Tuesday, April 16, 2013

grammaticality - "You were the one who was surprised you liked it"




"You were the one who was surprised you liked it"




What is it about this sentence that makes it sound clumsy?



I'm not sure about specific grammatical rules that should be applied to this sentence, or if there is simply a more elegant way to express the meaning here.







The intention of the sentence being that:



Roger recalls that Susan recently tried banana muffins for the first time and liked them.



Susan suggests presently that Roger is a fiend for banana muffins and can't eat enough banana muffins.



Susan says to Roger: "You do like your muffins, don't you dear."




Roger would like to remind Susan that she too liked banana muffins, maybe even more so than she would care to admit.



Roger says to Susan: "You were the one who was surprised you liked them".


Answer



It sounds clumsy to me because it is just a statement. The impression is robotic. It sounds less clumsy and more appropriate when it is asked as a question.



Consider:




Roger says to Susan: "Weren't you the one who was surprised you

liked them"?




Hope this helps.


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