This garment has qualities I admire, linguistic question

[Never_falter2]

Hello,

Happy New Year 2919!!!!!
My go to place for correct English. Is it possible to say that a garment has qualities you admire or is this only possible for a person to have qualities I admire? How about an animal?
I ask this as a linguistic question.

 

[barefoot]

If you said that to me I would take it to mean that there are things about the garment you like. So, I would understand your meaning (if that’s what you mean!). But it’s not really what a native English speaker would say.

It would be more usual to actually name the quality you are liking/admiring eg “I really like the stitching on that jacket - it’s so intricate” or “I love the fabric, it feels so soft” or “it’s by far the warmest jacket I’ve ever worn” or “it’s such a lovely, unusual colour” etc.

Or to mention something acknowledging the overall high quality of the garment eg “you can see/feel the quality.”

Just saying you admire the qualities of a garment (unless you’re saying the quality meaning high quality as it’s very well made/made out of high quality fabric etc, in which case it wouldn’t be as usual but it would still be quite a formal way of saying it) isn’t really the norm.

For animals - I guess you could say that an animal (either a specific one with his/her specific personality eg a friend’s cat or a whole breed of animal eg cats) has qualities you admire. But, again, I think it would be more usual (and, to be honest, more interesting in terms of having a conversation with someone!) to say what qualities you admire. Eg “I love cats - they’re so independent/mysterious/fascinating/whatever” or “I could watch your cat all day - he’s so cheeky and playful but also so loyal to you and protective of you.”

Hope that helps.

 

[Never_falter2]

Thank you very much. I thought it sounded not very native...

How do you say if a garment has several qualities you admire? To sum them up so to speak. How about the following conversations?

Sophia: This Jacket is ugly. Why don‘t you throw it away?
Laura: I know, I know.... but it also has qualities I admire: it is rainproof and lightweight and warm

Sophia: Mr. Smith is sooooo boring
Laura: I know what you mean, but he also has qualities I admire because he is brave and loyal and smart.

 

[barefoot]

In your examples, there’s not really any need to actually say the sentence that someone/something has qualities you admire...you can just say what the positive qualities are or summarise what the positive/benefit is.

ie:

Sophia: This Jacket is ugly. Why don‘t you throw it away?
Laura: I know, I know.... but it also has qualities I admire: it is rainproof and lightweight and warm

Could just be:
Laura: I know, I know.... but/and it is really practical...it is rainproof and lightweight and warm.

There’s nothing “wrong” with saying what you’ve written in your examples. It’s just not really necessary to spell it out/say so much. You can just say what the positive qualities you admire are without preceding that lists with “there are positive qualities I admire...” It just makes things longer and more formal than they need to be and doesn’t feel as natural.

 

[Wendell_R]

Sophia: This Jacket is ugly. Why don‘t you throw it away?
Laura: I know, I know.... but it also has qualities I admire: it is rainproof and lightweight and warm

Sophia: Mr. Smith is sooooo boring
Laura: I know what you mean, but he also has qualities I admire because he is brave and loyal and smart.

Laura's conversation sounds like either dialogue from a 19th century novel, or a conversation at my 21st century Book Club. It's all very correct. As barefoot says, in conversational English Laura's words would be a bit formal. Her words sound fine to my ear, but I'm an English Literature major!

 

[Freida]

yep -- I think I agree with the others

You could say ---
He's a great man who has many honorable qualities
But saying
I admire him because he is a good worker (listing his qualities)
would flow better.

Things can be high quality.
If you say --
This store sells high quality clothing
Then you are referring to ALL of the clothing in the store.
If you are referring to one specific item it would flow better to define it.
This is a high quality coat
could be...
this coat is made of high quality material
or
This coat is well made

I don't think I would say an animal is high quality.... ??
This dog comes from quality breeding
which is really referring to the breeder not the dog :laugh:
or
This dog was well-bred

Another thought is that there are some major differences between American, Australian and British English so it might depend on who you are talking to.

 

[Never_falter2]

How do you say about the following Eigenschaften (German word) of the German Shepard dog.
Could one say the German Shepard has the following qualities: loyal, intelligent, obedient, watchful, curious. Are those qualities the animal or rather predicates or maybe talents?

 

[Never_falter2]

Oh, I think maybe attributes might be the word I have been seeking for.

 

[Justmehere]

Yeah, attributes or qualities could be used for a person or animal, not just an object. Some also would say properties, but that doesn’t work well for people or animals. Typically only objects. Attributes is more often used for objects tha living things.

Conversational or well written English is typically more concise. Doesn’t use any of those words. Attributes, qualities, admire - all too formal and too wordy.

My limited understanding of German is that it tends to be a more precise of a language than English, and German tends to use more words to state something than English does.

For example, if I want to say a building is tall, I simply say, “the building is tall” or “those buildings are tall.” I don’t say, “the building has the attribute of being tall.” It’s technically accurate to say, “the building has the attribute of being tall,” and people would understand it, but it would sound strange to a native US English speaker. Too cumbersome. But it probably sounds quite normal to a native German speaker to use that many words.

Going the more wordy route, it would be a little more strange if someone said properties of a person, but that word would work for an object. “The building has the property of being tall.” Totally works. Can’t say that for a person. If you said, “John has the quality or property of being tall” that would be very strange. Almost like you are considering them to be an object.

Could one say the German Shepard has the following qualities: loyal, intelligent, obedient, watchful, curious. Are those qualities the animal or rather predicates or maybe talents?

They could be called traits, qualities, perhaps talents or skills. They wouldn’t be called predicates or properties.

Most of all, it would be rare to use any of the words in conversation in that way, like others explained above.

It’s a little like when I was learning American Sign Language, which is even more concise than English (and not structured at all like English.) I kept wanting to add more signs/words to communicate and it would seem funny to my deaf friend. I had to learn to cut down the number of signs/words used.

 

[Never_falter2]

In German: When I talk about just one quality (btw is it possible to say but one instead of just one?) I would not say it like this. I would not say that John has the quality of being tall... but I would say that John has all the qualities of a good basketballplayer such aus height, endurance and so.
Even more often I would use it for unnamed qualities such as:
*The qualities of the fathers show up in the sons
*At his young age John already had all the promise and/or qualities of a good Christian
*I know John’s positive qualities... and they are not many
*We already talked about John‘s positive qualities or lack thereof
The latter two would indicate that John has few positive qualities if any. Could I say it like this? Isthere a Word for positive qualities (German: Vorzüge)? Merits? Virtues? Which could be used in the example sentence instead of positive qualities? Is a positive quality called virtue only in a human? I think yes, how is the positive quality of a thing called?

 

[blackemerald1]

Hey @Never_falter2 - what an interesting thread...

So just to clarify - when there is 'conversational' English - it doesn't translate really well to written English and it doesn't always follow the formal rules of English either. So.. what is written doesn't always seem to be a good way to say something and vice versa..

And then as already mentioned, various English speaking countries have their own linguistic differences...

Eg. The rear luggage compartment in a vehicle is called a 'trunk' in American.. I think? But in Australian it's called the 'boot'. :hilarious: Imagine the mix-ups that must have happened over that one hey... Eg, "I will put the bags in the boot" - might be a little bit puzzling for some and there are a multitude of other differences but all essentially English... lol

Add that to various differences in pronunciation and education and everybody is getting confused!

*The qualities of the fathers show up in the sons

Certainly an English speaker would know what you mean no problem!

But if you wanted to be more precise there are probably more accurate ways of saying this.
So qualities would get you understood if both speaker and listener knew what those qualities were? If not then a descriptive example may need to follow up that sentence. Eg... They are both wonderful artists.

*At his young age John already had all the promise and/or qualities of a good Christian

So this is more accurate because you are designating what type of qualities you mean ie good Christian.. so definitely yes we know what you are alluding to.

*I know John’s positive qualities... and they are not many

Hmm... yeah you'd get away with this because you are commenting on John generally but the reader or person in the conversation only knows that John is deficient in somethings but not what..

It depends entirely on whether you need to be more specific.
Like 'Johns morals are left wanting...' That's specific to his character.

*We already talked about John‘s positive qualities or lack thereof

Here you are assuming or expecting that the listener or reader is aware of the content of the prior conversation and therefore there is no need to be specific. So I think that's fine too.

Isthere a Word for positive qualities (German: Vorzüge)? Merits? Virtues? Which could be used in the example sentence instead of positive qualities? Is a positive quality called virtue only in a human? I think yes, how is the positive quality of a thing called?

Positive quality could be used... "Pinky had many positive qualities but none of them were helpful in finding him a home.." So.. yeah that term has it's place and again English speakers would understand it just fine.

Merit and Virtue are different words with different meanings.

Merit generally meaning the quality of being good and Virtue meaning good.

So.. All of Pinky efforts today had merit.
or, Pinky has a lot of patience and patience is a virtue..

With respect to Virtue applying only to human characteristic's no, not really... virtue can apply to inanimate things too
Eg., Pinky described the virtues of his helicopter (meaning it's good characteristic's)

Then there is the different meaning of Virtue as in "by means of.." Pinky went to la la land by virtue of his extraordinary mental abilities.. lol

Hope this helps and I haven't confused you :)

 

[Freida]

But in Australian it's called the 'boot'. :hilarious: Imagine the mix-ups that must have happened over that one hey... Eg, "I will put the bags in the boot"

oh yea - this! In American "boot" is something you wear on your feet and "booty" is a slang term for either a pirates chest full of stuff or a person's butt.

I was listening to my french tape (with is done by the English) and they used the term "biscuit". In English that's a sweet treat but in American it's a type of dinner bread. then they used "hire skis for the ski field" and it took a minute to realize they said "rent skies at the ski slopes" :banghead: No wonder the language is so hard to learn - WE can't even figure out what we mean! :laugh: