What's the meaning of this confusing sentence!
Hello everyone,
I've got some issues with understanding the whole sentence precisely.
"She wears clothes that are right for her age and manages to look glamorous without it looking like she's too done up."
It's seems to me the sentence lacks proper punctuation ( am I right?), and the function of " without it" isn't clear to me: to which word the " it" refers?
Thanks everyone commenting on this in advanced.
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 14
4
Sometimes in English "it" doesn't mean anything specific. For example: it's getting late, it was nice to meet you.
In this case the "it" is connected to "looking like", and is referring back to the first half of the sentence. "It" in this sentence is everything between "she" and "glamorous".
It is used because a whole clause of the sentence is the subject of "looking". This would also work if "looking" were replaced by "seeming" or "appearing".
2
It reads fine to me. A comma after 'age' might make it a bit clearer, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary.
I think the '...it looking like...' is a form of 'it looks like'.
'It looks like she is is too done up'
'It doesn't look like she is is too done up'
'without it looking like she is is too done up'
I don't know what the formal name for the function of the 'it' is there - but it's a common thing we do.
1
For punctuation, I would only add one hyphen: done-up. The rest of the sentence is perfectly fine and needs no punctuation.
"It" is a little more implied... my interpretation is "her appearance" or "the overall effect".
If it's still a bit difficult to understand the structure of the sentence, we can parse it for you.
0
" it" refers "She wears clothes that are right for her age and manages to look glamorous"
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