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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
analyze a sentence
What's wrong with this sentence?
He always smelled clean, a soothing masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas.
He always smelled clean, a soothing masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas.
Top answer
The words "a soothing masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas" are an appositive construction. An appositive refers back to a noun, but here there is no noun for it to refer back to. So the sentence should be: He always had a clean smell, a soothing masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas.
- The words "a soothing masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas" are an appositive construction.
- An appositive refers back to a noun, but here there is no noun for it to refer back to.
- So the sentence should be: He always had a clean smell, a soothing masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas.
- Another way to correct it is to do away with the appositive structure: He always smelled clean, with a soothing masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas.
- Still another way of looking at this is that its logic is flawed: a masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas is not a clean smell.
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1 Answers
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The words "a soothing masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas" are an appositive construction. An appositive refers back to a noun, but here there is no noun for it to refer back to. So the sentence should be: He always had a clean smell, a soothing masculine scent wafting off flannel pajamas.
Another way to correct it is to do away with the appositive structure: He always smelled
Another way to correct it is to do away with the appositive structure: He always smelled
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