Hi, i will be more glad if native english speakers answer this question. Do you tell me which of the sentences below sound more natural or both of them are ok?
But i am happy to place in the contest.
But i am happy to have got a degree in the contest.
And i would like to ask one more question. What is the difference between these two sentences;
I feel sorry that i missed the chance to be the winner
I feel sorry that i have missed the chance to be the winner.
Which one is more appropriate?
I would say them like this:
I am happy to have gained a place in the contest.
I regret that I didn’t win.
Would you pick up one pls? Which one is better and more convenient?
I think that he is saying (and I agree) that none of the sentences sound particularly natural. Are you asking specifically if in the above examples it is better or not to use “have”?
I understand that gain a place is much more natural. But i am asking for to realize which one of them is more natural. Just choose one.
But i am happy to place in the contest.
But i am happy to have got a degree in the contest.
Also i wonder that how do you call a person who finishes a contest in 2nd place. Runner up is okey, what about come in second?
Out of these two sentences “I feel sorry that i missed the chance to be the winner” and “I feel sorry that i have missed the chance to be the winner.”, I would use the first one, simply because it is easier to say if you want to use that particular construction:
“I feel sorry that I missed the chance to be the winner.”
I agree with aybee77: the sentences do not sound particularly natural. I’d go with James123’s suggestion.
Thanks for your replies. How do you express runner-up matters? What elses you say instead of it?
furkan,
I see that you have not saved any LingQs. I suggest that you do a lot of reading and listening and create LingQs of the words and phrases that you would like to be able to use. Use the language as written and spoken by native speakers as your guide.
Creating your own sentences and asking which one sounds more natural is not a very useful activity as far as language learning is concerned. You need lots of exposure to the language.
Let’s have another look at your original sentences:
A.) “But I am happy to place in the contest.”
B.) “But I am happy to have got a degree in the contest.”
If I had to pick one of these two - as seen here in isolation - then it would be ‘B’. (‘A’ just sounds slightly awkward to me.)
However, in order to be 100% clear, I would really need to have some information about the wider context, I think.
To my mind, the idea of getting a degree in a “contest” seems rather strange - but it rather depends on what you mean by “degree”.
Your other sentences…
“I feel sorry that I missed the chance to be the winner”
“I feel sorry that I have missed the chance to be the winner”
…both sound fine and both mean essentially the same thing. (One could get into hair-splitting distinctions between the simple past and perfect tense, but I think I’ll pass on that one!)
Actually i translated them from turkish to english for a school. But yes Steve you are right i need a lot of exposure, which i stopped for a while because my lap-top was stolen. I hope to start again. Thanks for your responses.
Hmm… On reflection, I think sentence ‘A’ is probably okay too.
But I wish I knew the context. Are we talking about sports here? Or maybe some other kind of competition? Or…!?
Yes it was a knowlegde contest that was organized in a city. a kid, in fifth grade, finished it as a runner up. He expressed his feelings… you know… he was sad because he missed to be the winner because of a single question… something like that.
I would probably have said: “I’m sorry that I didn’t win, especially as I missed out by just a single question.”
Thank you JayB for you help.