ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: get his Irish accent across to the audience

optilang — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:19:38 GMT

It is not clear from the sentence whether the audience did or did not 'get' his Irish accent - it may have been such that his accent was totally incomprehensible, even to the point that the audience were not able to recognise his accent as being Irish. He couldn't get his accent across - so - his accent didn't come across to the audience in a way that was clear.

What we do know from this sentence is that the audience had difficulty in understanding what he was saying

Re: get his Irish accent across to the audience

Grammar Geek — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:09:03 GMT

Sorry to join the fray, but I'm right with Khoff on this. Probably, the only thing that DID make it through to the audience was the accent, not the message. In the original, it sounds like he wasn't able to convince them he was Irish.

As Clive says, "get across" and "come across" are different expressions.

Re: get his Irish accent across to the audience

optilang — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:51:44 GMT

But if you get something across to someone it must have come across to them if they got it!

The point here is that he didn't succeed in getting his accent across to the audience - despite speaking slowly the audience were unable to understand his accent and as a result could not comprehend what he was saying. The audience were unable to accept his accent!

Re: get his Irish accent across to the audience

Clive — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:44:40 GMT

Hi,

'to get something across (to someone)'

'something comes across (to someone)'

These are two pretty different expressions, although they both feature the word 'across'.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: get his Irish accent across to the audience

optilang — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:36:19 GMT

He then said that my accent didn't come across well on the ad. I pressed him to explain but he left the room and came back some time later.

Taken from a transcript of court proceedings

Re: get his Irish accent across to the audience

khoff — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:20:45 GMT

I would agree with Clive here. The audience probably did 'get' his accent, but nothing else -- that is, they probably understood that he had an Irish accent, but did not understand what he was trying to say.

Re: get his Irish accent across to the audience

optilang — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:46:40 GMT

Makes sense to me - he couldn't get his Irish accent accross to the audience - so his Irish accident meant the audience could not understand him. Had he got his accent across he would, at the same time, have got his message/information across

Re: get his Irish accent across to the audience

Clive — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:54:03 GMT

Hi,

Although he spoke slowly, he couldn't get his Irish accent across to the audience.

Does the bolded part make sense to you?

One usually 'gets information across to someone', meaning 'communicate' or 'convey'.

Thus, it would be more natural to say

Although he spoke slowly, he couldn't get his points/information across to the audience because of his Irish accent.

Best wishes, Clive

get his Irish accent across to the audience

Angliholic — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:47:30 GMT

Although he spoke slowly, he couldn't get his Irish accent across to the audience.

Hi,

Does the bolded part make sense to you? Thanks.