Hailey
A silly question about "This feels wrong" Can 'this' feel wrong? You say something like "it hurts me to say this" or "it takes me time to remember that."...along with "this feels wrong", English is weird! If you can say it, can you say also "this feels confusing" and so on?@luciusverus : Thank you, but I can see which one is the subject or object. I just... don't see it makes sense. 'This is wrong' looks fine and perfect, but 'This feels wrong' doesn't. @Mark Kramer, Rokr, fdmaxey : Thank you all! I seem to have understood it somehow, but one thing still has been left - can I say "This doesn't feel right" and etc?@Denis : Thank you always! :)@Mark Kramer : Thank you again ^^
Feb 15, 2010 1:31 PM
Answers · 6
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Haley, You have a lot of good answers here. I just thought I would add one more explanation that might help. The sentence 'This feels wrong.' can mean that something 'this' produces an impression of being wrong on your sensibilities or emotions. It is similar to 'This seems wrong.' 'This feels wrong.' could also apply to your physical senses,e.g. the way a rusty razor blade would feel wrong to your skin when you shave; it is not the normal feeling you should have. It is similar to 'This tastes wrong.' or 'This smells wrong'. In all of these cases 'This' is not feeling but producing feelings in the one who speaks or writes the sentence. 'This feels wrong to me.' or 'This is felt by me to be wrong.' is the underlying idea.
February 15, 2010
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Yes, Hailey, "This doesn't feel right." is a perfectly legit, natural sounding phrase. :) "This feels confusing." is slightly trickier (because you're either confused or not); in that case you usually say: "This/that looks confusing." As in: "It looks like it will confuse me when I get into it." And you're right: English, while it may look simple, in its nuances is quite complex.
February 15, 2010
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Usually "This feels wrong" can be translated to "This situation feels wrong." There is usually some context of events coming before this sentence that gives the speaker the feeling that something is wrong with what is happening." You would never see the sentence just by itself, because the reader would have to know what situation or sequence of events "this" refers to.
February 15, 2010
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@luciusverus: "This feels wrong." is different from, say, "This throws me off," in that the 'this' in the former sentence is not the one doing the feeling! In the latter sentence, 'this' does the throwing. So, 'this' in the former sentence just acts like an object, to be understood as "I feel wrong about this."
February 15, 2010
suppose a group of people getting together to touch base,argument arises!one member always feel wrong about everything,so if you are one of them against he,you can insult him by saying "this" feel wrong to others. "this" here now means you don't consider he is human ever,it's a "thing". hehe,just my boring fantasy.
February 15, 2010
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