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Thread: People ran for shelter

  1. #1
    Bassim is offline Senior Member
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    Default People ran for shelter

    I am wondering if I have correctly punctuated the following sentence. Is "which spread panic in the city" a non-restrictive clause?

    1.People ran for shelter from hundreds of bombs, which spread panic in the city.
    Last edited by Bassim; 06-Jan-2013 at 11:37.

  2. #2
    Tdol is offline Editor, UsingEnglish.com
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    Default Re: People ran for shelter

    I'd say so- it's not defining which bombs, but telling us something more about them.
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    JarekSteliga is offline Member
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    Default Re: People ran for shelter

    Quote Originally Posted by Bassim View Post

    1.People ran for shelter from hundreds of bombs, which spread panic in the city.
    NOT A TEACHER

    Off topic. Is this statement ambiguous? I mean, is panic in the city caused by people running for shelter or by hundreds of bombs?
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  4. #4
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    Default Re: People ran for shelter

    Quote Originally Posted by JarekSteliga View Post

    Off topic. Is this statement ambiguous?
    Yes, it is.
    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.


  5. #5
    Tdol is offline Editor, UsingEnglish.com
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    Default Re: People ran for shelter

    It is, but what would really make you panic- hundreds of bombs or people running for shelter?
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    JarekSteliga is offline Member
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    Default Re: People ran for shelter

    Quote Originally Posted by Tdol View Post
    It is, but what would really make you panic- hundreds of bombs or people running for shelter?
    Me personally? Neither the bombs nor people running for shelter. What does it for me is my own ... courage! My own courage never fails to freak me out . (I am borrowing this joke from one of the episodes of the TV series, Yes Prime Minister, in which the Prime Minister gets paralyzed by fear when he is told that Press extolls him as a courageous person.)
    Last edited by JarekSteliga; 07-Jan-2013 at 17:11. Reason: typo
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    Default Re: People ran for shelter

    I think if you didn't know what was going on and you just saw loads of people running, especially if they were clearly scared of something, it might well cause you to panic.

    Of course, I used my common sense but I did find the sentence ambiguous.
    Remember - correct capitalisation, punctuation and spacing make posts much easier to read.

  8. #8
    Tdol is offline Editor, UsingEnglish.com
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    Default Re: People ran for shelter

    It might well, but if hundreds of bombs had fallen, you might know the reason.

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