A friend of mine announced her pregnancy via email. I wanted to tell her how pleased I was to hear she was going to have a baby, as this was something she'd wanted for a long time.
I was about to say "I've never been happier to hear someone's pregnant", but then realised that of course I had been even happier when my own wife found she was pregnant. I wanted to imply that that was the only time I had been happier to hear such an announcement.
I wrestled with putting it succinctly for a few moments before writing "you're the person I've been second happiest to hear is pregnant ever".
I shuddered as I sent it, as I could see it was poor English. However, I was in a rush and knew she would understand what I meant.
I hope you can see what I was aiming for: I didn't want to mention my wife explicitly, and I wanted to use "second-most" in some way.
Even with hindsight, I struggle to put this into a single brief sentence. What should I have written?
Answer
To rephrase without losing any of the meaning and disregarding the pragmatics of the questioner’s sentiment, I might say:
Of all the times that hearing news of a pregnancy has made me happy, yours ranks second.
But I think this formulation casts more light on the awkwardness of the sentiment than the questioner would have wanted.
I agree with the other answerers that although your intentions are kind, this is going to be an uncomfortable thing to hear, no matter how unawkwardly you phrase it.
No comments:
Post a Comment