He talks as if there is nothing else left in life for him to do.

He talks as if there is nothing else ….. in life for him... Q) He talks as if there is nothing else ….. in life for him to do. a)leaves b)left (Answer key) c)has left d)to leave Source: school exam Hello, I want to make sure if the test is standard English. So, would you please be kind enough to have look at the test sentence (the blue sentence) and tell me if it's natural to you? Thank you Dec 22, 2014 A) South East EnglandEnglish - England With 'left' inserted, it would be grammatically correct, but the sentence itself isn't something I would be likely to say. Dec 22, 2014 heypresto said: ↑ but the sentence itself isn't something I would be likely to say. Maybe a person is good at doing anything. I mean maybe there is a person who is professional at doing anything and there is nothing left that he can do. Do you understand what I say? Can't it be used in this context? Dec 22, 2014 heypresto said: ↑ With 'left' inserted, it would be grammatically correct, but the sentence itself isn't something I would be likely to say. Hi, heypresto How about, He keeps talking as if he don't have anything else to do. He's always blabbering, like his life depends on it. I'm just woundering, beeing myself not a native speaker too, many thanks! Sorry sb70012 for this short deviation Dec 22, 2014 sb70012 said: ↑ Maybe a person is good at doing anything. I mean maybe there is a person who is professional at doing anything and there is nothing left that he can do. Do you understand what I say? Can't it be used in this context? like:...there is nothing left to fix?! /or maybe:...like this is the only (one) thing left that he could excel/shine in. Dec 22, 2014 City of Brotherly LoveUSA English There are a few ways one could understand that sentence. One idea might be that the person feels useless and possibly depressed and simply can't imagine what else s/he can do. Another interpretation could be that the person feels that s/he has done everything and can't think of another accomplishment. Dec 22, 2014 South East EnglandEnglish - England My first thoughts were something like PlanC's first suggestions, but I also agree with marget's suggested interpretations. Without knowing more, it is hard to say exactly what is meant by the original sentence. But it is grammatically correct. Dec 22, 2014 City of Brotherly LoveUSA English Does anyone think the sentence sounds better if sb70012 puts "left" immediately before "for him"? Does " ... there's nothing else left for him to do"in life" flow more smoothly? Does it make any difference? Dec 22, 2014 South East EnglandEnglish - England Yes, I think that does sound a lot smoother. I'm having some difficulty in understanding exactly what 'He talks' means. It could mean something like PlanC's suggested "blabbering, like his life depends on it", or it could mean that he's saying that there's nothing left in life for him to do? I really think we need to know more before we can be sure which it is. Having said that, this isn't what the the original question was asking, so could be considered as off topic. Dec 22, 2014 City of Brotherly LoveUSA English I think the original sentence sounds natural enough, sb70012, with the minor suggestion I have proposed and heypresto considers acceptable as well. I believe that you have written this sentence as a multiple-choice test item that doesn't really have a specific context. Am I correct? Dec 22, 2014 marget said: ↑ I believe that you have written this sentence as a multiple-choice test item that doesn't really have a specific context. Am I correct? Yes, brother. You are correct. Dec 22, 2014 Oregon, U.S.English - U.S. It's kind of a disturbing sentence to include on a school exam. Poor guy sounds like he's suicidal. Last edited: Dec 23, 2014