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Discussion Groups / British English / August 2011"the reason therefor" vs. "the reason thereof"
Dear all: Which of the following two sentences sounds better and clearer? 1. If X failed to prove that a formula in Y is valid, the reason thereof was not visible. 2. If X failed to prove that a formula in Y is valid, the reason therefor was not visible. The intended meaning is the following: If the computer program called X failed to derive a proof of a formula that was written in formalism called Y, then it was unclear why the tool failed to derive the proof (maybe, no proof exists, or the program is not powerful enough). Any hints? Thanks in advance John > Dear all: > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Any hints? Both of them sound stilted - and indeed incorrect - to me. What's wrong with saying plainly and simply: "... the reason for this was not visible" or even "... was unclear"? Regards, Einde O'Callaghan >> Dear all: >> [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] >wrong with saying plainly and simply: "... the reason for this was >not visible" or even "... was unclear"? Agreed. Another possibility is "the reason why was unclear".  SignatureJohn Hall "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." Winston S Churchill (1874-1965) >> Dear all: >> [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > with saying plainly and simply: "... the reason for this was not > visible" or even "... was unclear"? Interesting... What grammatical rule would it break? >>> Dear all: >>> [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Interesting... What grammatical rule would it break? "Therefor" and "thereof" are both very old-fashioned - indeed obsolete in modern English - they sound very 16th century along with other obsolete forms such as "thou", "thee", "thy" and "thine", "hath", "hast", "he cometh not" etc. While "therefor" could - at a push - be considered grammatically correct because it's based on the preposition "for" (as in "reason for"), "thereof" is definitely incorrect because "of" isn't the preposition that goes with "reason" in modern English. Regards, Einde O'Callaghan >>>> Dear all: >>>> [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > "thereof" is definitely incorrect because "of" isn't the preposition > that goes with "reason" in modern English. Great, thank you! Now how about "the reason why" vs. "the reason for this" vs. "the reason for that", i.e.: 3. If X failed to prove that a formula in Y is valid, the reason why was not visible. 4. If X failed to prove that a formula in Y is valid, the reason for this was not visible. 5. If X failed to prove that a formula in Y is valid, the reason for that was not visible. John. >>>>> Dear all: >>>>> [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] > 5. If X failed to prove that a formula in Y is valid, the reason for > that was not visible. All of them sound OK to me. To a great extent whether you use "this" or "that" would depend on the context. Regards, Einde O'Callaghan >> 3. If X failed to prove that a formula in Y is valid, the reason why was >> not visible. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > All of them sound OK to me. To a great extent whether you use "this" or > "that" would depend on the context. I see. Wonderful, thanks! John. |
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