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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Stand-alone past continuous in story?
Hi. Do you think the underlined sentence in past continuous is correct as it is? I think I would not be asking the question had there been a subordinate clause (is it anyway?) like "when Joe saw them." The sentences were written (made-up) to ask the above question.
Their trip had taken three days. They were coming back from the trip. At the outer edge of the city, they saw two familiar faces, their homeroom teacher at school and the janitor who works there. Immediately, Joe said, "Are they whom we think they are?" ...
Their trip had taken three days. They were coming back from the trip. At the outer edge of the city, they saw two familiar faces, their homeroom teacher at school and the janitor who works there. Immediately, Joe said, "Are they whom we think they are?" ...
Top answer
Well, it's not wrong, but it is not very stylish either. It reads a bit like a police report. ' By the way, you should turn that comma after 'faces' into a colon (or a dash if you want to avoid the emphasis).
- Well, it's not wrong, but it is not very stylish either.
- It reads a bit like a police report.
- ' By the way, you should turn that comma after 'faces' into a colon (or a dash if you want to avoid the emphasis).
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1 Answers
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Well, it's not wrong, but it is not very stylish either. It reads a bit like a police report. I'd change it to 'Their trip had taken three days, and now they were coming back [home].'
By the way, you should turn that comma after 'faces' into a colon (or a dash if you want to avoid the emphasis).
By the way, you should turn that comma after 'faces' into a colon (or a dash if you want to avoid the emphasis).
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