english quick question

[ailes_de_verre]

I should use one of these two phrases to complete a sentence

It's time / I'd rather/sooner

and the phrase to match is "Going home"

I'd say

A) It's time to go home

B) I'd rather go home

C) Sooner I'd be going home... would this be correct? It sounds weird in a way

Thanks in advance

Comments

[fencer_x]

A and B sound fine--C definitely sounds weird. I'd say, "I'd sooner go home [than do X...]" meaning, "I'd rather go home than (for example) stay here and talk to you."

Native speaker, Louisiana, USA.

[ailes_de_verre]

thanks so much. Maybe there's a misspelling in the book itself. Because it wants me to match Going home with one of the above... weird...

[fencer_x]

Are you sure it doesn't just want some version of 'going home' (altered depending on which verb you put it with)? As far as I can tell, nowhere in any of those sentences would "going home" just as it is fit. You COULD twist them like:

It's time to be going home.
I'd rather be going home.
I'd sooner be going home.

There's a real subtle difference there, and it still sounds a little awkward to me (maybe a little 'country' even). But they're grammatically correct at least.

[ailes_de_verre]

I'm sure I have to use 'going home' because I have to use different forms of the verb 'to go'. And one of these is this very ing form.

[ptolemi]

A and B are correct, C isn't correct. If you wanted to use that phrase, you'd say "Soon, I will be going home."
If you needed to use sooner, you'd say "I will be going home sooner."
For example,
"Are you staying at this party until 8?"
"No, I will be going home sooner."

You shouldn't use "I'd be going home" either - it doesn't make sense in English. You can say "I had better be going home" or "I will be going home." Both have roughly the same meaning and are interchangeable.

My apologies if my explanation is confusing.

[fencer_x]

Just to play the Devil's advocate--"I'd be going home" makes all the sense in the world provided you follow it up with some sort of contrary-to-fact conditional :)

"I'd be going home if I weren't stuck here waiting for my husband to finish socializing."

[ptolemi]

You are right, I was just looking at it own its own and didn't catch that. My mistake. :)

[ailes_de_verre]

thanks very much. So the trick is to put sooner at the end of the phrase, it makes much more sense now, thank you again

[miss_next]

I think the clue to this is that you say you've got two phrases. And you have: two, not three. It's an easy thing to overlook, though, because it's written down very ambiguously.

I think the phrases are:
a) It's time
b) I'd rather/sooner

That is, you can use either "rather" or "sooner" in the second phrase.

But I read it as three phrases at first, as well, and it was only when I read over it again that I noticed you'd said two.

I hope that helps!

[hkitsune]

You'd say "I'd sooner go home". They all have different meanings and I don't know what the quiz is asking for. "It's time to go home" seems the most natural and least opinionated, but that could just be me.

[barometric]

You could say I'm going home sooner -- though that requires a context to provide the thing/time you're going home sooner than.