Is this sentence grammatical?
?I couldn't see a wall a foot in front of me.
I came across this sentence on the internet and asked some native speakers whether the sentence sounds natural, but other than one, two said it doesn't sound natural as well as make sense.
Doesn't that really so?
I think the sentence is grammatical if "a foot" works as a noun phrase adverbialy modifying "in front of".
So the sentence is "I couldn't see a wall that is a foot in front of me".
Am I right?
Top answer
Are you sure the people you asked were native speakers? I don't know why they would have trouble understanding that. Or did you ask them to explain the grammar?
- Are you sure the people you asked were native speakers?
- I don't know why they would have trouble understanding that.
- Or did you ask them to explain the grammar?
- A lot of native speakers know very little abut grammar.
- Clive
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Are you sure the people you asked were native speakers?
I don't know why they would have trouble understanding that.
Or did you ask them to explain the grammar? A lot of native speakers know very little abut grammar.
Clive
0fire1?I couldn't see a wall a foot in front of me.
Is it supposed to be a variation on "I couldn't see my hand in front of my face", meaning that your vision was impaired by darkness or fog or something like that? If so, it fails because it sounds literal at first. The grammar is fine aside from that, and it is has natural word order and diction, but it is
0
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