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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Confused about ways to complete this sentence
My ESL friend asked me about this sentence she has to complete. She must complete it using the idea in the parentheses:
(Bill's wife is ill). Bill has to do all of the cooking and cleaning because of _____________.
Her teacher gave her these 3 answers:
his ill wife
his wife's illness
his wife being ill
How can we explain these 3 different answers gramatically? I guss if someone could just elaborate...
Thanks so much!
(Bill's wife is ill). Bill has to do all of the cooking and cleaning because of _____________.
Her teacher gave her these 3 answers:
his ill wife
his wife's illness
his wife being ill
How can we explain these 3 different answers gramatically? I guss if someone could just elaborate...
Thanks so much!
Top answer
Let us discount first the fact that all three answers might be spoken in conversation. Having said that, It is the illness that is the problem, not his wife per se. Therefore, the 1st option is unacceptable.
- Let us discount first the fact that all three answers might be spoken in conversation.
- Having said that, It is the illness that is the problem, not his wife per se.
- Therefore, the 1st option is unacceptable.
- The 3rd option is becoming more acceptable these days, but a strict grammar would require it to read 'his wife's being ill' before it was the illness and not the wife that was the object of the preposition.
- That leaves us with the 2nd option, the only correct one by grammatico-semantic standards.
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1 Answers
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Let us discount first the fact that all three answers might be spoken in conversation.
Having said that, It is the illness that is the problem, not his wife per se. Therefore, the 1st option is unacceptable. The 3rd option is becoming more acceptable these days, but a strict grammar would require it to read 'his wife's being ill' before it was the illness and not the wife that w
Having said that, It is the illness that is the problem, not his wife per se. Therefore, the 1st option is unacceptable. The 3rd option is becoming more acceptable these days, but a strict grammar would require it to read 'his wife's being ill' before it was the illness and not the wife that w
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