sentence that has been made a full clause sounds more natural."

Still, an English speaker is more likely to say something like "It sounds more natural to...," or "It seems better to..."

[Nicholas]

It is not very clear for me. Sound ~ give an impression, seem ~ have or give an impression.
"The book seems quite interesting."
"His explanation sounds all right."
" "I love music" sounds OK " (that means that in the center of attention first that impression that it (phrase, expression?) gives to the person who said "OK" but not just a grammar correctness. Here I must to note that the example with "sentence" in my post put above is wrong because "sentence" is a logical stucture and can not sound even in a figurative sense)

Is it right?

[Rusty]

It is not very clear for me. Sound ~ give an impression, seem ~ have or give an impression.
"The book seems quite interesting."
"His explanation sounds all right."
" "I love music" sounds OK " (that means that in the center of attention first that impression that it (phrase, expression?) gives to the person who said "OK" but not just a grammar correctness. Here I must to note that the example with "sentence" in my post put above is wrong because "sentence" is a logical stucture and can not sound even in a figurative sense)

Is it right? This is an interesting point. We English speakers often write, "It sounds OK" when we are actually reading a sentence on the screen, not hearing it. We mean that if the sentence were spoken aloud it would be how we normally hear people expressing the idea in the sentence.

[Nicholas]

Yes, it is clear. But I tried to attract attention to two other issues:

1." "I love music" sounds OK "
But what sounds? A phrase? An Expression? I have not found an appropriate term in my native language, does such a term exist in English?

2."to make... is preferably" looks correct as well as
"His explanation sounds all right."
" "I love music" sounds OK "

JRiddy used the form " to make ... sounds..." but is this correct?