[Grammar] Joyce was doing his shopping for the month at the supermarket.

[Nikitus]

Hello.

Are the following sentences grammatically correct?

"Joyce was doing her shopping for the month at the supermarket. Suddenly she got the call from Bernard."

Thanks.

 

[SoothingDave]

You have used both male and female pronouns to refer to Joyce.

 

[teechar]

"Joyce was doing [STRIKE]his[/STRIKE] her shopping for the month at the supermarket. Suddenly she got [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] a call from Bernard."

Or:
While (doing her) shopping at the supermarket, Joyce got a call from Bernard.

 

[jutfrank]

It doesn't make a lot of sense to say "Suddenly she got the call". What do you mean? That her phone gave her no warning that it was going to ring?

 

[emsr2d2]

You can use "the call" if she was expecting a specific call from Bernard but didn't know when it would come. Something in the preceding text would have to make it clear that she was expecting that call.

 

[Nikitus]

Dear emsr2d2:

First of all, thanks for your help.

Joyce was at the supermarket, and she had a call that she was not expecting from Bernard.

Could be:

"Joyce was doing her shopping for the month at the supermarket. She got an unexpected call from Bernard."?

 

[emsr2d2]

Dear emsr2d2:

First of all, thanks for your help.

Joyce was at the supermarket, and she had a call that she was not expecting from Bernard.

Could it be:

"Joyce was doing her shopping for the month at the supermarket. She got an unexpected call from Bernard (no full stop here)"?

See above.

Yes, you can say "She got an unexpected call from Bernard". I find "doing her shopping for the month at the supermarket" overly wordy. You could use "Joyce was doing her month's food/supermarket shop[ping]".

I don't know if it works in other variants but in BrE we use "I'm doing a/the food shop".

 

[teechar]

I'm doing a/the food shop.

To me, that sounds as if you're intending to raid the place. :lol: :2gunfire:

 

[emsr2d2]

Really?! :shock:

"I'm doing over the food shop" would suggest that to me.

 

[teechar]

Maybe it's just my warped sense of parsing (and associated humour). ;-) I suppose I was trying to say that I'm more likely to use "shopping" in that kind of sentence.

I'm doing my monthly shopping tomorrow.
She'll be doing her food shopping.
He was doing his weekly grocery shopping.

 

[probus]

@OP

You should be aware that Joyce is vanishingly rare as a masculine forename. In my long life I have heard of only one male Joyce, the American poet Joyce Kilmer.

 

[emsr2d2]

The OP only used "his" in the title. I think it was an accident. In the body of the post, he correctly used "her".

 

[Rover_KE]

Actually, Nikitus did write 'his' in the body of post #1. He edited it after reading post #2 or 3.

I remember it because I was going reply to the post myself later, but somebody beat me to it.