• Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Why does he end all his statements with that, “thanks for your attention to this matter” so fucking dumb.

    • orgrinrt@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      English isn’t my native language, but to me it sounds like there should be an “on” in place of “to” there? Is it correct grammar? And if it is, does it still sound equally “wrong” to someone natively speaking English or is this some weird quirk of the second language experience?

      • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
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        5 days ago

        there should be an “on” in place of “to” there?

        No.

        Is it correct grammar?

        Yes.

        is this some weird quirk of the second language experience

        Probably connected to how your native language would construct a similar sentence.

        • orgrinrt@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Thanks! That’s surprising. We’d actually use the equivalent of “to” here too. Weird how our foreign language intuition works. I go by how sentences “taste” when I read them and it’s usually correct, this time somehow it has a weird encumbered taste with the “to”, yet it is correct.

          If only the day-to-day autopilot part of the mind would work from what we’ve learnt literally as opposed to some weird personal associative “feeling”. Or maybe that’s just me…

          Anyway, thanks!

      • _skj@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I think either “to” or “on” would be acceptable in that context. English likes to use “to” with attention, like in the phrases “pay attention to” or “draw attention to”, often emphasizing the change in focus. But you can also keep your attention “on” something.

        As a native English speaker from the US east coast, I would probably have chosen “on”. Just sounds better to me to use “on” instead of “to” when there is no associated verb like “pay” or “draw”. Not sure why.