Guilty in the original trial

Hi,

"John Smith pleaded guilty in the original trial and last September his sentence was amended to 28 years."

1. Why "in" is used and not "at"? Does "in" mean "during"? Yes. I wouldn't call 'at' wrong, but 'in' suggets a lot more involvement, which of course is what happened.

2. Does "amended" mean this person John is going to serve "original sentence

Hi Clive,

Thank you for answering my questions. I'm sorry for keeping you.

1. Could "at the trial" also mean at the "court", the location?

2. Do you mean John now only have 28 years left? If the sentence were to amend from 40 years to 10 years, would it mean "His sentence was reduced to 30 years"?

Thank you.

TN

1. No, the trial is the process, the event. You cannot subsitute "the court" here because you are talking about a specific thing that happened during the trial.

2. No, it means it was changed to 28 years. If this trial happened 25 years ago, then he has only 3 years left to serve.

If something is amended from 40 years to 10 years, it is changed to 10 years. The new sentence is

Hi Grammar Geek,

I'm so happy. "by" - I was trying to find a verb for it.

Thank you very very very much.

Regards,

Tinanam