Question- English Language

[Youkai]

Hi, something is bugging me since yesterday and I can't get a proper answer so maybe someone here can help me.

One of my Kids wrote
"I need water to drin.
I need air to breath."

Which should be okay but the other teacher said it was bad because of the repetitive use of "I need" so she changed it to this :
"I need to drink water and air to breath"

I walked up to her and asked her if she maybe did a mistake there as this doesn't sound right to me ... she got angry and told me that it is grammatically correct.
She even tried to exlain me but I didn't understand it and still think that this sounds so bad ^^V
for me it sounds like I need to drink "water and air" no matter if the breathing follows up or not.

 

[lordkaos]

Hi, something is bugging me since yesterday and I can't get a proper answer so maybe someone here can help me.

One of my Kids wrote
"I need water to drin.
I need air to breath."

Which should be okay but the other teacher said it was bad because of the repetitive use of "I need" so she changed it to this :
"I need to drink water and air to breath"

I walked up to her and asked her if she maybe did a mistake there as this doesn't sound right to me ... she got angry and told me that it is grammatically correct.
She even tried to exlain me but I didn't understand it and still think that this sounds so bad ^^V
for me it sounds like I need to drink "water and air" no matter if the breathing follows up or not.

I think this would be better:

"I need water to drink and air to breathe"

 

[Youkai]

I think it would be better:

"I need water to drink and air to breath"

yeah I said the exact same thing to her

 

[bennyman123abc]

In theory, they're both grammatically correct. However, it sounds nicer to write "I need water to drink and air to breathe". So if the teacher is going off the best way to write that phrase, she was wrong too. This is coming from an AP English 11 student, by the way. (AP stands for Advanced Placement which is a college level class as far as content)

EDIT: I just realized I typed the exact same thing without my corrections to the phrase. It sounds better if you use, "I need to drink water and breathe air". Though that does slightly change the meaning of the sentence which may or may not be important in this case.

 

[mthrnite]

I need to drink and breath water and air, respectively.
Your kid did it best, simple and appropriately dramatic.

 

[ThoD]

"I need water to drink" means you have an urge to drink water, as in being thirsty.
"I need air to breath" means you require air in order to breathe.
That syntax is used for such cases. However...
"I need to drink water and air to breath" is wrong for the simple reason that "I need to do something" MUST be accompanied with a purpose (eg: "I need to drink water so I won't be thirsty")(I/you/he/she/it/they+to infinitive action+purpose). What the kid said is wrong because it literally implies that both drinking water and air are a requirement for breathing. The correct thing would be "I need water to drink and air to breathe" or just replace one "need" for an appropriate word (eg: require) while keeping the sentences separate.

Incidentally, since we are correcting people, it's "breathE" for the verb, not "breath" and in the OP you forgot the "k" at the end of "drink" in the first quote.

 

[Youkai]

thanks for your answers !

And about my mistakes, they often happen because gbatemp and my phone don't like each other

No idea why but if I want to write don't as an example I never do the ' and let my phone change it but on gbatemp it often doesn't change anything at all or makes some gibberish out if it ( only happens here )

 

[SonyUSA]

"I need to drink water and air to breath" What THoD said-- This literally means that you need to drink water and drink air to be able to breath lol. xD