the structure of sentence

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tuanpa

#118772 Sat, 16 Jul 05 01:43 PM

I read a sentence in a book: "Fire is a divine gift randomly delivered in the form of lightning."

Is is sentence the same to "Fire is a divine gift that was randomly delivered in the form of lightning." If true, why the "that was" is removed. To apply the structure of this sentence, can I make a sentence such as: "This is a book made in England." ?

Could someone please analyse this sentence and explain it to me?

Thanks

Tuan

tuanpa

Joined on Sun, Jun 19 2005

Hanoi, Vietnam

New Member (08)

davkett

#118782 Sat, 16 Jul 05 02:28 PM

Hi Tuan,

A grammarian can give you the technical explanation.

As a native speaker, I can respond to part of your post. The sentence, as it stands, is grammatically correct. It would also be acceptable to write, "Fire is a divine gift that is randomly delivered in the form of lightning." The writer might have written 'that was' to suggests that the divine gift was randomly delivered in the past, but that's not the idea, since lightning continues throughout time, and will always be what it is--now, in the past, and forevermore.

You application, 'This is a book made in England', is correct.

davkett

Joined on Tue, Jun 7 2005

Pennsylvania, USA

Senior Member (2,788)

"The rose stays fresh in its name..." -Bernard of Morlay

Mister Micawber

#118798 Sat, 16 Jul 05 03:33 PM

Relative pronouns 'that/which' and 'who/whom' together with the 'be' verbs of a modifying clause are commonly elided:

The man [who is] sitting on the floor is drunk.
The man [who was] dead on the slab suddenly sat up.
It was a marriage [that was] made in heaven.
[Being] intent on the match point, I didn't notice the blonde in the front row.
The man [whom] I kicked kicked back.
etc.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (21,271)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Verbs, Clauses, Nouns, Pronouns, Relative pronouns, Whom, Marriage

tuanpa

#119367 Mon, 18 Jul 05 07:32 PM

Thanks davkett for the explanation, So, It should be 'that is' insteaf of 'that was'

And thanks Mister Micawber for the clear examples. (I like the last sentence "The man [whom] I kicked kicked back")

Which book that has number of sentence structure and examples do you recommend me to read?

Tuan,

tuanpa

Numbers, Sentence structures, Whom

Mister Micawber

#119435 Tue, 19 Jul 05 01:56 AM

I find that I first grab Leech & Svartvik's A Communicative Grammar of English (ISBN 058208573X), but there are a number of good grammar books, Tuanpa.

Mister Micawber

Grammar, Numbers