Assuming that Jack and I are not both in the room and only one of us is, which of the sentences 1,2 and 3 correspond(s) to:
a- Jack is in the room.
b-I am in the room.
c-Both cases are possible.
1-In the room, I shot Jack.
2-I shot Jack, in the room.
3-I shot Jack in the room.
Obviously, the three sentences could mean that we were both in the room. That's why I excluded that possibility.
IMHO:
1 – b
2 – a
3 – c
These are only what I think are the most appropriate matches. If you wish to be absolutely clear about where Jack and I were at the time of the shooting, you must rephrase:
(i) I was in the room when I shot Jack.
(ii) Jack was in the room when I shot him.
(:-))
I'm not a murderer but I believe being in the room helps when you're shooting someone.
Originally Posted by tdol
I'm not a murderer but I believe being in the room helps when you're shooting someone.
Not unless you've hired someone to shoot for you.
8)
8)
:D
I don't think this exervcise makes sense. It is very possible for someone to shoot someone from a window across the street, or from an adjoining room. There is not enough information in any of the sentences. In addition, #2 is not grammatical, in my opinion.
Pope of the Dictionary.com Forum
Thanks everybody, specially Gwen.
The good thing about the verb "to shoot" is that the two people can be in different places. I guess if I had said "I shot him in his car." one wouldn't think that it would have helped to be in the car. And if I say "I shot him on his bike." one would assume that I wasn't on the bike, although the assumption isn't necessarily correct.
In any case I should apologize to TDOL for my violent examples, but psychologists have proven that if your grammatical examples are violent, you are definitely a mild person.
I think I could have used the verb "to see", but these "perception verbs" can get tricky. One always assumes that the adverb of place refers to the object. ("I saw him in my car.")
The nomal way to do it, when the adverb is refering to the subject is to use "from" I suppose ("I shot him from the room."), but as Gwen's reply seems to show "in" could be used too.
And, Happy Christmas everybody.
I would like to thank you people for all you have done for me in the last year. I think you might find this corny, but anyway, I really really do appreciate, more than you could imagine.
Happy Christmas to you too. I like weird examples because they allow plenty of opportunity for analysis. I'm glad we've helped you this year and hope we can do the same next.
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