I always keep something that eats in my pocket while I am on long journeys.
a) Is "eats" correctly used here?
b) Is "eat" an ergative verb
c) Can "it eats" sometimes mean "It is eaten"
Thak you for your help.
1. No, unless you have a mouse or something in your pocket and you feed it as you go. Then it would be eating.
2. No.
c. No.
I always keep something that I can eat in my pocket when I am on a long journey.
Yoong Liat wrote:Hi BarbaraYou wrote: I always keep something that I can eat in my pocket when I am on a long journey.Do you think that the following sentence is better or worse? Or is there no difference?I always keep something in my pocket that I can eat when I am on a long journey.Many thanks.
Hi Yoong,Your suggested sentence is neither better nor worse. Both sentences reflect their authors' respective intent.Grammar Geek's merely convey a general favorite activity when traveling.Yours specifically highlights the location of edible items.
Yours is slightly better - although logic tells you otherwise, mine could read that you are in your pocket while you are eating. Hardly logical, but grammatical. Yours eliminates that possibility. Although, I suppose if you wanted to be really silly, you could mean that you eat the pocket.
Kilimanjaro wrote: b) Is "eat" an ergative verb
I think you could say that, in ordinary use, "eat" is an unergative verb.
All the best,
MrP
Armsys wrote: Yoong Liat wrote:Hi BarbaraYou wrote: I always keep something that I can eat in my pocket when I am on a long journey.Do you think that the following sentence is better or worse? Or is there no difference?I always keep something in my pocket that I can eat when I am on a long journey.Many thanks. Hi Yoong,Your suggested sentence is neither better nor worse. Both sentences reflect their authors' respective intent.Grammar Geek's merely convey a general favorite activity when traveling.Yours specifically highlights the location of edible items.