He spoke so fast....

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

Hi, in the following sentence there supposedly is a grammar mistake the test taker has to identify. What would you say is the mistake?

He spoke so fast that I could not take notes properly.

a) spoke
b) fast
c) take
d) notes

Many thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: A business man phones to say he will be late for a presentation.[YSaerTTEW443543]

2

He spoke so quickly that I could not take notes properly.

3

You mean you cringe at ‘don’t speak so fast’?

4

Beeesneees,
“He spoke so quickly/fast that I could not take notes properly.”
Why should I not use ‘fast’ in the above question?
“quickly” and "fast’ are both adverbs here.
Please comment.
Thanks.

5

I’m British.

infosquares.com/eslblog/blog_03062008.html

6

However, according to British dictionaries such as The Oxford Dictionary ‘fast’ is both an adjective as well as an adverb and they reference the sentence ‘He drove too fast’ for example. So, if you don’t consider ‘fast’ as an adverb, it’s not because you are British but because you for other, personal, reasons.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: Personal assistant updates her boss on his current agenda.[YSaerTTEW443543]

7

No Torsten, it depends on context too. Besides which, I wouldn’t really turn a hair at anyone using ‘fast’ with ‘speak’, even though my choice would be ‘quickly’ as it seems most natural to me. I don’t think many people would worry about it nowadays. However, you asked about a set question from a test/exam. These usually follow traditional British English grammar rules, so I’m willing to bet a pound to a penny that this is what the question writer considers to be the grammatical error.

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8

So, in what cases is ‘fast’ used as an adverb then?[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: Two co-workers brief each other on recent sales.[YSaerTTEW443543]

9

The 2nd paragraph in the link I provided gives an indication of how ‘fast’ often refers to physical ‘speed’ (as in your example, ‘He drove too fast’.)

10

What about the phrase ‘it happened so fast’? Does this refer to ‘physical speed’?[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC short conversations: HR person interviews job applicant.[YSaerTTEW443543]

11

It happened so quickly - would be the traditional British grammatical expectation.

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