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Thread: engineers at our office

  1. #1
    navi tasan is offline Key Member
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    Default engineers at our office

    1-I talked to the engineers at our office.

    Can't this sentence have two meanings:

    a-At our office, I talked to the engineers It has previously been specifiec what engineers we are talking about.
    b-I talked to the engineers who work at our office. Maybe I talked to them outside the office.

    Gratefully and wishing you Happy Holidays.
    Navi.

  2. #2
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    Barb_D is offline Moderator
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    Default Re: engineers at our office

    90% of the time it will mean the engineers who work at our office.
    5jj, navi tasan, bhaisahab and 1 others like this.
    I'm not a teacher, but I write for a living. Please don't ask me about 2nd conditionals, but I'm a safe bet for what reads well in (American) English.

  3. #3
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    5jj
    5jj is online now Moderator
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    Default Re: engineers at our office

    Quote Originally Posted by Barb_D View Post
    90% of the time it will mean the engineers who work at our office.
    91.374%.
    anhnha and navi tasan like this.
    Context is important. Please provide enough for us to be able to deal effectively with your question.
    Your thread title should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.
    If you just want to know the meaning of a word, try OneLook Dictionary Search first.


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    SoothingDave is offline VIP Member
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    Default Re: engineers at our office

    There is a potential for ambiguity, but it is whether the speaker was at the office or not. It could mean you went to the office and talked to the engineers there. Or it could mean you talked (on the phone) to the engineers who were at the office.
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  5. #5
    philo2009 is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: engineers at our office

    Yes. Expressed grammatically, it depends whether the prepositional phrase 'at our office' is interpreted as a deferred sentence adverbial (reading (a)) or as a simple adnominal postmodifer to the noun 'engineers' (reading (b)).
    anhnha and navi tasan like this.

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