On 6 Oct 2000, 10:45, Algimantas Litvinas wrote:
> dear I ask here a linguistic question?
> A friend of mine who produces sweet-boxes in Lithuania,
> asks me which sentence on a box wpuld be more correct:
> "The product was made of raw material"
> or
> "The product is made of raw material",
As to the first two choices, that would be a matter of English grammar
and specifically, verb tense. Tense indicates the time or being of the
verb.
http://cctc2.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm
(Scroll down to the Tense section)
The product "is" made of raw material <-- present tense
The product "was" made of raw material <-- past tense
Either verb tense might be correct, depending on whether you wished to
covey the present or the past form of the verb.
If the product is presently made of raw material and continues to be
made from raw material, then the present tense of the verb, "is", would
be the best choice.
If the product was made of raw material in the past, and the product's
present composition is not of as great importance to the sentence as
the product's past composition, then the past tense of the verb, "was,"
would be the best choice.
> or
> "The product is made from natural raw material"?
Now here we have the age old question "truth in advertising." :-)
What is natural? That is a word often misused in describing product
composition, especially by adverstisers.
Let us first check the dictionary definition of "natural":
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
http://www.m-w.com/
Entering the word "natural" gives us three choices. In your sentence,
you are using the word "natural" as an adjective - to describe
something, specifically describing your raw material.
--copy--
Main Entry: 1nat�u�ral
Pronunciation: 'na-ch&-r&l, 'nach-r&l
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin naturalis of
nature, from natura nature
Date: 14th century
1 : based on an inherent sense of right and wrong <natural justice>
2 a : being in accordance with or determined by nature b : having or
constituting a classification based on features existing in nature
[snip further definitions]
--end copy---
Definition 2 would be the test to apply to your sentence. Is your raw
material "in accordance with or determined by nature" or is your raw
material "based on features existing in nature?"
My thoughts on this would be that the phrase "natural raw material" is
somewhat redundant or repetitive. One normally assumes that "raw
material" is natural in of itself -- one generally assumes raw material
was made in accordance to nature or by features existing in nature. So
I should think you might consider leaving out the word "natural" in
your sentence.
> Or please tell me where on the Internet could I ask this kind
> of questions.
Here is a good page to study verb tense:
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html
Better yet, this site has a forum in which you can post questions:
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/tensefaq.html
(Read that over and then click the link at the top marked
"QUESTIONS/ANSWERS" and that will take you to the site's bulletin board
forum.
Alan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
