"Will you come to the party?"

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Anonymous

#274846 Sun, 01 Oct 06 12:11 PM

Which is the normal interpretation of the following sentence? Is it a) a question about what is going to happen b) an invitation?

"Will you come to the party?"

Anonymous

Invitations

milky

#274852 Sun, 01 Oct 06 12:50 PM

b). Normally.

milky

Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004

Senior Member (3,149)

Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".

Pastsimple

#274952 Sun, 01 Oct 06 05:13 PM

I think there are at least three more questions possible here:

1. Will you be coming to the party?

2. Are you going to come to the party?

3. Are you coming to the party?

What are the differences, please?

My observations:

- In my opinion, 1 & 2 are "neutral" questions with no hint of "please say yes, I want you to come to the party" as in "Will you come to the party?"
- Also, I think that 2 would be more common than 1.
- In my opinion, 3 is not as "neutral" as 1 & 2 are. I'd say it might be suggesting "if you say no I may try to persuade you to come with me".

Am I right there?

Thanks in advance.

Pastsimple

Joined on Thu, Feb 16 2006

Czech Republic, Europe

Full Member (303)

If you are a native speaker and find any grammar or stylistic mistakes in my posts, don't hesitate to tell me! I will really appreciate that.

MrPedantic

#274981 Sun, 01 Oct 06 06:08 PM

Anonymous wrote:

Which is the normal interpretation of the following sentence? Is it a) a question about what is going to happen b) an invitation?

"Will you come to the party?"

The definite article ("the") suggests a context in which the party has already been mentioned.

I think we would need to know that fuller context, before we could decide whether it was an invitation or a request for information.

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (12,144)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Articles, Definite articles, Invitations

SKripTz-S

#275072 Sun, 01 Oct 06 11:29 PM

you are right,MrPedantic..

SKripTz-S

Joined on Mon, Sep 11 2006

Turkey

New Member (01)

Life is Simple,You Make Choices and You Don`t Look Back!!! sKripTz-S aka b1Rmc

Anonymous

#275101 Mon, 02 Oct 06 12:28 AM

Your question was about frequency, right? I'd say it is more normally used for invitations. More usual for requests for information would be "are you coming to the...", "will you go to the...", will you be going to the..." or "going to the...".

Anonymous

Invitations

milky

#275108 Mon, 02 Oct 06 12:37 AM

SKripTz-S wrote:
you are right,MrPedantic..

If we are talking about what that sentence is normally used for, I'd say MR P isn't right. It is more common as an invitation.

milky

Invitations

MrPedantic

#275109 Mon, 02 Oct 06 12:40 AM

Pastsimple wrote:
- In my opinion, 3 is not as "neutral" as 1 & 2 are. I'd say it might be suggesting "if you say no I may try to persuade you to come with me".

I know what you mean, PS. A kind of elbow-tugging note.

It is quite difficult to say, though; for instance, "Will you be coming to the party?" can be said in a beseeching eager-young-girl kind of way or with a blasé not-really-interested intonation.

What do you think, Milky?

MrP

MrPedantic

Intonations

MrPedantic

#275111 Mon, 02 Oct 06 12:43 AM

Anonymous wrote:
Your question was about frequency, right? I'd say it is more normally used for invitations. More usual for requests for information would be "are you coming to the...", "will you go to the...", will you be going to the..." or "going to the...".

Interesting, Anon.

And yet, do you feel that "to the party" is normal, in an invitation? "To my party", perhaps; or "to Vampira and Lord Cheadle's party"; but "to the party"?

MrP

MrPedantic

Invitations

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