rooms and hallways of furniture or obstacles

Status
Not open for further replies.

diamondcutter

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
How to Take Care of a Sleepwalker
One thing you can do to help is to clear rooms and hallways of furniture or obstacles a sleepwalker might encounter during the night. If there are stairs or dangerous areas, a grown-up should close doors and windows or install safety gates.
https://www.rchsd.org/health-articles/sleepwalking/

I wonder if rooms and hallways of furniture or obstacles means rooms and hallways which contain furniture or obstacles.
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
No, it means to clear them of obstacles. Naturally, the rooms would have to have furniture and obstacles in them to need clearing.
The phrase "rooms and hallways of furniture or obstacles" can mean what you've suggested. But in this case it doesn't.
Compare: "We have to clear the land of land mines". This doesn't mean it is a land of land mines, but that the land needs to be cleared of land mines.
 

GoesStation

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
No. Look again at how you're parsing the sentence.
 

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
Exactly. Your title and bolded sentences should begin with 'clear', as 'clear rooms ... of obstacles... ' means 'remove obstacles ... from rooms ....'

NOTE: AE 'hallways' = BE 'corridors'.
 

jutfrank

VIP Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
I'll repeat what's been said above, for clarity. The pattern used is this:

to clear [a place] of something
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top