| Phrase "Many people say California is..." | Use "their" instead of "his/her" |
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Fri Jun 13, 2008 19:12 pm "it suddenly dawns on my mind" = "I think out it"? |
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Hi, I have a question about word choice. Suppose I have a friend. I use Y!M, but he uses AIM, so I can't chat with him. In order for us to chat with each other, one of us must install the IM program that the other person uses. Because my computer is slow, and I can't install many program, he decided to install Y!M and set up an Y!M accout so that we could chat with each other. It's inconvenient to him, and because I have many exercises to ask him, I decide to let him use AIM, and I will use AIM on the web, such as meebo.com, etc. How can I say in this context? I want to mean that in the past I did know about meebo but I just forgot about it, and now meebo suddenly dawn on my mind. Is the following sentence OK? Yesterday, I suddenly think out meebo so I will use meebo to contact you
The example is just what I made up to clarify what I want to say! |
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sympathy You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 84
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Fri Jun 13, 2008 19:52 pm "it suddenly dawns on my mind" = "I think out it"? |
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Hi Sympathy
'Think out' doesn't work in your sentence. However, you could possibly use 'thought of'.
You could say something like this: - Yesterday it suddenly dawned on me that I could use meebo. So, I will to use meebo to contact you. _________________ Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English |
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Yankee I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 16 Apr 2006 Posts: 7377 Location: Northeast US
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Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:33 pm "it suddenly dawns on my mind" = "I think out it"? |
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Thank you Yankee. I also think that "dawn on me" is OK, but I wonder if there is a verb or phrasal verb ABC that has the same meaning, so that "it suddenly dawned on me that I could use meebo" = "I ABC that I could use meebo" Thanks |
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sympathy You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 84
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Sat Jun 14, 2008 16:32 pm "it suddenly dawns on my mind" = "I think out it"? |
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Hi Sympathy
You could also possibly say "Meebo suddenly came to mind". . _________________ Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English |
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Yankee I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 16 Apr 2006 Posts: 7377 Location: Northeast US
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Sat Jun 14, 2008 16:37 pm "it suddenly dawns on my mind" = "I think out it"? |
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Also "it suddenly struck me that..."
MrP |
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MrPedantic I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 863 Location: Southern England
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Sat Jun 14, 2008 23:32 pm "it suddenly dawns on my mind" = "I think out it"? |
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What about: It suddenly occured to me that... ? or: I suddenly hit upon an idea that...
I think they bear the same meaning, don't they? |
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lost_soul I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 15 Sep 2006 Posts: 1713 Location: South Park, Colorado, USA
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Sat Jun 14, 2008 23:38 pm "it suddenly dawns on my mind" = "I think out it"? |
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Yes, they express roughly the same idea.
1. It suddenly occurred to me that...
2. I suddenly hit upon the idea that...
Though there is a difference in focus: in #1, the "idea" is the agent in the action, while in #2, "I" is the agent.
All the best,
MrP |
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MrPedantic I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 863 Location: Southern England
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sympathy You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 84
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Mon Jun 16, 2008 23:31 pm "it suddenly dawns on my mind" = "I think out it"? |
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You're welcome!
Another usage is "it slowly dawned on me that...", for gradual realisation.
Best wishes,
MrP |
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MrPedantic I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 863 Location: Southern England
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| Phrase "Many people say California is..." | Use "their" instead of "his/her" |