Lara Barnett Jan 21, 2019:

@ Katarina My typo was between the "N" and "L", not with the tense, as you seem to be suggesting, which I am aware of but cannot edit as the function is not working.

In UK we do not use "spelled" anywhere as it is seen as incorrect, and I do not use US English. Therefore, the correct spelling for my entry should have been "spelt" (which is the past tense of "to spell" in UK, where "spelled" has no place or usage).

Lara Barnett Jan 19, 2019:

@ Katarina I have made my point. "What I believe in me" means nothing. You can say "I believe in me" or "what I believe in", but you cannot say "what I believe in me".

I am not sure how far you are intending to confuse rules of grammar with phrases that do not mean anything, but I am talking through experience in my own language. There is no further point iam trying to make, I am just saying what sounds right and what does not sound right in my own language. Maybe it simply just needs punctuation, but I don't know what it is.

Unfortunately your example sentences do not sound any different to me. If you want to uphold your point great, but we just do not say that in UK, that's all I am saying.

Katarina Peters Jan 19, 2019:

spelled, of course, not spent... (stil was a typo) Both verbs, "want" and "believe", are static verbs. We can just as well say "what I believe in me" as "what I want in me". They both "work well". What is your point, Lara?

Lara Barnett Jan 19, 2019:

@ Stil...l...(spent with double L) @ Katarina - I agree with you, I would also say "believe in me" because it works well, (hence the beautiful song sang by Whitney Houston "I Believe in You and Me"). However, we are not talking about the verb "to believe...",we are talking about the verb "to want..." , and we are not talking about "noun+in", we are talking about a particular verb.

And I also reserve the right to use my UK English opinion in terms of stylising and usage in the British language, and knowing when and if it works in each different situation or context.

Katarina Peters Jan 19, 2019:

ooops... typo: I meant Still... of course see below

Katarina Peters Jan 19, 2019:

Stil... …I reserve the right to claim that my suggestion is perfectly correct in English, notwithstanding. The “mind in me” says that I am right… . Look at these examples: “I have it in me”. “I believe in me” “the child in me”. “I want to be me”. “the best in me”. “that is me”.
https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/19/i-me-myself/
https://books.google.ca/books?isbn=1477142347

Lara Barnett Jan 17, 2019:

Suggested alternatives Correctly structured, such a reflexive idea would be phrased in English as:

"want in myself"
"want inside me"
"want from myself"
"want from within me"

Lara Barnett Jan 14, 2019:

Poetry ...by the way, poets do not corrupt grammar, but have the ability to manipulate it in order to create something beautiful in a non-standard way. There is a difference and I am sure this is also what Fernando Pessoa did (for example, I am sure he did not use prepositions and pronouns in disagreement with the respective noun).
I am also not trying to make nationalistic or dogmatic statements, which seems to be what this Portuguese student was doing.

Oliver Simões (asker) Jan 11, 2019:

Sorry, folks I added a reference link that totally messed up the page layout. Who knows why this happened.