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Fire1 Posted 5 years ago
Grammar

What does "clear of" grammatically modify?

A. They https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ko/%EC%82%AC%EC%A0%84/%EC%98%81%EC%96%B4/warn https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ko/%EC%82%AC%EC%A0%84/%EC%98%81%EC%96%B4/their https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ko/%EC%82%AC%EC%A0%84/%EC%98%81%EC%96%B4/children to steer https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ko/%EC%82%AC%EC%A0%84/%EC%98%81%EC%96%B4/clear of https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ko/%EC%82%AC%EC%A0%84/%EC%98%81%EC%96%B4/drug.

I know "steer clear of" is a set expression, but grammatically, what does "clear of" modify?

I think "clear of" works as an adjective phrase modifying "their children", but I'm not sure "clear of" could be seen as modifying the verb "steer" since I just came across a sentence where "steer clearly of" is used instead of "steer clear of".


"Steer clear of" seems to be the combination of the verb "steer" and "clear of", because there's some examples similar to that as in "The moon had sailed clear of the clouds and was silvering the soft plains of snow beneath it. “They'll break the ice on the mere tomorrow,” she said, turning to me".

  

Top answer

I think you are over-analyzing this fixed expression. It's called a fixed expression because the words all work together. You could just say eg They warned their children to stay away from / avoid drugs .

— Clive

  • I think you are over-analyzing this fixed expression.
  • It's called a fixed expression because the words all work together.
  • You could just say eg They warned their children to stay away from / avoid drugs .
  • Keep clear of means the same as steer clear of .
  • It would probably be said by people who just don't know steer clear of .
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2 Answers
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I think you are over-analyzing this fixed expression. It's called a fixed expression because the words all work together.

You could just say eg They warned their children to stay away from / avoid drugs.



Keep clear of means the same as steer clear o

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fire1They warned their children to steer clear of drugs. I know "steer clear of" is a set expression, but grammatically, what does "clear of" modify?

"of drugs" is the complement of the adjective "clear". "clear of" is not a constituent of the sentence, so it doesn't modify anything, nor does it have any syntactic function in the sentence.

The expres

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