[Grammar] Broken leg or Leg broken

[Anne59]

Hi everyone,

I said to my friend, "I went to work with my broken leg." and she laughed and said, "No!" Say, "I went to work with my leg broken." My question is, why?

I can't see any difference in the meaning of the two sentence. Can anyone explain it?

Thanks!

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello, Anne.:-D
They are both grammatical, in my opinion.
However, '[...] with a broken leg' might sound better and natural.

 

[Anne59]

Hi tzfujimino,

My friend say "I went to work with my broken leg." sounds like the broken leg is a person (come leg let's go on holiday) and "I went to work with my leg broken." doesn't. Does that make sense?

 

[emsr2d2]

It doesn't sound like it's a person. Everyone knows a leg is not a person. However, it could be taken to mean that the person has a false leg (prosthetic) which is broken and he/she took it with him/her.

We don't usually use the possessive pronoun for broken limbs. We simply say "I have a broken leg" or "I've broken my leg".

"I went to the wedding even though I'd broken my leg".

 

[Anne59]

OK Thank you both for your help.

 

[Rover_KE]

There is no need to write a new post just to say "Thank you", Anne. It makes us think there is new information or a follow-up question and we spend time opening the thread. Simply click on the "Thank" button at the bottom left-hand corner of any post you find helpful.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would chuckle at the first one also. If you didn't bring your broken leg with you, where would you leave it?