Are these sentences natural? March 15

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

Are the following sentences natural to a native ear?

[color=blue]1. I am going to break a news shortly ( I know ‘news’ doesn’t need an article. But I felt it would sound totally awkward without it)

  1. You would have eventually sat here, but they changed the floor plan.

  2. I am calling in to find out if you allow guests to attend a class in your gym as a promotion.

Thanks,

MG.

2

  1. is not right. If you mean that you are going to tell some news which people won’t have heard before, then it would need to be:
    I am going to break the news shortly. (Specific news so the definite article is needed.)

  2. sounds very strange with ‘eventually’, though I understand why you use it.
    ‘You would have been sitting here, but they changed the floor plan.’

  3. Keeping as much as possible to the original, I would suggest:
    I’ve called in to find out if you promote your gym classes by allowing guests to attend a free session.
    If I were asking this without regard to your original version, I would probably say:
    Can you tell me whether you offer free trial gym classes to potential members?

3

Thanks Beeesneees.

I was not sure if I could use ‘the’ because the listener was not at all aware what I was going to tell him.

Can you tell me why you chose the ‘present perfect’ over my ‘present progressive’?

4

“I’m calling to find out if…” would sound more native.