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English 1b3 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Participial clause

Those who were present were behind desks, not roaming the store, and not helping customers.


The following sounds acceptable and more conversational:

Those who were present were behind desks, not roaming the store helping customers.

'not roaming the store'= modifying 'those'?

helping customers= is it modifying 'not roaming' (functioning adverbially)?

Thanks
  

Top answer

Hi, Those who were present were behind desks, not roaming the store, and not helping customers. This allows 'roaming' and 'helping' to be viewed as two separate activities, which I do not think is the intended meaning. The following sounds acceptable and more conversational: Yes.

— Clive

  • Hi, Those who were present were behind desks, not roaming the store, and not helping customers.
  • This allows 'roaming' and 'helping' to be viewed as two separate activities, which I do not think is the intended meaning.
  • The following sounds acceptable and more conversational: Yes.
  • Those who were present were behind desks, not roaming the store helping customers .
  • 'not roaming the store'= modifying 'those'?
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4 Answers
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Hi,



Those who were present were behind desks, not roaming the store, and not helping customers.

This allows 'roaming' and 'helping' to be viewed as two separate activities, which I do not think is the intended meaning.

The following sounds acceptable and more conversational: Yes.



Those who were present were beh
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I would suggest that a store employee may be moving around the store while NOT helping customers. He or she could be looking for things that were put back on the wrong shelf, things that needed tidying up, or even monitoring certain customers to make sure they were not stealing anything.

Meanwhile, "helping customers" includes taking care of a return at the register, ringing up a new pur
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Thanks to both of you.

I was the author of the sentence; I saw not roaming and not helping as one action. I was trying to emphasize that the staff were not helpful to customers as they were behind a desk.

Would you say my first version is best if I'm referring to two separate actions and my second version if I'm referring to one action (not roaming, helping)?
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