Turn brown

Question

Hello,Is my sentence correct?Molecules of oxygen react with molecules of iron in slices of apple and they will turn brown after being left for a while.Thank you in advance.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

quaerereverumapple, and they

Correct, but add the comma as shown.

CJ

Quaerereverum · Answer

Thank you so much CJ.

BillJ · Answer

quaerereverumis my sentence correct? Molecules of oxygen react with molecules of iron in slices of apple and they will turn brown after being left for a while.

My main quibble is with the pro-form "they". In a brief flicker of syntactic disquiet, I took it to mean that its antecedent was "molecules of oxygen", because pro-forms tend to refer to distant antecedents, rather than nearby ones.

A quick double-take made it clear that it's the "slices of apple" that turn brown, but you might just consider making the second clause relative, rather than coordinate; relative pronouns latch on to the nearest noun phrase in the vicinity, in this case, correctly, "slices of apple":

"Molecules of oxygen react with molecules of iron in slices of apple, which turn brown after being left for a while".

BillJ

Turn brown

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