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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

My daughter had this question in her exam paper, in which she was asked to rearrange the words to form a correct sentence:
"road cross They the zebra-crossing the at"

She gave the following answer: "They crossed the road at the zebra-crossing." but was marked wrong by the teacher who insisted that it should be: "They crossed the zebra-crossing at the road."

How do I explain to the teacher that my daughter's answer is correct?
  

Top answer

'The road' is the direct object, ie what they crossed, so it should follow the verb closely, as in your daughter's version. Note that the word 'crossed' is not in the list given, so really both your daughter and her teacher are incorrect. Let me add that such 'jumbled words' exercises are not, in my opinion, a good way to learn English.

— Clive

  • 'The road' is the direct object, ie what they crossed, so it should follow the verb closely, as in your daughter's version.
  • Note that the word 'crossed' is not in the list given, so really both your daughter and her teacher are incorrect.
  • Let me add that such 'jumbled words' exercises are not, in my opinion, a good way to learn English.
  • Clive
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2 Answers
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'The road' is the direct object, ie what they crossed, so it should follow the verb closely, as in your daughter's version.

Note that the word 'crossed' is not in the list given, so really both your daughter and her teacher are incorrect.

Let me add that such 'jumbled words' exercises are not, in my opinion, a good way to learn English.

Clive
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"They crossed the zebra crossing" is correct in itself, but "at the road" is wrong.

"They crossed the zebra crossing at the end of the road", for example, would be possible.

"zebra crossing" is not normally hyphenated.
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