Hi my friends,
Although I partly understood the idea of sentence in bellow, it seems me grammatically incorrect and confusing, especially in bold part.
An employee may be the only contact a particular costumer has with the firm.
Could some one make me clear and explain which grammar rules used on it?
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Wq.denis,
(1) You have asked a very interesting question.
(2) When I first read it a few times, I did not understand why it would
confuse you.
(3) After thinking about it, I think that I can now understand why it
might confuse you.
(a) A word is missing. In speech (and even in writing) that word is
often deleted (dropped), but it is vital for parsing (analysis). That
word is:
that (the relative pronoun).
An employee may be the only contact
that a particular customer
has with the firm.
(i)
that = the only contact.
(b) Let's delete the words "with the firm."
(c) An employee may be the only contact that a customer has.
(
That is the direct object of
has. In other words: An employee may be the only contact a customer has that. But that sentence is not "good" English. So we have to move
that to a position after
contact.)
(i) If the relative pronoun did not exist, we would have to write that
sentence in two sentences:
An employee may be the only contact.
A customer has the only contact.
Obviously, that is not very smooth or clear. Fortunately, English
speakers invented relative pronouns.
That means "the only contact."
So we do not have to say "the only contact" two times.
(d) Now, let's discuss the words "with the firm." I can well understand
your confusion.
(i) In my opinion, that is a prepositional phrase that modifies (belongs to)
the noun "contact." That is, it explains
what kind of contact.
(e) If we write your sentence this way, maybe it will be clearer:
An employee may be the only contact
with the firm that a customer
has.
Question: Who may be the only contact with the firm that a customer
has?
Answer: An employee
