When offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one more challenging.

[registered]

Is the sentense correct?----
When offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one more challenging.
I know it is correct when I say it this way--
WHen he is offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one more challenging.
But if I throw off "he is", is the sentence the same?

[Horsa]

Hi
Actually, The original sentence is not quite right. The tenses should agree. The most likely choice of tense in context would be -

When he was offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one more challenging.

Also the word order in the original is not at all usual. Better would be -

When he was offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the more challenging one. ("challenging" should be in front of the noun it qualifies)

An alternative would be -

When he was offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one that was more challenging. (Here "challenging" is contained in a defining relative clause)

Now to your question

The effect of dropping 'he + verb to be' is a matter of style and doesn't change the base meaning of the sentence.

[2006]

Originally Posted by registered

Is the sentense correct?----yes
When (he was) offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one more challenging. This sentence is talking about one situation in the past.


I know it is correct when I say it this way--
WHen he is offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one more challenging. This sentence is not correct.
When(ever) he is offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man chooses the (one more challenging)(more challenging one). This sentence refers to a recurring and ongoing situation.


But if I throw off "he is", is the sentence the same? No, it has the meaning of the first sentence.

2006

[2006]

Originally Posted by Horsa

Hi
Actually, The original sentence is not quite right. The tenses should agree. They do agree. "When offered.....the man decided....." The most likely choice of tense in context would be -

When he was offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one more challenging.

Also the word order in the original is not at all usual. Better would be -

When he was offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the more challenging one. I agree that sounds better. ("challenging" should be in front of the noun it qualifies)

An alternative would be -

When he was offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one that was more challenging. (Here "challenging" is contained in a defining relative clause)

Now to your question

The effect of dropping 'he + verb to be' is a matter of style and doesn't change the base meaning of the sentence.

2006

[David L.]

When offered a choice of two jobs, the man chose the more challenging (one).
-('decided to' is unnecessary.'one' is optional, and is better without it,)

As for:
When he is offered a choice of 2 jobs, the man decided to choose the one more challenging.

'is offered' is present tense, he is being offered the choice right now. You then change to past tense - he decided. How can he have decided (yesterday) when I am only now offering him the choice?

When he is offered a choice of two jobs, the man will choose the more challenging. (I am sure of this because I know his character - he likes a challenge; or, he always does things the hard way)
or
If he is offered a choice of two jobs, the man will choose the more challenging.
If he was offered a choice of two jobs, the man would choose the more challenging.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by David L.

When offered a choice of two jobs, the man chose the more challenging (one).
....

, and I agree that 'the one more challenging' is an unusual word order; not impossible though; Robert Frost wrote "I took the one less traveled by" in 'The Road Not Taken' and lots of popular uses based on this (conflating the two forms of words) have grown out of it in the form 'the road less traveled'.

Read more here: 1. The Road Not Taken. Frost, Robert. 1920. Mountain Interval

b

PS And as a coincidental proof of one of those 'popular uses', I just received mail from onestopenglish - within a couple of hours of my post - with this in it:

...
The Road Less Travelled
Download a sample podcast & lesson

I don't know whether this link will work outside the context of the mail, but here it is if you're interested: http://www.onestopenglish.com/sectio...7&docid=155348

I'm glad to see they use the Br English spelling!

[registered]

Oh, thank every one for correcting my mistakes. I made the tense-agree mistake by carelessness. Thank you for pointing it out.
Now, I've got it. "when he was offered a choice of two jobs, the man..." and "when offered a choice of two jobs, the man..." have the same meaning.
Thank U again!