A student wrote "Shocked, they saw a ghost."

[lklwkc]

May I know if the sentence below is grammatically correct? Many thanks for advising.

Shocked, they saw a ghost.

[2006]

May I know if the sentence below is grammatically correct? No, it's not correct. And I can only guess at what you are trying to say.
Do you mean 'They were shocked to see a ghost.'?

Many thanks for advising.


Shocked, they saw a ghost.

[
2006

[lklwkc]

Yes, I mean they were shocked to see a ghost. However, the student wrote, " Shocked, they saw a ghost" and I wonder if they way he wrote is grammatically correct. I was confused. Thank you very much for advising! Best wishes for a great year ahead. Happy 2011!

[Richard1]

Hi,

The comma is all important.

"Shocked, they saw a ghost", means that they were already in shock and then happened to see a ghost.

"Shocked they saw a ghost", means that they became shocked as a result of seeing the ghost.

Regards

[BobK]

Hi,

The comma is all important.

"Shocked, they saw a ghost", means that they were already in shock and then happened to see a ghost.

"Shocked they saw a ghost", means that they became shocked as a result of seeing the ghost.

Regards

...and of course, after the comma [I have used dashes in my example], you can change the aspect; but the same remains true - the sight of the ghost caused the shock:

'Shocked - they had, after all, seen a ghost - they were made to sit down and drink a cup of mild sweet tea.'

b