Hi everyone,
I watched a documentary about the restauration of the Savoy once
Is it correct to say: ‘The restauration of the Royal Suite alone nearly £ 200,000,0000’ I wonder if ‘alone’ is the right position of the sentence
Thanks
Alexandro
‘Alone’ is in the correct position but there are other errors.
The restoration of the Royal Suite alone cost nearly £2,000,000,000.
(Do you realise that number is two billion?)
The ‘alone’ there indicates that the Royal Suite’s restoration cost that much, but that was not the total cost of restoring the Savoy. There is more to consider.
Ok, Beeesneees, let’s say £200,000. The meaning you wrote down is exactly what I’d expected, and what a native Englishman said. The othere errors were probably ‘restauration’ which should be restoration. Right? I know why I wrote ‘restauration’, you see I’ve been writing letters all long in Dutch, or Flemish and in my native language ‘restoration’ = ‘restauratie’. E.g. Het gebouw werd gerestaureerd = ‘The building was restored.’
Can you also say: ‘The restoration of the Royal Suite nearly cost £ 200,000.’?
Thanks
That word order (nearly cost) doesn’t sound natural. It wouldn’t be used. It would be 'The restoration of the Royal Suite cost nearly £200,000. (That’s two-hundred thousand pound)
The errors were:
the amount and the comma placement in the amount,
the spelling of restoration,
omission of the word ‘cost’
Ok, I realise now £2,000,000,000 is too high an amount to restore even a Royal Suite. I do know what £200,000 means. But shouldn’t you omit the hyphen in ‘two hundred thousand pounds’ as in nine hundred and ninety-nine million (£999,000,000)
Comma placement should be as follows: £2,000,000,000. However can you also say 2000 million? Or is billion more preferable?
Thanks for your reply
Alexandro
Learners worry far more about hyphen usage than native English speakers, even in formal writing situations.
‘million’ and ‘billion’ are different amounts so you cannot use one in preference over the other.
Thanks Beeesnees!