[Grammar] There are three eagles flying in the sky! / that are flying in the sky!

[dio2]

I asked a question of one of my teachers, who is a native English speaker .
My question was about two sentences. One is "There are three eagles flying in the sky!". The other one is "There are three eagles that are flying in the sky!"

"Which one would you use for daily conversation ? " I said.

Then he said he would use the first one. I asked him how about the second one "There are three eagles that are flying in the sky!" ?

He then told me that the second sentence might implied that the three eagles might have been on the ground before.


Do you agree with him ?

Or, do you have other understandings/opinions about the second sentence?


I think this kind of grammar questions is interesting.

 

[bhaisahab]

The second sentence could imply that there are other eagles around that are not flying. The first sentence is much more natural.

 

[jutfrank]

Neither sentence is used in natural conversation. Certainly not on a daily basis!

Where I live, one might say:

What's that? Is that an eagle? Yeah, it is, it's an eagle--there's an eagle in the sky! Oh, my God, look--two more! There are three eagles in the sky!

 

[dio2]

Neither sentence is used in natural conversation. Certainly not on a daily basis!

Where I live, one might say:

What's that? Is that an eagle? Yeah, it is, it's an eagle--there's an eagle in the sky! Oh, my God, look--two more! There are three eagles in the sky!

Yeah I know that, I just want to know the differences between the participle phrase and the relative clause when modifying nouns.

There are barely articles about this kind of grammar differences.

 

[jutfrank]

In order to feel the differences, you need good, natural model sentences.

To start with using participle phrases, here's a useful tip:

A good pattern to use when you want to point out that something new is happening, is this: There is/are ... ing ...

There's somebody knocking at the door.
There are two guys having a fight in the street.
There's an odd smell coming from the flat next door.
There are three eagles circling overhead.

 

[emsr2d2]

I asked a question of one of my teachers, who is a native English speaker.

"Which one would you use for daily conversation?" I said.

Then he said he would use the first one. I asked him how about the second one "There are three eagles that are flying in the sky!"?

Do you agree with him?

See above. Don't put a space before a question mark, comma, full stop or closing quotation marks.

 

[dio2]

There's somebody knocking at the door.
There are two guys having a fight in the street.
There's an odd smell coming from the flat next door.
There are three eagles circling overhead.

So, the construction of the sentences you provided above and my main sentence"There are three eagles flying in the sky!" are kinda like The Progressive Tenses rather than The Reduced Relative Clauses?

See above. Don't put a space before a question mark, comma, full stop or closing quotation marks.

Thank you for reminding me of this, I will be careful to use the marks, commas.

 

[jutfrank]

So, the construction of the sentences you provided above and my main sentence"There are three eagles flying in the sky!" are kinda like The Progressive Tenses rather than The Reduced Relative Clauses?

I think it doesn't really matter how you liken them, as long as it helps you understand.

 

[GoesStation]

So, the construction of the sentences you provided above and my main sentence"There are three eagles flying in the sky!" are [STRIKE]kinda[/STRIKE] kind of like The Progressive Tenses rather than The Reduced Relative Clauses?

Don't capitalize the names of tenses. They aren't proper nouns. Don't capitalize the word the unless it's the first word of a sentence or part of a proper noun.