Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Missing  "but"

Is this sentence incorrect?
"Champagne can be purchased by the balthazar, brandy cannot be purchased in
this amount."
-- 
Enrico C  /testing Pimmy/
Reply to: enrico /dot/ c /at\ people \dot\ it


Enrico, you know that's not correct.  You need a but or punctuation.  I'd put a
period there.


I'll reword my question: isn't it informal, not formally correct, yet
acceptable? Same question about the other sentence I've just posted, the
one with "than for".


 acceptable? 
No.
"In this amount" doesn't really sound like English, either.
-- 
Mary


The sentence is taken from a Toefl sample test. 
They bluepencil the missing "but" in the sentence
"Champagne can be purchased by the balthazar, brandy cannot be purchased in
this amount."
and maintain that
"Champagne can be purchased by the balthazar, but brandy cannot be
purchased in
this amount."
is the correct version.


 in this amount."
The way you phrased your original question would naturally elicit the
response that you need a period between the two sentences. However, putting
'but' between the two sentences allows you to use a comma and the sentence
would be grammatically correct but still contextual incoherent.

 is the correct version.
Invece, no. Mary, come quasi (ma solo quasi, Mary :) ) sempre, ha
ragione. "In this amount" non e' solo inglese cattivo, ma non e'
inglese (anche sbagliato grammaticamente) di madrelingua. La frase in
totale e' un po' imbarrazzante; forse si potrebbe dire "purchased in
such a quantity" o meglio "in such a way". Ma "in this amount"...
Clonk.
Un Balthazar (importante il maiuscolo) non e' mica "an amount".
-- 
"The past resembles the future as water resembles water"  Ibn Khaldun
My .
mac.com
 address is a spam sink.
If you wish to email me, try atlothian at blueyonder dot co dot uk

 sentence would be grammatically correct but still contextual incoherent.
That would be 'contextually incoherent' in that the content proper doesn't
make sense.

 wrote in message 
news:051220042146180748%alanl...@mac.com...

'measure' ?
(I wish the measures they serve at the local were that size!) 

Un Balthazar (importante il maiuscolo) non e' mica "an amount".
Acually it's the measure of a (huge!) bottle which can hold the equivalent
of 16 standard sized bottles, and that means 12 litres of champagne.
List of champagne bottle sizes:
quarter bottle (aka. split or piccolo bottle) (18.75 or 20 cl) 
mainly used by airlines and nightclubs. 
half-bottle (37.5 cl) 
used in restaurants 
bottle (75 cl) 
Magnum (1.5 L) (2 bottles) 
Jeroboam (3 L) (4 bottles) 
Rehoboam (4.5 L) (6 bottles) 
Methuselah (6 L) (8 bottles) 
Salmanazar (9 L) (12 bottles) 
Balthazar (12 L) (16 bottles) 
Nebuchadnezzar (15 L) (20 bottles) 
Melchior (18 L) 
Sovereign (25 L) 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_(beverage)


 of 16 standard sized bottles, and that means 12 litres of champagne.
Is it? Then the sentence is less incoherent. However, you should write: 
'Champagne can be purchased by the balthazar, but brandy cannot be purchased 
in that quantity (bottle)'. Writing 'in this amount' is understandable if 
you know that a balthazar is a particular bottle size, but you should be 
pointing at it to say 'this'. The previous comments still apply. It should 
be written as two sentences or joined by 'but'.

 Un Balthazar (importante il maiuscolo) non e' mica "an amount".
I can't find a definition of Balthazar, can you help me out by telling its
meaning to me (or telling me its meaning?)? 
Every dictionary I consulted refers to one of the three magi and I can't
understand the meaning of that sentence...
-- 
Yeah, whatever...

understand the meaning of that sentence...
Perhaps the magi brought champagne as a gift :)
-- 
Enrico C  Reply to: enrico /dot/ c /at\ people \dot\ it
Dizionario di Usenet: 
http://www.rhadamanth.net/Doc/doc_usenet_txt.txt
Dizionari Inglese:
http://wiki.news.nic.it/DizionariItCulturaLinguisticaInglese

balthazar, anyway? ;-)
-- 


 Perhaps the magi brought champagne as a gift :)
"12 litres can be enough! We'll call it...(whisper) hey you what's your
name?"
rotfl
-- 
Yeah, whatever...

 wrote in message
news:31hpgtF...@individual.net...

But then the pubs would be forced to stay open later, wouldn't they?
And wouldn't that be a terrible thing!
When I visited my parents in the summer place which they used to rent
on the beach in New York (yes, there are beaches in New York City), my
father would tell me to meet him at the local pub after 11 p:m,
because they never went out before 11. It wasn't unusual to finish off
the night with breakfast at 4 a:m.
Joe from Massachusetts