Question

5 March

Korean

English (US)
Guarani

Question about English (US)

A. The man next to the car killed yesterday was your friend.

Q1) Is sentence A correct English?
Q2) Does "killed yesterday" describe "The man"?

Would you please answer my two questions one by one?

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Answers

henryHigg

5 March

English (US)

Q1) As you point out (in Q2), this sentence is misleading.

Q1) "The man killed yesterday, when he was next the car, was your friend," would make the meaning really clear. "The man killed yesterday, next to the car, was your friend' also.

Q2) "killed yesterday" must refer to the man. But your sentence (in Q1) means that the 'car was killed yesterday' - which is obviously meaningless.

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Highly-rated answerer

gg6ee

5 March

English (US)

Your two questions are related.

Q1) It is not really correct.
It sounds like the car was killed, when, of course it should be the man.
Here are three ways to fix it.

(A) "The man next to the car, who was killed yesterday, was your friend."

(B) "The man killed yesterday next to the car was your friend."

(C) "The man killed yesterday while standing next to the car was your friend."

Q2) As said, "was killed" should refer to the man. We know that because people are killed, not cars. But consider this example:

"The man next to the woman killed yesterday was your friend."

This sentence is completely ambiguous, leaning towards the woman being the one killed but not clear.

The man is your friend. That is clear.
Who was killed is not clear.

For the sentence with "woman" instead of "car"
my sentence (A) is still not clear.
Sentences (B) and (C) would both be clear.

I like (C) the best.

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rapture18

5 March

Korean

Thank you very much everyone

To put it simply, I would like to know whether there are some examples where a past participle phrase such as "killed yesterday" can describe a noun phrase such as "the man" when there is a prepositional phrase between the past participle and the noun phrase.

Would you make some examples where it works?

I'm talking about these two structures.
(Past participle = Past P, Noun phrase = NP, prepositonal phrase = Pre P)
(Pre P is like .. next to the car or with a tattoo...)

I'm talking about these two structures.(Past participle = Past P, Noun phrase = NP, prepositonal phrase = Pre P)(Pre P is like .. next to the car or with a tattoo...)

(1) NP + Pre P + Past P is/are/verb ...(Past P modifies Past P)

(2)... is/are/verb + NP + Pre P + Past P(Past P modifies Past P)

I really want to know

gg6ee

5 March

English (US)

I can't answer that. I'm not sure it can't work, but I don't have any examples for you.

I will say this. The purpose of grammar is to make meaning out of a sequence of words.
But there are many ways to follow grammar perfectly and not make any sense.

For every sentence, we need to consider whether the grammar is correct, whether the sentence makes sense, and whether it makes the meaning that we want.

For native speakers and eventually for learners, the grammar becomes mostly automatic.

It is also possible to follow the grammar, and make sense, but not quite say what you intend.

So as you are learning, you must look at your sentence and decide if there is any way it can be misunderstood or unclear. If so, work on changing it.

I'm a native speaker and when I write, I consider all of that.

When I speak, I hear myself and if it doesn't sound quite clear to me, then I say something else to clarify it.

If you come up with any examples on your own, mention me and I will come back and check them.

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daal39

5 March

English (US)
German Near fluent

Q1) No. The correct sentence could be: The man who was killed yesterday next to the car was your friend.
Q2) No. in your sentence it is the car that was killed yesterday.

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rapture18

5 March

Korean

Thank you very much everyone.
I understand your points.
Just one more thing,-

S1. A girl in the town kidnapped yesterday has been rescued by the police.
S2. The daughter of a minister kidnapped yesterday has been rescued by the police.

Then are sentences S1 and S2 correct English? and does "kidnapped yesterday" describes "A girl" and "The daughter" unambiguously?

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A. The man next to the car killed yesterday was your friend.Q1) Is sentence A correct English?Q2) Does "killed yesterday" describe "The man"?Would you please answer my two questions one by one? See a translation

Q1) No. The correct sentence could be: The man who was killed yesterday next to the car was your friend.Q2) No. in your sentence it is the car that was killed yesterday.

A. The man next to the car killed yesterday was your friend.

Q1) Is sentence A correct English?
Q2) Does "killed yesterday" describe "The man"?

Would you please answer my two questions one by one?

See a translation

Q1) No. The correct sentence could be: The man who was killed yesterday next to the car was your friend.
Q2) No. in your sentence it is the car that was killed yesterday.