student asking question

Can I change the order of the sentence like "The cafe should just be about here"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

It is possible to change the order of the sentence in this way, however, it would sound a little less natural to say "the cafe should just be about here". This is because the word "just" in this case would be emphasizing the verb "be" instead of the word "about" in the other case. If "just" is put in front of "be", this makes the meaning of "just" like "only", and would express that the cafe should only be here, which sounds like more of an opinion. However, if you say "the cafe should be just about here", the word "just" is describing "about here" which expresses a location, and means that the cafe should be precisely or exactly here. This sentence implies more of an estimated guess instead of an opinion. Hope that helps!

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