leave

[mayclaire]

Hi,
Would you please tell me which one is correct in the following or the difference between these two sentences?
A) He left his clothing to soak in the water.
B) He left his clothing soaked in the water.
Thanks!

[thedeebo]

Not a teacher.

I would go with sentence A.

[mayclaire]

Thanks! However, I would like to know why (B) is incorrect. Since the sentence "He left the work undone"is correct, why is (B) incorrect? I hope you could help me!
Thanks!

[norwolf]

Thanks! However, I would like to know why (B) is incorrect. Since the sentence "He left the work undone"is correct, why is (B) incorrect? I hope you could help me!
Thanks!

衣服可以自己泡
工作可得被人做
The clothing does soak itself.
But the work is done by not itself but people.
not a teacher

[BobK]

Thanks! However, I would like to know why (B) is incorrect. Since the sentence "He left the work undone"is correct, why is (B) incorrect? I hope you could help me!
Thanks!

It's wrong because 'leave' - when it refers to a verb (and not to a state like 'undone') - is followed by a gerund or by a to-infinitive, not by a past participle. So you could say 'He left his clothing soaking in the water' (although it's not very elegant - you might prefer something like 'He left his clothes soaking in the water').

However, you could after a very heavy downpour have "soaked clothing". And soaked could be a state - so you could also say 'the downpour left them soaked'.

b