Koen's long talented as a track-and-field start was finally honored when...

z7655431 · Apr 18, 2016

Koen's long talented as a track-and-field star was finally honored when she won the "Female Athlete of the Twentieth Century" award in 1999. (From a textbook named READ THIS)
Is this sentence correct? What's the subject before the word "was"? As I know, only a noun (or a pronoun) can be a subject. But the words before "was" are "Koen's long talented as a track-and-field start". I don't see there is a word that can function as a noun. (As a track-and-field start is a prepositional phrase, not a noun.) Thanks!

A correction: STAR (NOT START)

bhaisahab · Apr 18, 2016

"Koen's long talented as a track-and-field start "
This is meaningless. Where did you find it?

Roman55 · Apr 18, 2016

Isn't there a word missing? Possibly 'career'.

'Koen's long talented career as a track-and-field star was finally...'

BTW, it's 'star' not 'start'.

bhaisahab · Apr 18, 2016

Even with "career" it's not a natural sentence. She may be talented but her career can't be described as talented.

Roman55 · Apr 18, 2016

'Track-and-field' and 'honored' mark it as not being BrE. The unnecessary hyphens mark it as not being educated AmE either. The spelling mistake in 'start' doesn't help matters. So, it's not surprising that the sentence isn't natural.

Fanny Blankers-Koen was a fantastic athlete, though.

z7655431 · Apr 18, 2016

bhaisahab said:
"Koen's long talented as a track-and-field start "
This is meaningless. Where did you find it?

It is from a textbook named READ THIS.

z7655431 · Apr 18, 2016

Roman55 said:
'Track-and-field' and 'honored' mark it as not being BrE. The unnecessary hyphens mark it as not being educated AmE either. The spelling mistake in 'start' doesn't help matters. So, it's not surprising that the sentence isn't natural.

Fanny Blankers-Koen was a fantastic athlete, though.

Do you natives care about the hyphen? Does the wrongly-used hyphen imply that a person's being educated or not?

GoesStation · Apr 18, 2016

Lots of native AmE-speakers are uncertain about when to use a hyphen. In the last few years, I've noticed many hyphens showing up where they don't belong; I think this indicates a better-safe-than-sorry mentality.

I personally care about placing hyphens, which somewhat diminishes my pleasure in reading.

bhaisahab · Apr 18, 2016

z7655431 said:
It is from a textbook named READ THIS.

I suggest that you throw that textbook away.

Tarheel · Apr 18, 2016

Perhaps:

Koen won the Female Athlete of the Twentieth Century award in 1999 (given by whom?). Thus she was belatedly recognized as the star athlete that she is/was.

Koen's long talented as a track-and-field start was finally honored when...

z7655431

Member

bhaisahab

Moderator

Roman55

Key Member

bhaisahab

Moderator

Roman55

Key Member

z7655431

Member

z7655431

Member

GoesStation

No Longer With Us (RIP)

bhaisahab

Moderator

Tarheel

VIP Member

Similar threads