"You are not a student because you go to the school, or because you are in a classroom. " It's a simple sentence, however, when I read the sentence and translate it into chinese literally or word-for-word, I may say ' You are not a student, because you go to the school, or because you are in a classroom', or I can say ' because you go to the school you are not a student'. Is it to do with language habit, the thinking habit or my english level? Any comment is welcomed!
What's the difference between the two sentences: You are a student not because you go to the school. and You are not a stuent because you go to the school. If no difference, which one is commonly used by native speakers? And what about these two: You are a Christian not because you go to Church and You are not a Christian because you go to Church. Any difference between these two pairs?
Thank you deuce for your advice and patience with my difficulty! I agree with you to thinking in english. That's the idealest position for one who studies english as a second language. Perhaps, that is where my problem lies. In fact, if the sentence had been written as: 'you are not a student only (merely, simply, just) because you go to the school', I wouldn't have had the chance to misunderstand it. It seems the adverb 'only' is dispensible for english native speakers, but very important for me chinese. Justnow, I wrote down the original sentence on the blackboard for my students asking for their comments about it. Nobody dared to give a right interpretation, with most of them being suspicious of the correctness or validity of the sentence. My poor students!
@ANELE:No, for your former explanation, and almost Yes, for your latter one. To be exact, it means :"You can't be recognized as a student just because you've been to a school, or you've been inside a classroom". Please be careful, I used 'go to the (or,a) school' meaning 'to go to a place' instead of your words 'goes to school' meaning 'to become a student'.@DEUCE666: I don't know whether there is a difference or not between the first sentence without a comma and the second one with a comma. However, they are different from the third sentence which is meaningless, illogical, nonlogical or illigitimate. I don't understand why you didn't understand what my difficulty is in translating the sentence. Is it to do with Language habit, thinking habit or ...? Looking forward to your comments once more?
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