Jandi  +  59582 Mon, 06 Dec 04 06:03 AM Hello, teachers! Would you please tell me if these are acceptable? 1-1. Two years ago I first met Jane, working at a hospital. [Jane was working, right?] 1-2. Working at a hospital two years ago, I met Jane. [I was working, right?] 2-1. I happened to know Mark, working at the construction (site) of the building. 2-2. Working at the construction (site) of the building. I happened to know Mark. - Is the expression correct: to work at the construction (site)? Thank you very much. Peace! Jandi Joined on Tue, Sep 7 2004 Full Member 348 Constructions

	Mister Micawber  +  59592 Mon, 06 Dec 04 07:42 AM 1-1. 'Two years ago I first met Jane, working at a hospital.' Jane was probably working, but this is not a clear structure no matter how you rearrange it. Say: '... when she was working at a hospital.' 1-2. 'Working at a hospital two years ago, I met Jane.' No idea who was working, really-- don't dally with this dangerous structure-- use 'when I was working'. 2-1. 'I happened to know Mark, working at the construction (site) of the building.' No idea again who is working there: 'when he was'. 2-2. 'Working at the construction (site) of the building. I happened to know Mark.' Still awful. Now we need 'When I worked'. 'To work at the construction (site)' is fine. Mister Micawber Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004 Yokohama Veteran Member 30,825 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.' Constructions

	CalifJim  +  59735 Mon, 06 Dec 04 08:05 PM You can work at a construction site, but you can't work at a construction (if you mean 'construction site'). CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,454 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

	Jandi  +  59788 Tue, 07 Dec 04 03:25 AM Hi, Jim. Would you tell me why you bracketed "(if you mean 'construction site')," please? Do you mean; both below are correct, but they have different meanings? 1. He is working at the construction site of the building. 2. He is working at the construction of the building. Thank you very much. Peace! Jandi Constructions

	CalifJim  +  59790 Tue, 07 Dec 04 03:58 AM I was thinking that under some weird contextualization "working at a construction" might just be possible, but in that case it would not mean the same as "working at a construction site". "construction" can mean a grammatical construction, for example. It's possible that if you are struggling to study how relative clauses work in English, for example, you might be said to be "working at a construction". This is certainly far-fetched, of course. More likely, the meaning of "construction" that could be used is the action of putting something together. "Don't disturb your brother. As part of his homework in math he is working at the construction of a geometric proof." This is also somewhat far-fetched. In short, I included the parenthetical remark just for completeness - not to say that "at a construction" is wrong (even though its use is severely limited), but rather to say that it cannot be used to mean "at a construction site". Hope that clarifies things. CalifJim Constructions, Clauses

	Jandi  +  59793 Tue, 07 Dec 04 04:33 AM Thank you!!! I've got it! Lovely weather, lovely lunch, and wonderful teacher(s) I have!!! All the best. Jandi