[Grammar] Needing an advice !

[SweetThief]

I have a sentence:
" I was frightened and made no attempt to catch the thief or to call for help"

Could anyone tell me what is the grammatical structure of this sentence ??
Thanks for answering me !

 

[Mr.Ka]

First of all, attempt is used as a noun and it collocates with the following:

• to make an attempt (made no attempt)
• an attempt to do sth (no attempt to catch.../to call..)

The meaning is to try to do sth, especially sth difficult/new.

And in your sentence, "I made no attempt to catch the thief or to call for help" basically means "I didn't try to catch the thief; I didn't try to call for help [probably because I was frightened]".

 

[birdeen's call]

I have a sentence:
" I was frightened and made no attempt to catch the thief or to call for help"

Could anyone tell me what is the grammatical structure of this sentence ??
Thanks for answering me !

Hello SweetThief,
can I add something to what Mr.Ka has already said? I think you can have a problem because of a so-called ellipsis that can be found in this sentence.

An ellipsis occurs when we omit some part of the sentence in order to make it shorter.

Your sentence means the same as the following:

I was frightened and I made no attempt to catch the thief or to call for help.

Please note the new word in this sentence, "I". We can say it this way, but sometimes we want our sentence shorter. Then we will omit the word "I". We don't need it so much because it has already been said at the beginning of the sentence.

I hope it will be helpful and that I am right.