I told to the parents of children...

[MeyaN]

I told to the parents of children who attended the session. Does this sentence sound like 'who' refers to the parents? Please tell me how do I restructure to make it unambiguous

Thank you.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Do you mean 'I told (something) to the children's parents who attended the session'?

 

[MeyaN]

Isn't that implied? Is that ambiguous too?

 

[Matthew Wai]

'Who' refers to 'parents' rather than 'children'.

 

[tzfujimino]

Fred: I told the parents of children who attended the session.

That sentence means that you told the children.


Fred: I told the children's parents who attended the session.

That sentence, like Matthew's in post #2, means that you told the children.

I don't understand.
I'm also confused about the "who" in those sentences. Is it an interrogative pronoun or a relative pronoun?

 

[Matthew Wai]

I don't understand either.

Fred: I told the children's parents who attended the session.

That sentence, like Matthew's in post #2, means that you told the children.

'Children's' is a possessive modifying 'parents', so the direct object of 'told' should be 'parents' rather than 'children'.

Fred: I told the parents of children who attended the session.

That sentence means that you told the children.

I think 'of children' is a prepositional phrase modifying 'parents', which should thus be the direct object of 'told'.

 

[GoesStation]

Do you mean I spoke to the parents of the children​?