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Is this grammatically correct?
Is it grammatically correct to say 'This is my first time to write you a letter'?
I feel that something is not right in the sentence but I can't explain it. Can anyone help to clarify it for me? I would say 'This is the first time I write you a letter'. Thanks in advance.
Instead of "This is my first time to write you a letter", use "This is my first time writing you a letter" or, "This is my first time writing a letter to you" or probably best, "This is the first time I've written you a letter." Or you could rephrase it as "I've never written you a letter before, but..."
i think "This is the first time I write you a letter" is technically grammatically correct, but it sounds weird.
Technically, it should be "written a letter to you" instead of "written you a letter", but it's commonly accepted in English to write [verb] [indirect object] [direct object] instead of [verb] [direct object] [preposition] [indirect object]. Other than that, I agree with Beached Whale's ranking. There definitely is something odd about "first time to write", but "first time I write" is even worse.
>>Technically, it should be "written a letter to you" instead of "written you a letter", but it's commonly accepted in English to write [verb] [indirect object] [direct object] instead of [verb] [direct object] [preposition] [indirect object]. <<
Why? I've never heard anything about only the verb, direct onject, prep, ind object sequence being right.
Thanks guys for the explanations. You guys are very helpful.
-------------------------------------------------------- I just looked up the word 'write' in two dictionaries. Cambridge says: UK: She hasn't written to me recently. US: She hasn't written me recently. Longman says: UK: write to - I've written to my MP, and to the city council. US: write somebody - Chris hasn't written me for a long time. ---------------------------------------------------------- Am I right to assume that it is more appropriate to write "This is the first time I have written a letter to you" at the end of a letter? It doesn't seem logical to me to start a letter with this sentence because the letter has not been written yet at that point. Can I write "I'm writing to you for the first time" instead to begin a letter? Does that sound natural to a native speaker of English? Thanks in advance.
Note though that "write to" is not chiefly British. You can use both the "write to" or the "write somebody" form in American English.
--- Yeah, you'd use the "have written" form in the end. You could also write "This is the first time I've written you a letter." which would roughly mean the same thing Likewise, you could write "This is the first time I'm writing you a letter" (in the beginning.) |