Forums _· Easy Basic English (+ Non-English Posts) _· Basic English Grammar Questions

Expression: "This gives me strength to face the busy day that lies ahead."?

This question has no verified answers _· 6 replies

Hi

Could you please tell me if all the following sentences are correct and natural?

This gives me strength to face the busy day that lies ahead.

This gives me strength to face the busy day lies ahead.

This gives me strength to face the busy day lying ahead.

Contributing Member 1,763

Trusted Users: Trusted users are allowed to use additional capabilities of the site such as private messaging to all users and various other advanced features. You cannot join this role unless you are promoted by an administrator.

Tom

Feebs11:

#1 and #3: yes; #2: no

Veteran Member 5,006

Proficient Speaker: Users in this role are known to maintain an excellent grasp of the English language. You can only be promoted to this role by the Englishforums team.

Retired Moderator: A moderator who has retired.

See also:

Mr. Tom:

#1 and #3: yes; #2: no

I am grateful, Feebs, but I would take this opportunity to understand such usages better. Please explain to me why the following sentences are correct when "that" is missing and the object and verb come together.

1- The room was filled with familiar ghosts come to help celebrate her birthday. ("that had" is understood)

2- The hospital was filled with terrified people come to find out whether their children were alive.

Keeping this in mind, how can I make sentence # 2 correct?

Contributing Member 1,763

Tom

Feebs11:

1- The room was filled with familiar ghosts come to help celebrate her birthday. ("that had" is understood)

2- The hospital was filled with terrified people come to find out whether their children were alive. Here I would insert a comma after "people".

In both sentences, I think "who" is the understood word : "ghosts [who have/had] come" / "terrified people [who have] come"

Veteran Member 5,006

CalifJim:

This gives me strength to face the busy day liesahead.

This is not correct. The relative pronoun that (orwhich) cannot be omitted when it is the subject of its clause. Ithas to be "busy day that lies ahead".

However, if the relative pronoun subject is followed by a form of the verb to be, both the relative pronoun and the form of to be may be omitted. (This is called Whiz-Deletion.)

This is not the package that was sent yesterday. > This is not the package sent yesterday.
Jerry is the man who is sitting next to Joy. > Jerry is the man sitting next to Joy.
These are the flowers which were picked by Gina this morning. > These are the flowers picked by Gina this morning.

The examples below are exceptions. They are cases where both the relative pronoun and a form of to have is omitted. This occurs very rarely, and, as far as I know, only with a few intransitive verbs of motion, like come and go. Both of these examples use come, of course. Note that it is the past participle come that is used, not the present tense come. By coincidence, both forms are spelled the same way.

1- The room was filled with familiar ghosts come to help celebrate her birthday.
2- The hospital was filled with terrified people come to find out whether their children were alive.
In the case of go, then, we would have to use the past participle gone in a sentence something like this:

The town was nearly deserted because of all the people who had gone away for the summer. >
The town was nearly deserted because of all the people gone away for the summer.

And even this is only borderline acceptable. Applying the model of these exceptions to your sentence about thebusy day that lies ahead would be wrong. Even if you use the pastparticiple lain, and change the tense appropriately, giving

This gave me strength to face the busy day that had lain ahead. >
*This gave me strength to face the busy day lain ahead.

it would still be wrong, because to lie is not a verb of motion that allows the deletion of that had.

CJ

California

Veteran Member 39,240

Moderator: A super-user who takes care of the forums. You have the ability to message a moderator privately should you wish. These users have a range of elevated privileges including the deletion, editing and movement of posts when needed.

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Anonymous:

I am very grateful to you all.

My regards...

Mr. Tom:

I am very grateful to you all

My warm regards

Contributing Member 1,763

Tom

Expression: "This gives me strength to face the busy day that lies ahead."?

Places to start

Community Sites

Browse Englishforums

Help