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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

can an adverbial clause follow a linking verb?

In this sentence:

The only time I ever called her clever was, ' while having dinner, we discussed a math problem that was a bit advance for her age and I was simply amazed by how she came up with the solution.'

Is it possible that an adverbial clause follows a linking verb? In this case, I consider "while having dinner..." to be an adverbial clause acting as the subjective complement of the noun phrase subject, "The only time I ever called her clever". (I'm always open to corrections.)

So, can an adverbial clause be a subjective complement? Is my sentence even grammatically correct? I know there's some ways to rewrite this sentence in a much less-confusing way, but I intend to explore those that are a bit abnormal 'in my opinion'.
  

Top answer

Vjean Is my sentence even grammatically correct? I would say no. The only time I ever called her clever was (the time) when , while having dinner, we discussed a math problem that was a bit advance d for her age.

  • Vjean Is my sentence even grammatically correct?
  • I would say no.
  • The only time I ever called her clever was (the time) when , while having dinner, we discussed a math problem that was a bit advance d for her age.
  • I was simply amazed by how she came up with the solution.
  • As far as the general idea of linking to an adverbial, that's not wrong.
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2 Answers
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VjeanIs my sentence even grammatically correct?
I would say no.

The only time I ever called her clever was (the time) when, while having dinner, we discussed a math problem that was a bit advanced for her age. I was simply amazed by how she came up with the solution.

As far as the general idea of linking to an adverbial,
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CJ, thanks a lot for stopping by and helping me clarify these. I appreciate it, very much!

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