Good morning,
Could you please explain to me why we have, here, a verb followed by two preposition, is it correct?
It were tampered with by mankind.
Thank you.
NOT A TEACHER
(1) As usual, you have asked an excellent question. And, as usual, the teachers have given you and me excellent answers.
(2) We non-teachers are currently allowed to give our
opinions, so I should like to do so. Remember: if my opinions are different from the teachers', you should accept the teachers' as the correct ones.
***
(3) Someone damaged my car. > My car was damaged (by someone).
(4) Someone
tampered with my car, > My car was
tempered with (by someone).
NOTES:
(a) I believe that some people feel that the word "with" in "tamper with" is NOT a preposition. They use a word like "particle." They feel that "tamper with" is a unit.
For example, if you simply said "My car was tampered with," that would be, I believe, a grammatically correct sentence. (Of course, you could not say "My car was tampered." So "tamper with" does seem to be a unit, doesn't it.)
(5) Therefore, it is
only my opinion that "It was
tampered with by mankind" could
be analyzed as:
(a) It = subject.
(b)
was tampered with = passive verb phrase. (= It
was damaged )
(c) by = preposition.
(d) mankind = object of the preposition.
Thus your sentence has only one preposition: "by."