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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

preposition + participle phrases

I think you always see sentences like these:

Asked whether he intended to return soon(when he was asked), he replied that he would be away for about three months.
or
Squeezed by ice (as or because the steamer was squeezed by ice), the steamer could not continue her way. - here I mean it's a reason preposition not a time preposition

Maybe they are clear enough for you because of English being your native language but for me usually sentences like those are not clear enough so my question is that how do you like the following ?

When asked whether he intended to return soon, he replied that he would be away for about three months. - a time
As squeezed by ice, the steamer could not continue her way. - a reason
or
As asked(as he was asked) he was forced to interrupt his work. - a reason
When squeezed by ice(when the steamer was squeezed by ice), the steamer was out of a fuel. - a time
  

Top answer

Neither a teacher nor a native. I am thinking something like this: When they say that, native speakers would not think about whether a reason or a time it is, and they may just speak that way.

— Norwolf

  • Neither a teacher nor a native.
  • I am thinking something like this: When they say that, native speakers would not think about whether a reason or a time it is, and they may just speak that way.
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25 Answers
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Neither a teacher nor a native. I am thinking something like this: When they say that, native speakers would not think about whether a reason or a time it is, and they may just speak that way.
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I think the sense of those introductory clauses is always "[(pronoun) being] (participial phrase), X (verb phrase)", where there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the introductory clause and the main clause. The reader easily makes the connection, and the addition of the bare preposition instead is unidiomatic or changes the meaning. "It being squeezed by ice, the steamer could not contin
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Thanks for your answering but I'm afraid that your 'American' English is not only one spoken version of it and a sentence '"Asked whether he intended to return soon, he replied....' is correct grammatically for people living in Great Britain.
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Asked whether he intended to return soon, he replied that he would be away for about three months.

I see nothing objectionable with this sentence. The version with "when" is probably more common though.
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I have never seen it fail, not even once—every time a "Brit" tries America-bashing in a language forum, he screws up. I did not say it was grammatically "incorrect", I said it was infelicitous because of crippled sense. It is bad on any shore of any ocean. Take the advice of a life-long (and I do mean "long") speaker of admittedly American English who has probably read an equal number of American
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Sorry ,enoon, but I disagree. There's nothing wrong in omitting "when" there as is evident from this source
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Asked_about_US_opposition_to_war_0319.html
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I'm not a 'Brit' so I don't see any reason for starting holywars about what's more English but I wanted you to understand that it's really bad way to give advises relying on how you speak English and how people when you live speak it as well. So as I can see and I hope you do it as well we have only one way to give our advises and answers and this way is to say what's correct grammaticaly and what
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IvanhrSorry ,enoon, but I disagree. There's nothing wrong in omitting "when" there as is evident from this sourcehttp://rawstory.com/news/2008/Asked_about_US_opposition_to_war_0319.html
"Asked ... says" is not the same as "asked ... replied."
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Andrew UrchenkoI'm not a 'Brit' so I don't see any reason for starting holywars about what's more English but I wanted you to understand that it's really bad way to give advises relying on how you speak English and how people when you live speak it as well. So as I can see and I hope you do it as well we have only one way to give our advises and answers and this way is to
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I got your point. What I could say about your opinion that grammar is not everything is I don't agree with it. I'm very likely to try to answer questions about Russian language your way( or by your way or using your way? i;m sorry I don;t know how to say it right) because Russian is my native language but speaking English grammar is very important for me because only due to it I know how to say on
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