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Well I'm studying english and I got into an argue with my professor about a certain sentence he translated from german into english. The topic was "subjectivization", which means you pick a certain word in a sentence and make into the subject of the sentence.
Example: "It will be sunny in London today."
By using London as the subject and removing the it-dummy-subject it could be rephrased into: "London will be sunny today."
This can rarely be done in german so it sounds very confusing.
The sentence we had a debate about was really odd, though.
"Four people can sleep in this tent."
My prof rephrased that into: "This tent sleeps four people."
So, native speakers, I need your help. Does this sentence sound weird to you as well? Do you think it is grammatically correct? And most importantly, would you say that?
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
This bed fucks two people? HMMM
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I would not say it, but I do believe I have seen it used before.
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CA10824 Posts
i would never say that, but where are you learning english? different countries have different ways of saying things.
i would say either what you originally put "Four people can sleep in this tent" or "this tent fits four people" or "this is a four-person tent", something to that extent.
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its correct but i would have translated it to "this tent can sleep four people."
In real life I would probably say something like, "this tent can fit four people." since when i think of a tent i think of people chillin inside, and not necessarily sleeping in it.
But i supose the weird part is that it sounds like the Tent is the one sleeping. oh well, every language has its quirks and i think languages constantly evolve. weird phrases repeated over and over again gradually sound and become "correct".
a fine example is the double negative like in "We don't need no education.." etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative
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Yes, and advertisers use it quite often.
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I would say it's incorrect, however I'm not a native speaker, and therefore you should not give my opinion any kind of priority, as it is unadvised.
I have never seen or heard the verb 'to sleep' used as an action that is exercised over something (someone), and I believe it is logically incorrect. However there's a high chance that I could be mistaken.
WHERE IS MOLTKE
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Thank you guys so far. Summarizing it, everyone except minus_human would say this sentence is correct, but wouldn't use it and yenta says it's a common phrase. I need more input gogo 
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
thats sounds really weird to me lol O_O
but who knows. english is basically my native language but i don't look into it too far... >_>
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Austin10831 Posts
Four people can fit in this car.
This car fits four people.
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On May 16 2008 20:17 BroOd wrote:
Four people can fit in this car.
This car fits four people.
Your example is correct, but can this inversion be applied to any verb?
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and again, WHERES THE MOLTKE AT WHEN U NEED IT
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On May 16 2008 20:27 minus_human wrote:Show nested quote +On May 16 2008 20:17 BroOd wrote:
Four people can fit in this car.
This car fits four people. Your example is correct , but can this inversion be applied to any verb?
Look at infitiy21's post at the start of the thread 
Brood's example is correct though but im not sure bout the OP
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That's fucking incorrect.
Tell your professor to dive into a pile of rusty AIDS-infested needles.
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Spenguin
Australia3316 Posts
On May 16 2008 19:45 infinity21 wrote:
This bed fucks two people? HMMM
XDD
OH SO GOOD!
Yes that is weird, some people can't speak TL english.
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On May 16 2008 20:33 o3.power91 wrote:Show nested quote +On May 16 2008 20:27 minus_human wrote:On May 16 2008 20:17 BroOd wrote:
Four people can fit in this car.
This car fits four people. Your example is correct , but can this inversion be applied to any verb? Look at infitiy21's post at the start of the thread Brood's example is correct though but im not sure bout the OP
LOL I somehow managed to miss it:D
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United States24612 Posts
It's amazing how native speakers of English can [usually] say things in several different correct ways, and yet it's so difficult for us to discuss why, that is, the rules that dictate which things we say are or aren't correct. Most of us don't know crap about the actual rules ._.
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On May 16 2008 21:28 micronesia wrote:
It's amazing how native speakers of English can [usually] say things in several different correct ways, and yet it's so difficult for us to discuss why, that is, the rules that dictate which things we say are or aren't correct. Most of us don't know crap about the actual rules ._.
These rules are somewhat randomly generated by the speakers before you.
Lots of special cases and rules are only necessary for historical (read evolutionary) reasons. Languages are not streamlined like they would be if a (skilled) mathematician would have created (or redesigned) them.
Most modern languages could easily be simplified by some reforms, but that would not be very popular.
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"This tent sleeps four people." makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me.
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3861 Posts
It is grammatically correct. It may sound odd, but most adverts will use that line. I am an English teacher.
edit: I'm an American English teacher? I'm not sure if the rules apply in other English speaking countries.
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It is correct grammar wise.
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It sounds perfectly normal to me, in fact that's how I normally speak.
"Holy shit, Vallejo is gonna be fucking hot today" instead of "Holy shit it's going to be fucking hot in Vallejo today"...in fact that latter actually seems a bit weird because of the extra words it takes to pretty much say the same thing.
I'm not sure about everyone else, but when I speak (as well as alot of people I know) we generally try to say things with the least amount of words possible.
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
^ neither of them sound odd to me though >_<_>~~_<>~_<~ confusion o wells
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yeah it is correct; its not very odd either.
Consider : Four people can sit in the Car -> The Car Seats four people
I think that is a more common example which people will be familiar with.
edit: damn somebody posted this same shit like a long time ago
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On May 16 2008 22:18 alffla wrote:
^ neither of them sound odd to me though >_<_>~~_<>~_<~ confusion o wells
lol, ok it's not really weird, it wouldn't freak me out if someone started talking like that. However it's different from how I'm used to speaking. Or it could just be a California thing, you know because we have to talk really fast to each other while we're passing by on our surfboards while we surf to work
A person can eat this burger.
This burger eats a person.
I know that's different from what we're talking about (and it should be "This burger feeds a person" anyways), but that phrase just came into my head and I couldn't stop laughing for about 30 seconds for some reason.
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I know it's correct in other forms, but the particular phrase "This tent sleeps four people." doesn't sit well with me. No point drawing a parallel to other usages of it, or we might as well refer to the first reply.
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Austin10831 Posts
It's just a transitive verb form of sleeps, I'm surprised so many people are unused to it.
2. To provide sleeping accommodations for: This tent sleeps three comfortably.
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it is correct, but it sounds really strange, although a lot of people do use it regularly.
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I always use "This tent sleeps x people.".
Its like...how you talk about tents xD
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On May 16 2008 19:45 infinity21 wrote:
This bed fucks two people? HMMM
Actually, think about this particular example's inverse.
Two people fuck a bed? ~_~
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On May 16 2008 20:46 katona wrote:
That's fucking incorrect.
Tell your professor to dive into a pile of rusty AIDS-infested needles.
rofl stupid.
It's correct. It just is. English is weird and its the language with the most expections.
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Kyrgyz Republic1462 Posts
On May 16 2008 23:25 MiniRoman wrote:
It's correct. It just is. English is weird and its the language with the most expections.
Most exceptions? Try Russian 
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United States22883 Posts
Technically it may be correct, but it would not be used in conversation in english speaking countries.
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It makes sense but I wouldn't normally use it.
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No it's fucking wrong. Since when does "sleep" also mean "allow people to sleep in"?
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I don't know if it's correct English, but around here at least (San Francisco bay area) it's very common to hear people speak like that.
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As others have said, it is grammatically correct. Take a car for example:
Four people can sit in this car.
to
This car seats four people.
It's just a different way of stating it. I don't believe it is commonplace in many native English speakers minds or dialect, but it is grammatically sound. The only reason I think "this tent sleeps four people" is bugging some people here is that sleep is used as a verb somewhat oddly here. However, it is proper grammatically; it just doesn't automatically make sense without being used to it.
The place you're most likely to hear phrases like that is if you're watching TV ads or looking to buy something from a salesperson. In my experience, they use this kind of phrasing fairly often.
Edit: Haha, I'm the third person who went directly to the car sentence.
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On May 17 2008 00:41 Luddite wrote:
No it's fucking wrong. Since when does "sleep" also mean "allow people to sleep in"?
It always has, check a dictionary.
v. slept (slěpt), sleep·ing, sleeps
v. intr.
1. To be in the state of sleep or to fall asleep.
2. To be in a condition resembling sleep.
v. tr.
1. To pass or get rid of by sleeping: slept away the day; went home to sleep off the headache.
2. To provide sleeping accommodations for: This tent sleeps three comfortably.
3. To sleep at one's place of employment: a butler and a chauffeur who sleep in.
4.
1. To oversleep: I missed the morning train because I slept in.
2. To sleep late on purpose: After this week's work, I will sleep in on Saturday.
5. To sleep at one's own home, not at one's place of employment.
6. To sleep away from one's home.
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it's technically correct, but you cannot generalize this to every verb (see infinity21's example. whoever mentioned the inverse was wrong. the real inverse would be 'two people can fuck in this bed' which is perfectly fine). plus, in this particular case, most people would say something else as that usage of the word sleep is really odd
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On May 16 2008 20:17 BroOd wrote:
Four people can fit in this car.
This car fits four people.
Four people can sleep in this car.
This car sleeps four people.
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Wow I didn't expect that many replies.
Just to make it clear, there's no point in bringing other examples into this argument. I'm not questioning sentences like "This car seats four people"! It's only that particular example that sounds strange to my ears.
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well the whole use of sleeps as a verb is really only used regionally in speech
so you could say this tent/rv/camper/whatever sleeps and it would sound normal in some regions
but in other regions its not used and sounds awkward
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English is fucked up. The reason it got fucked up is that "local color" (how people speak in a region) even if wrong, somehow becomes correct.
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So, native speakers, I need your help. Does this sentence sound weird to you as well? Do you think it is grammatically correct? And most importantly, would you say that?
No, yes and yes.
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United States20661 Posts
I've seen it in advertisements / product labelling, though I would never say that in normal conversation.
Thus it is correct, but not part of the vernacular lexicon?
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I don't think many native speakers would phrase it that way.
The first way "Four people can sleep in this tent." is what would be said.
If you wanted to rephrase it you might say "This tent holds four people."
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ya that is correct, and sounds fine to me. people don't speak that way often though.
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I would never use that phrase
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EPT
