[Grammar] The rope is so the search party can find their way back out of the cave

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Ferdie11

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Hi,

Does the sentence below make sense?

The rope is so the search party can find their way back out of the cave.

Many thanks.
 

SoothingDave

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Not a teacher.

Makes sense to me.
 

Ferdie11

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Thanks. But, is it grammatically correct?
 

SoothingDave

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Yes. I don't see any grammar problems.
 

tedtmc

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Yes. I don't see any grammar problems.

I know what it is trying to say but is not grammatically correct.

The rope is so (that)the search party can find their way back out of the cave. wrong

correct:
The rope is erected so that the search party can find their way back out of the cave.
The rope is for the search party to find their way back out of the cave.
The rope provides a guide for the search party to find their way back out of the cave.

not a teacher
 

SoothingDave

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I know what it is trying to say but is not grammatically correct.

The rope is so (that)the search party can find their way back out of the cave. wrong

correct:
The rope is erected so that the search party can find their way back out of the cave.
The rope is for the search party to find their way back out of the cave.
The rope provides a guide for the search party to find their way back out of the cave.

not a teacher

You provide other alternatives, but there are no grammar violations or any failure to convey the required information in the original sentence.

A reader of English can understand what is being conveyed. That's a success.
 

tedtmc

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Something is (??) so somebody can....'

Correct me if I am wrong. I understand the above as a compound sentence which is made up of two clauses linked by a conjunction (so). The first clause is incomplete, don't you think?

I'd like to have more views about this.
 
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SoothingDave

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Correct me if I am wrong. I understand the above as a compound sentence which is made up of two clauses linked by a conjunction (so). The first clause is incomplete, don't you think?

I'd like to have more views about this.

There is an unstated "there" there. The rope is (there) so...

Or "The rope is (here) so..."

It's not a grammar problem. It's perfectly understandable.
 

Raymott

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I don't like this type of construction much either, and wouldn't use it.

"There" might be ellipted.
"The car is so I can get to work."
"The teacher is so the students can get guidance." [?]

One could argue whether it's grammatical, but it would make sense to most native speakers.
Of course, there's more to good English than being grammatical and getting your point across - but that's a start.
 

BobK

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:up: Agreed on all points. I don't believe concrete nouns have reasons*; they have reasons to be provided/to exist/to be used/to have been bought....

*The one counterexample I can think of is 'fist' - although the contraction of muscles (and so on) could be said to be a reason not so much for the fist as for its formation.

But, as SD says, communication occurs (though the very fact that someone asked the question is evidence that communication can be hampered by this much ellipsis).

b
 
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