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Tanit Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Put / pinned - collocations

Hi all,

This was the task: "Think of one word only which can be used appropriately in all three sentences," and these were three sentences from that exercise:
  1. The policemen _______ the angry protester against the wall to stop him escaping.
  2. Grandmother recalled that, for her wedding, the hairdresser _______ her hair up to create an elaborate display of curls and braids.
  3. He eventually _______ the blame on his sister, though she was quite obviously innocent.
The given answer was "pinned". However, most of my classmates (well, all those who attempted an answer, myself included) wrote "put". I think "put" fits well in #1 and #3 (would you agree?), so I was thinking you native speakers wouldn't say "to put the hair up", or would you? Would this be innatural?

Thank you!
Emotion: smile
  

Top answer

Hi Tanit I would say that "put" could feasibly be used in sentences 2 and 3, but does not work well in sentence 1 because "put" does not have the same sense. Using "put" could be interpretted to mean that the policeman placed someone in a certain spot against a wall and then left him there. However, using "pinned" means that after the policeman placed the protester against the wall, he stayed there and forcibly kept the protester against the wall.

— Yankee

  • Hi Tanit I would say that "put" could feasibly be used in sentences 2 and 3, but does not work well in sentence 1 because "put" does not have the same sense.
  • Using "put" could be interpretted to mean that the policeman placed someone in a certain spot against a wall and then left him there.
  • However, using "pinned" means that after the policeman placed the protester against the wall, he stayed there and forcibly kept the protester against the wall.
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5 Answers
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Hi Tanit

I would say that "put" could feasibly be used in sentences 2 and 3, but does not work well in sentence 1 because "put" does not have the same sense. Using "put" could be interpretted to mean that the policeman placed someone in a certain spot against a wall and then left him there. However, using "pinned" means that after the policeman placed the protester against the wall, he s
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put only works equally well as pinned in Sentence 2, in my opinion.
Yankee has already explained the difference in Sentence 1. I agree with that view of it.

Personally, I never use the expression "put the blame on".

CJ
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YankeeUsing "put" could be interpretted to mean that the policeman placed someone in a certain spot against a wall and then left him there.
I've just learnt something new.
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AnonymousShove

Uh???
Sorry, I don't get it. Are you suggesting a third alternative?
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