Thursday, May 5, 2016

grammaticality - Is "become like" valid english words?


Something like:



It becomes like a spaceship.
He becomes like a mad person.
They become like intermediate objects.



Is "become like" valid english words?



If not, what's the better alternative for daily conversation?



Answer




It becomes like a spaceship.



It changes in such a way that while previously it was not comparable to a spaceship, it now is similar to a spaceship in some way, but is not actually a spaceship. If it was always similar to a spaceship that would be "it is like a spaceship" if it changed so it actually was capable of travel through space that would be "it becomes a spaceship".



He becomes like a mad person.



Likewise, he changes in such a way that while he was not comparable to a mad person, he now is similar to a mad person in some way, but is not actually a mad person.




They become like intermediate objects.



Again, they change in such a way that while they were not comparable to intermediate objects, they now are similar to intermediate objects in some way, but are not actually intermediate objects.


It's perfectly valid English. Whether it's the correct English for what you want to express is another matter, depending on whether you want to express what is described above.


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