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Is there something wrong with these sentences?

No-Professor98
Hello all. Last year, I had an argument with a friend of mine about Trump's immigration policy. Instead of debating the merits of his policy proposals, we spent a whole hour arguing back and forth about the term "liberal". At one point I felt like we were actually in agreement about what the term means, but for some reason, we just couldn't stop arguing. So this is what I texted him: >Look, I feel like we're just splitting hairs here. (2)Your definition of the term is really not as different from mine as you're making it out to be. (3)Anyway, I don't want to **spend another second getting stuck** in this semantic swamp. Enjoy your evening. For the second sentence, is there anything in it that might come across as unnatural? A BE speaker said I should just end the sentence with "as you're making out". What do you think? As for the third sentence. A BE speaker from another forum suggested that I drop the "**getting**" in the third sentence and it'd work just fine, while an AE speaker had a different idea. He thought I should simply rephrase it as "I don't want to get stuck in this semantic swamp for another second". Now I'm really not sure whose suggestion I should go with. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

15 comments

drquoz•
They sound fine to me.
Matsunosuperfan•
Your writing is flawless and any suggested changes are pure personal preference. I like it just the way you wrote it, FWIW.
AndrewDrossArt•
It sounds perfectly natural. It also sounds like your disagreement is likely based on language to begin with. England, for example, has a very specific meaning for the term "Republican" (Anti-Monarch) that never really applied to American Politics. People who consume a lot of their media might find themselves at odds with someone using the term in the American sense. Liberal is also one of those terms. The word means free, but that's a relative term. Free from duty? Free from tradition? Free from rule? It's been applied to Anarchists by Anarchists, to Fascists by Marxists, to Marxists by Fascists, and to Progressives by Progressives. If you're going to have a discussion based around such a flexible word you're best off letting your opponent define it and then working from that definition. I'm a classical liberal, but if your friend were to tell me that being a liberal means I eat babies then I'd have to agree that term didn't apply to me and that some other term must fit me better.
BYNX0•
"as different from" sounds unnatural. I might say "so differrent from" or "that different from". Both forms are fine with the third sentence.
critzzzypro•
2nd sentence is perfect. 3rd sentence is fine but removing ‘getting’ or adding ‘more’ could help convey the strength of your message(barely though, an almost unnoticeable amount) The reason is that ‘spend another second’ makes it sound like previous seconds were spent, in this case, “getting stuck”. It’s kind of like saying “I was getting dressed and I’m still getting dressed” not wrong but not always needed. But you can also add an addition word (further, more, deeper) as well. For example“I was getting dressed and I’m getting more dressed” cause maybe it’s cold out. “I don’t want to spend another second stuck in this semantic swamp” Or “I don’t want to spend another second getting stuck in this semantic swamp” Or “I don’t want to spend another second getting even more stuck in this semantic swamp” Takeaway: it’s perfect how it is, there’s just a lot of personality you can put into your sentences depending on what you keep, remove, or add
OneGunBullet•
In America, liberal refers to anyone of the Democratic Party and "the left". This is the party that's pro immigration, pro choice, pro LGBT, and wants to keep funding Ukraine.
BiggestFlower•
Second sentence: both are fine Third sentence: remove getting because it indicates something that’s about to happen, not something that’s been ongoing for a while. I don’t like their suggested rewriting because of the word get - again suggesting something that’s about to happen.
Fantastic_Deer_3772•
I would ignore those suggestions, they're just rewording it for no reason.
Stuffedwithdates•
I would probably not have used getting. It seems to me you were already in the swamp, not getting there.
SnooDonuts6494•
It's entirely up to you, but their suggestions are valid. I'd put "as you're making out" and remove "getting". Or you could change 3 entirely to "I don't want to waste any more time arguing." Or delete the entire thing, and say "LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING". That's how these debates usually go.
Agreeable-Fee6850•
2 “Your definition isn’t really as different to mine as you make out.” 3 “I don’t want to spend another moment [stuck] in this semantic swamp…” This is just personal preference. 2 - for simplicity. I want less stress on ‘not’. 3 - I want to stress that we are already stuck - not the process - get stuck.
MrCoyoteDR•
I don't think everything looks good written
DawnOnTheEdge•
I think those sentences are fine. (Also, “What would you call them?” often works.)
fairydommother•
"Making it out to be" is fine and correct. "as you're making out" is wrong. It's an incomplete sentence here and doesn't make sense. You can drop "getting", but don't change the word order. To be clear, both of you would be perfectly understood. However, your sentences read closer to a native speakers. The other sentences are immediately identifiable as someone whose native language isn't English. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if sounding like a native speaker is something you want, do not listen to this guy.
Forsaken_Distance777•
There really is no universally agreed upon English with all the different places that have it as a primary language. The sentences sound perfectly good from my Midwestern US perspective.