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by arora007 » Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:26 am
Yes, i think this sentence should be correct!
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by RACHVIK » Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:24 am
Fred lost his wallet while driving to a holiday dinner.

The key to your answer is to find out what is the function of word 'while' & 'driving' in the above sentence. The sentence is incorrect.
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by arora007 » Mon Jan 03, 2011 6:34 am
RACHVIK wrote:Fred lost his wallet while driving to a holiday dinner.

The key to your answer is to find out what is the function of word 'while' & 'driving' in the above sentence. The sentence is incorrect.
if you could please elaborate!
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by RACHVIK » Mon Jan 03, 2011 9:56 am
Fred lost his wallet while driving to a holiday dinner.

The above sentence has two clauses:

Fred lost his wallet - An independent clause

Fred - Subject
lost - verb

while driving to a holiday dinner - Dependent adverbial clause modifying verb 'lost'

the above does not have a verb. verb-ing here acts as a subject.

This is a fragment missing a SV pair.

I hope that clarifies.

Thanks
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by arora007 » Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:28 pm
I see the above sentence like...

Fred,while driving to a holiday dinner, lost his wallet.

I am not sure when you say... "verb-ing here acts as a subject. "

what your are calling is a phrase...
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by Whitney Garner » Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:00 pm
RACHVIK wrote:Fred lost his wallet while driving to a holiday dinner.

The above sentence has two clauses:

Fred lost his wallet - An independent clause

Fred - Subject
lost - verb

while driving to a holiday dinner - Dependent adverbial clause modifying verb 'lost'

the above does not have a verb. verb-ing here acts as a subject.

This is a fragment missing a SV pair.

I hope that clarifies.

Thanks
An adverbial modifying phrase does not require a verb. Notice that this sentence would also be correct if we rearranged it to put the adverbial modifier at the start:

While driving to a holiday dinner, Fred lost his wallet.

I would argue, however, that this version would be preferred because it clearly indicates the person doing the action (it was Fred driving to the holiday dinner so the modification is obvious).

:)
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by Whitney Garner » Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:05 pm
As an additional thought - "while" is being used as a conjunction in the sentence:

Fred lost his wallet while driving to a holiday dinner

so it would be improved to have the subject pronoun added. The most parallel:

Fred lost his wallet while he drove to a holiday dinner

:)
Whit
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by RACHVIK » Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:34 pm
Hi Whit,

Pls advise with examples if adverbial phrases can modify verbs in a sentence.

I understand that verbs can only be modified by prepositional phrases or clauses??

Thanks
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by Whitney Garner » Mon Jan 03, 2011 9:43 pm
RACHVIK wrote:Hi Whit,

Pls advise with examples if adverbial phrases can modify verbs in a sentence.

I understand that verbs can only be modified by prepositional phrases or clauses??

Thanks
Hi RACHVIK!

Here are a few:

(1) They live in Florida during the winter

(2) He calls his brother as often as possible

(3) She raced across town to see the fireworks

Adverbial phrases can be infinitive phrases (#3), prepositional phrases (#1) or other general phrases (#2). Any adverbial phrase can modify a verb or the entire action of a sentence.

:)
Whit
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by RACHVIK » Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:29 am
Thanks Whit. regret late reply as I missed out the email from BTG.

Thank you for your reply.

I think I did not express myself clearly. Every phrase that modifies verb has to be an adverbial phrase. However it cannot start with a conjunction, only a preposition can introduce an adverbial phrase.

Thanks once again.
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