What's wrong with these sentences?

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What's wrong with these sentences?1. Adjective clauses"My friend who lives over there is sick" can be reduced to"My friend living over there is sick"But why can't I reduce this "I have a friend who snowboards".not "I have a friend snowboards".Please explain why.2. Is this sentence correct?"I know why he will go"3. "He is doing his homework after he eats"I want this to be present tense. Why can't we have a present-continuous here? Thanks4. Are "to guess" and "to assume" stative or dynamic verbs?Thanks!

Avangi · Accepted Answer

BlackBlitzWhat's wrong with these sentences?
1. Adjective clauses
"My friend who lives over there is sick" can be reduced to
"My friend living over there is sick"
But why can't I reduce this "I have a friend who snowboards".
not "I have a friend snowboards".
Please explain why. "I have a snowboarding friend" would be a parallel example which is idiomatic.

2. Is this sentence correct?
"I know why he will go" Yes. It wants a period.
3. "He is doing his homework after he eats" There was a thread on this two days ago. (Actually closer to "He does his homework after he eats," but not habitual behavior. Anyway, I think it's okay. It's certainly used. It could have two senses: an argument between his mother and father: "I told him he could go to the movies." (reply) "No, he's doing his homework after he eats." The other sense is simply as you have written: "I'm doing my homework after I eat." (I'm going to do my homework after I eat.) Did someone tell you it was incorrect?
I want this to be present tense. Why can't we have a present-continuous here? Thanks
4. Are "to guess" and "to assume" stative or dynamic verbs? I guess they're stative, but I'll check. (There's surely a mental action involved, as compared to, let's say, "think," or "believe.")

I don't find them specifically, but since "think" can be dynamic when it means "to consider," I'm inclined to say that "guess" and "assume" may be considered dynamic as well. (The idea is that such verbs may be either, depending on context.)

I want you to guess which hand holds the silver dollar.
Assume that she has enough money to pay for it.

BlackBlitz · Answer

Thanks Avangi!

I really appreciate you helping my grammar!

Anyhow, I'm sitll very intrigued by the "I have a snowboarding friend."
Why must the "snowboarding" go infront of the noun? vs.
"I have a friend who lives upstairs" --> "I have a friend living upstairs."

"I thnk that he went to the concert" --> "think" is also commonly used as "possibly considering", so it is still correct to say "I am thinking that he went to the concert." ?

And regarding stative verbs, here is an example from wikipedia (yes, i know its untrustworthy).
Dowty gives some tests to decide whether an English verb is stative.
They cannot be complements of "force":

I forced John to run.
*I forced John to know the answer.

First of all, I can see the logic of not being able to force "someone" into a state. But I don't see why it's ungrammatical. ie, You make me feel sad = You cause me to feel sad.
She forces me to understand math.
They all seem like normal and logical sentences to me.

Avangi · Answer

Avangi
BlackBlitzWhat's wrong with these sentences?
1. Adjective clauses
"My friend who lives over there is sick" can be reduced to
"My friend living over there is sick"
But why can't I reduce this "I have a friend who snowboards".
not "I have a friend snowboards".
Please explain why. "I have a snowboarding friend" would be a parallel example which is idiomatic.You're right. I was simply using the participle "snowboarding" as an ajective.

"Parallel" was an extremely poor choice of words on my part.

The clause "who lives over there" refers to the subject of the sentence, "my friend."

The clause "who snowboards" refers to the object of the verb, "a friend."

Actually, without commas, both clauses are essential. No difference there.

The really significant difference is that in the first one you convert the finite verb, "lives," to the verbal, "living." In the second one, you leave the finite verb "snowboards" as is. All you do is omit the "who."

I don't think there's anything wrong with "I have a friend snowboarding [on the mountain at this moment]."

There is a small difference in the verbs. You can always convert "My friend lives upstairs" to "My friend is living upstairs [at this very moment]. (no change in possible meanings)

But when you do this to "snowboards," you may change your intended meaning.

"My friend snowboards at Mammoth Mountain [every weekend]."

"My friend is snowboarding at Mammoth Mountain [at this very moment]."

So anyway, when you say, "I have a friend snowboarding," you limit yourself to the second meaning.

I have no idea if the standard explanation of this reduction is based on the conversion from simple present to present continuous - or not.

What's wrong with these sentences?

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