Is the usage of the phrase “as if in a mirror” correct?
The evil, twisted will from which the striga was born. The witcher
shivered at the memory of taking on that evil to redirect it, as if
in a mirror, against the monster.
The above is from the Witcher, the book with the short stories, and I was wondering if it was a correct usage and if you would criticize such usage. If not, could you explain to me why this is correct, and give me some examples for me to understand when I can use such a wording?
I am asking the question here, because I would like to know when I can use such a phrasing myself and the phrasing sounds odd to my ears as I am not a native English speaker.
grammar
asked Jan 23 at 21:30
puffofsmokepuffofsmoke
132
migrated from writing.stackexchange.com 2 days ago
This question came from our site for the craft of professional writing, including fiction, non-fiction, technical, scholarly, and commercial writing.
add a comment |
The evil, twisted will from which the striga was born. The witcher
shivered at the memory of taking on that evil to redirect it, as if
in a mirror, against the monster.
The above is from the Witcher, the book with the short stories, and I was wondering if it was a correct usage and if you would criticize such usage. If not, could you explain to me why this is correct, and give me some examples for me to understand when I can use such a wording?
I am asking the question here, because I would like to know when I can use such a phrasing myself and the phrasing sounds odd to my ears as I am not a native English speaker.
grammar
asked Jan 23 at 21:30
puffofsmokepuffofsmoke
132
migrated from writing.stackexchange.com 2 days ago
This question came from our site for the craft of professional writing, including fiction, non-fiction, technical, scholarly, and commercial writing.
2
Bearing in mind that The Witcher was originally written in Polish, this looks like a poor translation. Is this from an official English version of the novel, or your own attempt at translating a Polish idiom from the book into English?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:37
It's from the official translation.
– puffofsmoke
Jan 24 at 13:30
add a comment |
The evil, twisted will from which the striga was born. The witcher
shivered at the memory of taking on that evil to redirect it, as if
in a mirror, against the monster.
The above is from the Witcher, the book with the short stories, and I was wondering if it was a correct usage and if you would criticize such usage. If not, could you explain to me why this is correct, and give me some examples for me to understand when I can use such a wording?
I am asking the question here, because I would like to know when I can use such a phrasing myself and the phrasing sounds odd to my ears as I am not a native English speaker.
grammar
asked Jan 23 at 21:30
puffofsmokepuffofsmoke
132
The evil, twisted will from which the striga was born. The witcher
shivered at the memory of taking on that evil to redirect it, as if
in a mirror, against the monster.
The above is from the Witcher, the book with the short stories, and I was wondering if it was a correct usage and if you would criticize such usage. If not, could you explain to me why this is correct, and give me some examples for me to understand when I can use such a wording?
I am asking the question here, because I would like to know when I can use such a phrasing myself and the phrasing sounds odd to my ears as I am not a native English speaker.
grammar
grammar
asked Jan 23 at 21:30
puffofsmokepuffofsmoke
132
asked Jan 23 at 21:30
puffofsmokepuffofsmoke
132
asked Jan 23 at 21:30
puffofsmokepuffofsmoke
132
asked Jan 23 at 21:30
puffofsmokepuffofsmoke
132
asked Jan 23 at 21:30
puffofsmokepuffofsmoke
132
132
migrated from writing.stackexchange.com 2 days ago
This question came from our site for the craft of professional writing, including fiction, non-fiction, technical, scholarly, and commercial writing.
migrated from writing.stackexchange.com 2 days ago
This question came from our site for the craft of professional writing, including fiction, non-fiction, technical, scholarly, and commercial writing.
2
Bearing in mind that The Witcher was originally written in Polish, this looks like a poor translation. Is this from an official English version of the novel, or your own attempt at translating a Polish idiom from the book into English?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:37
It's from the official translation.
– puffofsmoke
Jan 24 at 13:30
add a comment |
2
Bearing in mind that The Witcher was originally written in Polish, this looks like a poor translation. Is this from an official English version of the novel, or your own attempt at translating a Polish idiom from the book into English?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:37
It's from the official translation.
– puffofsmoke
Jan 24 at 13:30
2
2
Bearing in mind that The Witcher was originally written in Polish, this looks like a poor translation. Is this from an official English version of the novel, or your own attempt at translating a Polish idiom from the book into English?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:37
Bearing in mind that The Witcher was originally written in Polish, this looks like a poor translation. Is this from an official English version of the novel, or your own attempt at translating a Polish idiom from the book into English?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:37
It's from the official translation.
– puffofsmoke
Jan 24 at 13:30
It's from the official translation.
– puffofsmoke
Jan 24 at 13:30
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
The whole thing is a total mess.
Basically, your instinct is correct. DO NOT WRITE SENTENCES LIKE THAT.
If a reasonably intelligent person has trouble understanding a sentence after reading it a couple of times, it should be rewritten. In the real world, grammatical legitimacy/correctness means nothing.
I had to re-read your final paragraph a couple of times, but I think you're saying that one can ignore grammar rules if it makes your sentence clearer. Correct?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:38
Interestingly, the "as if in a mirror" part deals no problem to me. However, I can imagine no situation where this phrase could be useful, because there are too few differences between image in the mirror and in the reality. Maybe if one describes a person who looks exactly as himself, of course... And regarding correctness: redirect something in a mirror? Sounds wrong.
– rus9384
Jan 23 at 23:45
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f482887%2fis-the-usage-of-the-phrase-as-if-in-a-mirror-correct%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
The whole thing is a total mess.
Basically, your instinct is correct. DO NOT WRITE SENTENCES LIKE THAT.
If a reasonably intelligent person has trouble understanding a sentence after reading it a couple of times, it should be rewritten. In the real world, grammatical legitimacy/correctness means nothing.
I had to re-read your final paragraph a couple of times, but I think you're saying that one can ignore grammar rules if it makes your sentence clearer. Correct?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:38
Interestingly, the "as if in a mirror" part deals no problem to me. However, I can imagine no situation where this phrase could be useful, because there are too few differences between image in the mirror and in the reality. Maybe if one describes a person who looks exactly as himself, of course... And regarding correctness: redirect something in a mirror? Sounds wrong.
– rus9384
Jan 23 at 23:45
add a comment |
The whole thing is a total mess.
Basically, your instinct is correct. DO NOT WRITE SENTENCES LIKE THAT.
If a reasonably intelligent person has trouble understanding a sentence after reading it a couple of times, it should be rewritten. In the real world, grammatical legitimacy/correctness means nothing.
I had to re-read your final paragraph a couple of times, but I think you're saying that one can ignore grammar rules if it makes your sentence clearer. Correct?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:38
Interestingly, the "as if in a mirror" part deals no problem to me. However, I can imagine no situation where this phrase could be useful, because there are too few differences between image in the mirror and in the reality. Maybe if one describes a person who looks exactly as himself, of course... And regarding correctness: redirect something in a mirror? Sounds wrong.
– rus9384
Jan 23 at 23:45
add a comment |
The whole thing is a total mess.
Basically, your instinct is correct. DO NOT WRITE SENTENCES LIKE THAT.
If a reasonably intelligent person has trouble understanding a sentence after reading it a couple of times, it should be rewritten. In the real world, grammatical legitimacy/correctness means nothing.
The whole thing is a total mess.
Basically, your instinct is correct. DO NOT WRITE SENTENCES LIKE THAT.
If a reasonably intelligent person has trouble understanding a sentence after reading it a couple of times, it should be rewritten. In the real world, grammatical legitimacy/correctness means nothing.
answered Jan 23 at 21:49
ashleylee
I had to re-read your final paragraph a couple of times, but I think you're saying that one can ignore grammar rules if it makes your sentence clearer. Correct?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:38
Interestingly, the "as if in a mirror" part deals no problem to me. However, I can imagine no situation where this phrase could be useful, because there are too few differences between image in the mirror and in the reality. Maybe if one describes a person who looks exactly as himself, of course... And regarding correctness: redirect something in a mirror? Sounds wrong.
– rus9384
Jan 23 at 23:45
add a comment |
I had to re-read your final paragraph a couple of times, but I think you're saying that one can ignore grammar rules if it makes your sentence clearer. Correct?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:38
Interestingly, the "as if in a mirror" part deals no problem to me. However, I can imagine no situation where this phrase could be useful, because there are too few differences between image in the mirror and in the reality. Maybe if one describes a person who looks exactly as himself, of course... And regarding correctness: redirect something in a mirror? Sounds wrong.
– rus9384
Jan 23 at 23:45
I had to re-read your final paragraph a couple of times, but I think you're saying that one can ignore grammar rules if it makes your sentence clearer. Correct?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:38
I had to re-read your final paragraph a couple of times, but I think you're saying that one can ignore grammar rules if it makes your sentence clearer. Correct?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:38
Interestingly, the "as if in a mirror" part deals no problem to me. However, I can imagine no situation where this phrase could be useful, because there are too few differences between image in the mirror and in the reality. Maybe if one describes a person who looks exactly as himself, of course... And regarding correctness: redirect something in a mirror? Sounds wrong.
– rus9384
Jan 23 at 23:45
Interestingly, the "as if in a mirror" part deals no problem to me. However, I can imagine no situation where this phrase could be useful, because there are too few differences between image in the mirror and in the reality. Maybe if one describes a person who looks exactly as himself, of course... And regarding correctness: redirect something in a mirror? Sounds wrong.
– rus9384
Jan 23 at 23:45
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f482887%2fis-the-usage-of-the-phrase-as-if-in-a-mirror-correct%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
2
Bearing in mind that The Witcher was originally written in Polish, this looks like a poor translation. Is this from an official English version of the novel, or your own attempt at translating a Polish idiom from the book into English?
– F1Krazy
Jan 23 at 22:37
It's from the official translation.
– puffofsmoke
Jan 24 at 13:30