Through the meal, Anna was naughty

[Bassim]

I am wondering if my sentences are grammatically correct.

Through the meal, Anna was naughty. She was picking her nose and sticking out her tongue at other guests. As a punishment, her parents told her she would not get ice cream for dessert.

 

[Lynxear]

These sentences are fine.

 

[Rover_KE]

I'd say 'Throughout/All through the meal'.

 

[probus]

These sentences are fine.

During the meal is fine. Through the meal is not.

 

[Tdol]

During the meal has one meaning, and is correct, but Rover's versions have a different meaning. I wouldn't use through.

 

[Lynxear]

"Through the meal" works for me and using Google I see that I am not alone with 26,000,000 hits.

"Throughout the meal" using Google has 16,000,000 hits.

The preposition "through" from what I have read means: traveling from one point to another. I take this to mean a linear passage.

The preposition "throughout" from what I have read means: in every part of, the whole.

To me a meal is a fairly short linear time event. As shown by the number of hits when searching the internet the usage appears relatively common either way. I don't see a great deal of difference and view the issue as a matter of choice for the writer, not a grammar issue.

 

[GoesStation]

I would not write through the meal to mean "during the entirety of the meal". Throughout is the word for that.

The number of hits Google returns on a three-word phrase tells you nothing about how often that phrase is used in the language. You can refer to Google Ngrams for that. Even there, without knowing the words that precede that phrase, we learn little about how it's used.

 

[Tdol]

I don't see a great deal of difference and view the issue as a matter of choice for the writer, not a grammar issue.

Choice of prepositions is not a grammatical issue- if the slot in the sentence requires a preposition, that is the grammatical issue. Furthermore, different variants use different prepositions. I did not say that through was wrong, but I wouldn't use it. In British English, I think it would sound odd, but that may not be the case elsewhere.