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Moon7296 Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary
Was shot/ got shot
1. Mary was shot on purpose.
2. Mary got shot on purpose.
In the former, on purpose goes with the implicit logical subject, the shooter, but in the latter, on purpose modifies the surface subject Mary. The first sentence means shooter intentionally shot Mary, while the second one means Mary intentionally did something to cause the shooter to shoot her.
The above is the explanation someone wrote.
Do native speakers sense that explanation in a glance when you see #1 and #2?
2. Mary got shot on purpose.
In the former, on purpose goes with the implicit logical subject, the shooter, but in the latter, on purpose modifies the surface subject Mary. The first sentence means shooter intentionally shot Mary, while the second one means Mary intentionally did something to cause the shooter to shoot her.
The above is the explanation someone wrote.
Do native speakers sense that explanation in a glance when you see #1 and #2?
Top answer
Yes, that's exactly how I would understand the two sentences.
- Yes, that's exactly how I would understand the two sentences.
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