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Hirashin Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

I went all the way to see my granny only to find her out.

Does this sentence make sense?

I went all the way to see my granny only to find her out.

Thanks in advance.

HIrashin
  

Top answer

hirashin Does this sentence make sense? I went all the way to see my granny only to find her out. Yes.

— CalifJim

  • hirashin Does this sentence make sense?
  • I went all the way to see my granny only to find her out.
  • Yes.
  • It implies something like this: I took the trouble to go and see my grandmother, but when I got there, I was disappointed to discover that she was not there.
  • "only to" with a plain verb form (often 'find') usually introduces a negative result.
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6 Answers
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hirashinDoes this sentence make sense? I went all the way to see my granny only to find her out.
Yes. It implies something like this:

I took the trouble to go and see my grandmother, but when I got there, I was disappointed to discover that she was not there.

"only to" with a plain verb form (often 'find') usually introduces a negative resul
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Thanks for the help, CalifJim.

It seems to me that the expression "find her out" is unusual. If it were
"to find that she was out"instead, I would have understood easily.
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hirashinIt seems to me that the expression "find her out" is unusual.
The pattern "find someone + adj.", meaning to find someone in a certain state, is not especially unusual. However, I can see why "find her out" may look a bit odd to you here -- because of the collision with the phrasal verb "find out".
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Thanks for the comment, GPY. Then would the original sentence be common?
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hirashinThen would the original sentence be common?
Not quite "common", I would say. Certainly not rare either, but "find her out" may momentarily catch out even a native reader because of the dual meaning.
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