saw him, having crossed the street Vs. saw him having crossed the street

Status
Not open for further replies.

High on grammar

Junior Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Persian
Home Country
Iran
Current Location
United States
[FONT=&quot]Dear English teacher:
I would like to know the difference between sentence A and sentence B below:[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot] A.) “I saw him, having crossed the street”. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]B.) “I saw him having crossed the street”.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]My understanding is that A) refers to “I”, the subject of the sentence and B) to “him”, the object of the sentence.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Am I right?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thanks[/FONT]
 

philo2009

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2009
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
Dear English teacher:
I would like to know the difference between sentence A and sentence B below:


A.) “I saw him, having crossed the street”.
B.) “I saw him having crossed the street”.
My understanding is that A) refers to “I”, the subject of the sentence and B) to “him”, the object of the sentence.
Am I right?
Thanks

'Yes' regarding (A), but 'no' regarding (B), which is nonsense. (---> either saw him cross or saw him crossing...)
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
Last edited:

High on grammar

Junior Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2012
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Persian
Home Country
Iran
Current Location
United States
Even this is rather unnatural. We'd be more likely to say, "Having crossed the street, I saw him

[FONT=&quot]Here are a few examples I found on the Internet:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I saw the dog having been brought by Bregans. Perfect Passive Singular[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot](the dog had been brought by Bregans before I saw it)

[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
Mr. Elwood told the court the guinea pig had been discovered having been killed by a fall[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]They saw the victim having been[/FONT][FONT=&quot] brought down[/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]by the appellants.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]If a person is [/FONT][FONT=&quot]found having been murdered [/FONT][FONT=&quot]by[/FONT][FONT=&quot] police officer and there is nobody to tell who murdered him, then would the police officer not get the FIR recorded simply because there was no one to say that, that man has been murdered?[/FONT]
Minorities and police in India - Page 197
 

Grumpy

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Here are a few examples I found on the Internet:

I saw the dog having been brought by Bregans. Perfect Passive Singular

(the dog had been brought by Bregans before I saw it)




Mr. Elwood told the court the guinea pig had been discovered having been killed by a fall

They saw the victim having been brought downby the appellants.

If a person is found having been murdered by police officer and there is nobody to tell who murdered him, then would the police officer not get the FIR recorded simply because there was no one to say that, that man has been murdered?
Minorities and police in India - Page 197

None of these examples are good English.
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Even this is rather unnatural. We'd be more likely to say, "Having crossed the street, I saw him

Although that has the same ambiguity as the original, in that I have no idea which person crossed the street.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top