Need help! Do I get that sentence right?

[Tzubaza]

Hey folks!

The following sentence is from the tv-show "Suits", spoken by a attorney to victims during a negotiation.

"Taking the deal and letting Quentin try and fix the problem could."


I think it says that that those people should take the deal that Quentin can keep trying and fixing the problem.
Am I right, don't I?

And if anybody knew why sentence is built this, would you please tell me why?

thx Tzubaza

BTW, Suits is awesome. Very realistic everday language.

[tiorthan]

Hey folks!

The following sentence is from the TV show₁ "Suits", said by a attorney to victims during a negotiation.

"Taking the deal and letting Quentin try and fix the problem could."


I think it says that that those people should take the deal that Quentin can keep trying to fix the problem.
Am I right, don't I₂?

And if anybody knows why the sentence is built like that, would you please tell me why?

thx Tzubaza

BTW, Suits is awesome. Very realistic everday language.

1 - Basically a spelling mistake. Use hypens sparsely. The current tendency in English is to ommit the hyphen whenever it does not lead to confusion. The acronym TV meaning "television" is capitalized.

2 - What you've tried here is called a tag question. But you can only add tag questions to regular sentences and not to questions.


Du liegst mit deinem Verständnis falsch. Der Satz ergibt nur dann einen Sinn, wenn vorher eine Frage gestellt wurde, die z.B. "What would ..." enthält. Ansonsten ist das einsame "would" am Satzende nämlich unmöglich. Die Konversation muss in etwa so abgelaufen sein:

Was würde ?
Die Bedingungen annehmen und Quentin versuchen lassen, das Problem zu beheben würde (<das bewirken) ist hier impliziert).

Ist deutlich geworden, was hier gemeint ist?

[Tzubaza]

Thanks tierorthan!
I think I missed something before that part was said.
It makes sense in the way you described it.


Do I get that right?


"Not the least of which is how anyone,
no matter how valuable can be let go."

It's about a employee who just got fired.

But is it similar with the following German expression and is it possible to
make that a bit easier?

"Keiner von uns, egal wie wertvoll er auch ist, kann entlassen werden."

Thanks for help!

[Delfino]

Thanks tiorthan!


"There are many reasons in favor of always giving your best at work,
not the least of which is that anyone, no matter how valuable, can be let go."

It's about an employee who just got fired.

Is it similar to the following German expression and is it possible to say that a bit easier?

"Keiner von uns, egal wie wertvoll er auch ist, kann entlassen werden."

Thank you for your help!

The statement suggests that there are many reasons for always giving your best at work and
the fact that anyone, no matter how valuable, can be let go is one of the more important ones.
It is not the least important reason.

Here is another example: "There several reasons for learning to speak English fluently, not the least of which is getting a good job."
This means that learning English well to get a good job is more important than some of the other reasons for learning English.

[tiorthan]

Here is another example: "There are several reasons for learning to speak English fluently, not the least of which is getting a good job."

I'm not sure if that has been the reason here, but the are is often forgot by native English speakers because "there are" tends to be contracted and pronounced like "the're". In many dialects (not all though) that sounds exactly like "there".

[Delfino]

Thanks a lot tiorthan!

I found this example online - written by a native speaker (teacher).
So I didn't pay as much attention to proofreading this part of my post
as I was focussing on the second part of the sentence.


Btw. what is the reason behind these different phrases?

... is often forgot by ...
vs.
... is often forgotten by ...

The second version sounds much more common than the first.
When are we to use which?

[tiorthan]

Forgotten is the more common and historically more correct form (however forgot is also acceptable in less formal contexts mainly).

I believe (I don't have the time to research it at the momen) that forgot as the past participle is a recent development. Originally the apophony (in post-Middle English) should have been forget, forgat, forgotten (if I have my verbs right here).