last seen/saw

Question

0I usually hear people say someone was last seen ...'. The missing person is always the subject. Can I switch the object and the subject in this case and still sound natural? For example,02br02br00Peter last saw Marry at a bar downtown.02br02br00Instead of,02br02br00Mary was last seen at a bar downtown [by Peter]. 02br02br00Thanks!0-

Yoong Liat · Accepted Answer

1blockquote

01cite10New2grammar12cite10I usually hear people say someone was last seen ...'. The missing person is always the subject. Can I switch the object and the subject in this case and still sound natural? For example, 12br
12br
10Peter last saw Marry at a bar downtown. 11b10(To me this sentence is better than the other.)12b12br
12br
10Instead of,12br
12br
10Mary was last seen at a bar downtown [by Peter].11b10 (If you include 'by Peter', the sentence doesn't sound good. However, if you remove the phrase, the reader won't know who saw Mary.)12b12br
12br
10Thanks!12br
12blockquote

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Khoff · Answer

0A. Peter last saw Mary at a bar downtown. 02br
02br
00B. Mary was last seen at a bar downtown.02br
02br
00C. Mary was last seen at a bar downtown, by Peter.02br
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00D. Mary was last seen by Peter at a bar downtown.02br
02br
00I would say that sentences A and B have different meanings. A just refers to the last time Peter saw Mary -- maybe someone else saw her later. B refers to the last time anyone (that we know about) saw Mary (before she disappeared). C combines the two meanings -- Peter was the last person who saw her, and it happened at a bar downtown. D is ambiguous -- it could mean the same as A, or the same as C. (I'm trying to decide whether putting commas around "by Peter" in D affects the meaning -- I think it is still ambiguous, with our without the commas.)0-

New2grammar · Answer

0Khoff, are you saying that there's no simple active voice that carries the same meaning as C?0-

Khoff · Answer

0I would probably turn it into two sentences: "Peter was the last one to see Mary. It was at a bar downtown." If you say "Peter was the last to see Mary at a bar downtown," it leaves open the possibility that someone else might have seen her later, in a different place. Maybe "Peter was the last to see Mary01b00,02b00 at a bar downtown" would work. Please notice, though, that although these use the active voice, the main verb has changed from "saw" to "was." I don't think you can get the same meaning with anything beginning with "Peter saw". I think this is because the question being answered is not about 01i00what Peter saw02i00, but about 01i00who was the last one 02i00to see Mary, and where the sighting took place.0-

last seen/saw

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