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Anonymous Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

Adjective placement

I am having trouble with adjective placement. Can someone help me out? Here is my example

"The reporter is working on the protests downtown."

How do we know if "downtown" is talking about where the reporter is working or if it is an adjective to "protests"?

  

Top answer

anonymous I am having trouble with adjective placement. Can someone help me out? " How do we know if "downtown" is talking about where the reporter is working or if it is an adjective to "protests"?

— CalifJim

  • anonymous I am having trouble with adjective placement.
  • Can someone help me out?
  • " How do we know if "downtown" is talking about where the reporter is working or if it is an adjective to "protests"?
  • The sentence is ambiguous, but 'downtown' is an adverb of place no matter how you interpret it.
  • If 'downtown' refers to where the reporter is working, you can put it right after 'working' to resolve the ambiguity.
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2 Answers
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anonymous

I am having trouble with adjective placement. Can someone help me out? Here is my example

"The reporter is working on the protests downtown."

How do we know if "downtown" is talking about where the reporter is working or if it is an adjective to "protests"?

The sentence is ambiguous, but 'downtown' is an adverb of place no matter

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anonymousHow do we know if "downtown" is talking about where the reporter is working or if it is an adjective to "protests"?

We don't: it's ambiguous. To eliminate the ambiguity you can use one of these:

The reporter is working downtown on the protests.
The reporter is working on the downtown protests.

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