- Forum >
- Topic: Romanian >
- "A bea mult este un păcat."
13 Comments
753
Not very natural English. First, when the verb is the subject, we usually use the "ing" form (here, the English Gerund). Second, the use of "much" as an adverb by itself is unusual.
A note for this whole course: the standard English translation of "mult" is "much." ("A lot" is a colloquial synonym.) "Much should be accepted as correct pretty much everywhere where "mult" occurs. For example, in this case "Drinking much is a sin" should be accepted.
- 753
A note from a TEFL teacher. Yes, when "mult" is a determiner, "much" should be accepted, although in affirmative sentences, where "much" is extremely formal, in spoken English "a lot" is far more common. In other words, it is normal standard English. We use "much" more in negative sentences and questions. So I wouldn't necessarily agree that "much" is any more of a standard translation than "a lot".
(See note on Grammar in the second section)
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/much
However, here "mult" is an adverb. We use "much" as a stand-alone adverb/pronoun afrer a verb in negative sentences, "He doesn't drink much", but its use alone after a verb in an affirmative sentence would be very rare, and would sound extremely strange to me, a BrE speaker. I don't think many native speakers would say, for example, "He eats much" instead of "He eats a lot". It's the same here, and I don't think "drinking much" would be accepted in any standard EFL exercises/tests.
Note that even here, the few examples of "Drinking much" are mainly false positives, such as "Drinking much more"
I don't think I'd use "Much" for this sentence. "A lot" is used much more
- 328
Christianity doesn't forbid drinking, but puts drunkenness (bea mult) in lists of sinful behaviour
- 227
Ca creștină nu cred că a bea mult este o păcată, dar probabil se fie urmează păcatelor des.
