native intuition

[unregistered]

We've got some disagreements here among higly fluent EFL speakers here regarding the following sentence. Could anybody help? Clear grammatical explanations would be great!

Which one of the following sentences reads best? Would you say any of them is not grammatical (descriptively or prescriptively) or awkward?

After having sold fake drugs and making a lot of money, the pharmaceutical company recently lost its license.

After having sold fake drugs and made a lot of money, the pharmaceutical company recently lost its license.

After selling fake drugs and making a lot of money, the pharmaceutical company recently lost its license.

Thanks

[2006]

The third one is by far the best. The other two are at least awkward, or grammatically wrong, depending on how strict you want to be. In any case, they are both unacceptable to me.

The first one can be corrected in two ways:
a) After having sold fake drugs and having made a lot of money,............'.
b) Convert it to the third one. This is the best choice because it uses simple and consistent grammar.

The second one is very very awkward/grammatically wrong, . Correct it as below:
c) 'After it sold fake drugs and made a lot of money,..........'.
d) Convert it to a).

[RonBee]

We've got some disagreements here among higly fluent EFL speakers here regarding the following sentence. Could anybody help? Clear grammatical explanations would be great!

Which one of the following sentences reads best? Would you say any of them is not grammatical (descriptively or prescriptively) or awkward?

After having sold fake drugs and making a lot of money, the pharmaceutical company recently lost its license.

After having sold fake drugs and made a lot of money, the pharmaceutical company recently lost its license.

After selling fake drugs and making a lot of money, the pharmaceutical company recently lost its license.

Thanks

Since I don't like any of those sentences, I am going to devise my own.


What you are looking for is contrast. Also, you need to make a closer connection between selling fake drugs and making money. Perhaps:

After making a lot of money selling fake drugs, the pharmaceutical company lost its license.

Or:

The pharmaceutical company made a lot of money selling fake drugs, but it lost its license.

Or:

The pharmaceutical company made a lot of money selling fake drugs until quite recently, when it lost its license.

(I agree with 2006 on the best choice of the sentences given.)

[K_ENG]

Interesting. I'm not a native speaker but I've asked one of my American friends and she thought the best sentence should be
After selling and making a lot of money,...

But she further identified the second sentence After having sold fake drugs and made a lot of money,... as grammatical while considering the first option being awkward.

Couldn't we consider After having [sold fake drugs] and [made a lot of money],..the same as After having sold fake drugs and having made a lot of money as similar constituents can be coordinated?

[Westley Mark]

Having made a lot of money from the sale of fake drugs, the pharmaceutical company lost its licence.

[RonBee]

Interesting. I'm not a native speaker but I've asked one of my American friends and she thought the best sentence should be
After selling and making a lot of money,...

But she further identified the second sentence After having sold fake drugs and made a lot of money,... as grammatical while considering the first option being awkward.

Couldn't we consider After having [sold fake drugs] and [made a lot of money],..the same as After having sold fake drugs and having made a lot of money as similar constituents can be coordinated?

Are you the original poster?

[2006]

Having made a lot of money from the sale of fake drugs, the pharmaceutical company lost its licence.

I don't know if we can be sure that the money was made only from selling fake drugs, although that is possible. We have to be very careful not to change the meaning when rewording a sentence.

[K_ENG]

Yes, RonBee, I'm the original poster and I'm a newbie to this forum . I didn't realize that I wasn't logged in till after I saw my own post. Thanks for your replies, Ronbee, 2006, & W.M.