Acres to plant corn

Question

1-We have twenty acres to plant corn on.

Does this necessary mean that the twenty acres belong to us or have been rented by us, etc.?

Can an agricultural worker who works for a landowner say that sentence to a co-worker and mean:

2-There are twenty acres on which we have to plant corn.

Gratefully.
Navi.

Philip · Accepted Answer

1- No idication of who owns the property, only who is working it.
2- Confusion: do the workers have permission to plant corn (have the land in order to plant corn) or the workers must (have to) plant corn?

Navitasan · Answer

Thank you very much Philip,

Interesting point!

I believe we would have confusion if the sentence were

2a-There are twenty acres which we have to plant corn on.

but in

2-There are twenty acres on which we have to plant corn.

the "have to" can only mean "must".

That of course does not preclude that we possess those acres. But the sentenice is not ambiguous,

Respectfully,
Navi.

CalifJim · Answer

navitasan1-We have twenty acres to plant corn on.Does this necessarily mean that the twenty acres belong to us or have been rented by us, etc.?Can an agricultural worker who works for a landowner say that sentence to a co-worker and mean:2-There are twenty acres on which we have to plant corn.Gratefully.Navi.

1. No. It can mean that, but it doesn't have to.

a. Here are twenty acres of land. We can plant corn on these twenty acres.
b. Here are twenty acres land. Our job is to plant corn on these twenty acres.
c. We own twenty acres of land. We can plant corn on these twenty acres.
d. We own twenty acres of land. Our job is to plant corn on these twenty acres.

2. Yes, he can say that. That's b above.
_________

By the way, in ordinary conversation a native speaker would do anything he could to avoid constructions like on which, for which, about whom, with whom, etc.

CJ

Acres to plant corn

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