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Cho7712 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
be come back to
The following is a copy of the argument made by the team supporting 'book' in a book vs. movie debate.
ex. Readers can take their time when they want to enjoy a particular scene or bit of dialogue. Also, a book can be put down for a while and come back to later without disrupting the reader’s sense of continuity.
I found the underlined part somewhat odd.
How can it be conjoined with the previous part?
a. A book can be put down and (can be) come back to later.
b. A book can be put down and (can) come back to later.
I don't think any of those two versions could be possible.
Rather, I think 'you can' is accidentally omitted there.
What do you think about it?
ex. Readers can take their time when they want to enjoy a particular scene or bit of dialogue. Also, a book can be put down for a while and come back to later without disrupting the reader’s sense of continuity.
I found the underlined part somewhat odd.
How can it be conjoined with the previous part?
a. A book can be put down and (can be) come back to later.
b. A book can be put down and (can) come back to later.
I don't think any of those two versions could be possible.
Rather, I think 'you can' is accidentally omitted there.
What do you think about it?
Top answer
" The passive form feels slightly awkward in my opinion. I would try to avoid it in careful writing.
- " The passive form feels slightly awkward in my opinion.
- I would try to avoid it in careful writing.
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7 Answers
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In full: "A book can be put down and can be come back to later."
Active: "You can come back to a book."
Passive: "A book can be come back to."
The passive form feels slightly awkward in my opinion. I would try to avoid it in careful writing.
Active: "You can come back to a book."
Passive: "A book can be come back to."
The passive form feels slightly awkward in my opinion. I would try to avoid it in careful writing.
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Thank you for the answer.
But, I strongly doubt that 'be come back to' would be a correct form.
'Come back to' as a phrasal verb shows no pattern of passive form, as evidenced by corpus, Goolge corpus.
Is it a grammatical form in a strict sense?
But, I strongly doubt that 'be come back to' would be a correct form.
'Come back to' as a phrasal verb shows no pattern of passive form, as evidenced by corpus, Goolge corpus.
Is it a grammatical form in a strict sense?
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cho7712Thank you for the answer.But, I strongly doubt that 'be come back to' would be a correct form.'Come back to' as a phrasal verb shows no pattern of passive form, as evidenced by corpus, Goolge corpus.Is it a grammatical form in a strict sense?"a book can be come back to later" is something that a native speaker might say, but, as I mentioned, it is not
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Also, readers can put a book down for a while and come back to it later without disrupting their sense of continuity.
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Just a "by the way".
I found a few of these on Google. I've shortened some of them just to keep the focus on the relevant parts of the sentences.
The function can be turned off and can be come back to via signal correction.
This is a wonderful little book that can be read in one sitting and can be come back to again and again.
Sometimes an ending is just be left hanging
I found a few of these on Google. I've shortened some of them just to keep the focus on the relevant parts of the sentences.
The function can be turned off and can be come back to via signal correction.
This is a wonderful little book that can be read in one sitting and can be come back to again and again.
Sometimes an ending is just be left hanging
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Thank you for the answer. A good number of examples are there!
I should've been much more careful in searching results on Google.
Thank you again!
I should've been much more careful in searching results on Google.
Thank you again!
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