subject problems

[Nhryblith]

Most probably I'm completely daft or just plain overworked but can anyone tell me if what form of to have I should use in the sentence below. (If the sentence is correct at all..)

Chinese artist Wang Du makes us aware of the conditions our present day society has/have taken us.

(Did our present day take us somewhere or did the conditions?)

desperate

thanks in advance

[mykwyner]

Dear Desperate:

You're absolutely right, the sentence is unclear. Are the conditions or society taking us? Where are they/it taking us? Simplify!

...aware of the conditions of our society.

Mike

[Steven D]

Most probably I'm completely daft or just plain overworked but can anyone tell me if what form of to have I should use in the sentence below. (If the sentence is correct at all..)

Chinese artist Wang Du makes us aware of the conditions our present day society has/have taken us.

(Did our present day take us somewhere or did the conditions?)

desperate

thanks in advance

I really don't think the sentence sounds logical. To me, it doesn't make sense. Where does this sentence come from? I would change "taken" to "given". I don't know what the intended meaning is here, but that's what I would do.

Chinese artist Wang Du makes us aware of the conditions our present day society has given us.

"present day society" - does the action- It's singular, and it should take a singular auxiliary.

Present day society has given us conditions.

I think it's possible to use "brought" as well. Using the verb "take" doesn't seem to work here. Have the conditions taken us? If so, what is meant by that? In any event, I can't see how it's possible for "conditions" to be the subject of the verb here. Has present day society taken us? If so, what's meant by that? It doesn't seem to make sense to me. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's my rewrite. If the conditions are doing the action, we should be able to leave out "present day society". However, this isn't possible.

Chinese artist Wang Du makes us aware of the conditions have given us.

Chinese artist Wang Du makes us aware of the conditions our present day society has given us.

[Nhryblith]

A bit late but thanks for the reply!

[Nhryblith]

I think what they are trying to say is that there are certain conditions induced by our present day society that influence our lives. The chinese artist makes us aware of those...

Thanks for your reply anyway. It's sentences like these I every now and then bust my brain over. It came from a cultural sociologic research report. And the writer tends to write pages loaded with fantasy English I have to edit....

But anyway many thanks