Grammar Help Please

[Lafayette]

How would I say "The teacher that will read this"? As in, "The teacher that will read this [essay] will probably think I am joking".

 

I'm writing my first short essay for a 201 Mandarin class, and I'm stuck on that bit of grammar.

 

多谢！

[Tiana]

"The teacher that will read this [essay]..."

"看这篇论文的老师..."

[Jeffrey_xu]

"The teacher that will read this "

“老师会看的”     

 

The teacher =老师

will=会

read=看

[imron]

@Jeffrey_xu you've missed the word 'that', and have completely changed the meaning of the sentence.

[Lafayette]

Thanks, Tiana. It seems obvious now that I read your translation.

[lingo-ling]

Though in English I would say "The teacher who will read this", a teacher being a human being and not an inanimate object.

[Lafayette]

@lingo-ling

 

Crap, yeah. And English is supposed to be my first language. 

[anonymoose]

Depending on what kind of essay you have written, 论文 may not be the best translation.

[Kamille]

About English grammar: if I'm not mistaken "which" is for inanimate objects, "who" for human beings, and "that" is neutral and thus correct under any case.

 

http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoVwhVt.asp

 

About Chinese, now: In some cases 文章 can be more suitable than 論文, as anonymoose said.

[Shelley]

I would say "who will read this..."

 

It doesn't matter if you think of "that" as "correct under any case" it just sounds wrong in this particular sentence.

 

Its a funny sentence because it sounds like only teachers who read this essay will think you are joking, anyone else won't.

 

Hope you do well.

[Eszter]

If you want to avoid confusion, maybe you can change the structure to "WHEN the teacher reads it, he'll think..." as it's much easier to put into Chinese. I would go with this if it's an acceptable change for the message you're trying to convey. If you want to stick to the original version, 看文章的老师 should work, just as Tiana already pointed out.

Also, I agree with anonymoose about 论文 being a too big word for an essay. I would suggest 文章. Good luck!

[lingo-ling]

Or 報告... it's commonly used to mean "paper" in the academic sense.

[Gharial]

It might help the English sentence read better if the form in the subordinate (relative) clause were simpler than in the main clause: The teacher/examiner [who reads this essay] will probably think I'm joking (cf. the so-called "first conditional"). That is, two 'will's in a row is considered bad form according to ELT grammars such as Swan's PEU.

 

I read of an English teacher who suggested that his students simply put 'that' as the answer for every which/that/who gap-fill in a test. They all scored 9/10. Make of that what you will!

 

@Shelley:

 

Its a funny sentence because it sounds like only teachers who read this essay will think you are joking, anyone else won't.

 

 

Well, those who don't read the essay won't be able to say either way! I interpret the context as being "quite possibly and primarily just the single, lone person assigned to read and assess this essay" - see if my substitution of 'examiner' for 'teacher' helps.

[Shelley]

To me it sounded like only teachers who read the essay, if a doctor or butcher or anyone else apart from a teacher they won't find it funny.

 

Which I suppose could be true, thinking about it, maybe only teachers are blessed with the knowledge required to make it funny