sight

[mat.such]

Hello, does the sentence in bold have the same meaning as the original sentence? I have come up with two possible options. I have to use the keyword sight. Thank you very much


I was very much relieved to see my brother walking down the street towards me.

I felt enormous....relief when I caught sight of / relief at the sight of...my brother walking down the street towards me. <——-Edited by moderator (Florentia52) to remove unwarranted capitalization——->

 

[Uncle Jack]

I expect the writer of the exercise is looking for "relief at the sight of my brother", but there is nothing wrong with your "relief when I caught sight of my brother".

 

[mat.such]

I expect the writer of the exercise is looking for "relief at the sight of my brother", but there is nothing wrong with your "relief when I caught sight of my brother".

Thanks for your answer. And when you say that the writer of the exercise expects me to use the first option, does it mean that second option has a different meaning or is at variance with the meaning of the original sentence?

 

[Hermione Golightly]

The second option is "relief at the sight of". There's no difference in meaning. Why have you changed the first part?

 

[Uncle Jack]

Thanks for your answer. And when you say that the writer of the exercise expects me to use the first option, does it mean that second option has a different meaning or is at variance with the meaning of the original sentence?

It is hard to detect a difference in meaning, particularly when we are not given any context, but the original says "to see my brother" not "to catch sight of my brother", and I imagine you are expected to keep as close to the original as you can.

Of course, changing "see" from a verb to a noun requires other changes to the sentence, and I think you have done well in choosing to use "feel relief" rather than continuing to use "relieve" as a verb. I don't much like "I was very much relieved at the sight of my brother", which suggests that your relief was because of the way he looked, not from his being present. However, a simpler change might have been to keep "relieve" as a verb but use "catch" rather than "see" as the infinitive: "I was very much relieved to catch sight of my brother...."

As you can see, there are several possible options.

 

[Chasint]

The second option is "relief at the sight of". There's no difference in meaning. Why have you changed the first part?

Actually it's "relief at the sight" with no "of", so it is ungrammatical.

mat.such - Did you type it in correctly?

 

[mat.such]

Actually it's "relief at the sight" with no "of", so it is ungrammatical.

mat.such - Did you type it in correctly?

I've come up with 2 options. 1 RELIEF WHEN I CAUGHT SIGHT OF
2 RELIEF AT THE SIGHT

 

[Chasint]

I've come up with 2 options. 1 RELIEF WHEN I CAUGHT SIGHT OF
2 RELIEF AT THE SIGHT

Please type the entire sentence in both cases.

 

[mat.such]

I've come up with 2 options. RELIEF WHEN I CAUGHT SIGHT OF
RELIEF AT THE SIGHT

I felt enormous ........RELIEF AT THE SIGHT OF...................... my brother walking down the street towards me.

I felt enormous ........RELIEF WHEN I CAUGHT SIGHT OF........................ my brother walking down the street towards me.

 

[Hermione Golightly]

"... at the sight of my brother ... ".

 

[RM1(SS)]

Nobody likes "sighted"?

 

[Chasint]

... I don't much like "I was very much relieved at the sight of my brother", which suggests that your relief was because of the way he looked, not from his being present.

I disagree on two counts.

1. "sight" is not usually considered a synonym of the way someone looks, i.e. their appearance. For example, "John always has a dapper appearance" is orrect but "John always has a dapper sight" is not. The ambiguity you refer to would however occur in the following sentence, "I was very much relieved at the appearance of my brother walking down the street towards me."

2. You have neglected the context of walking down the street. In the sentence, "I was very much relieved at the sight of my brother walking down the street towards me", I would maintain that "the sight" cannot easily be interpreted as meaning the physical look of the brother. To force that alternative meaning, you would have to say something like "I was very much relieved at the look of my brother walking down the street towards me."

 

[Chasint]

Nobody likes "sighted"?

"I was very much relieved when I sighted my brother walking down the street towards me" would certainly be possible, but I understood that the question specifically required use of the noun "sight". Maybe I was wrong.