question about participle constructions

[CCathy]

Hello everybody,
I am a student of English and i have a question concerning participle constructions.
One of my teachers told me that it were not correct to say:
"Bob, knowing the problem, didn't talk." - because "Bob" is a certain/particular person,
whereas is were perfectly fine to use:
"The man, knowing the problem, didn't talk." - because "the man" doesn't refer to a special person but expresses somekind of generality.

I am not really happy about this explanation and so I hope that someone of you might have a better one !

Thanks a lot in advance,
Cathy

 

[Tdol]

I'm not really happy with this rule. The Bob sentence is fine. The problem can aoccur when there is more than one person in the sentence and it is unclear who the participle refers to. ;-)

 

[RonBee]

I agree with Tdol.

(Say is correct)

 

[MikeNewYork]

Hello everybody,
I am a student of English and i have a question concerning participle constructions.
One of my teachers told me that it were not correct to say:
"Bob, knowing the problem, didn't talk." - because "Bob" is a certain/particular person,
whereas is were perfectly fine to use:
"The man, knowing the problem, didn't talk." - because "the man" doesn't refer to a special person but expresses somekind of generality.

I am not really happy about this explanation and so I hope that someone of you might have a better one !

Thanks a lot in advance,
Cathy

I have no idea from where your teacher got that "rule", but it is not correct. :wink: