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#213195 - 11/13/13 08:12 AM Which sentence is the correctly joined?
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 41 Lionel Koh
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Where I live, the second sentence refers to the fact that Rupert was the snatch thief. I wonder whether native speakers interpret it that way.
I have joined above underlined sentences as follows and wonder which sentence is correctly joined? If neither, how should the sentences be joined? Thanks.
Rupert was the snatch thief, whom the police had been looking for the past two weeks.
Rupert, whom the police had been looking for for the past two weeks, was the snatch thief.
Last edited by Lionel Koh; 11/13/13 08:15 AM.
#213199 - 11/13/13 04:12 PM Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 41 Lionel Koh
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#213213 - 11/14/13 07:01 AM Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,554 jenny jenny
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Lower Aberdeen, Mississippi
But remember, Lionel.
Rupert is innocent until proven guilty by a jury of his peers.
Is not your world the same?
#213216 - 11/14/13 01:12 PM Joined: Dec 2000
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I'd go with:
Rupert was the snatch thief that the police had been looking for the past two weeks.
No comma and that instead of whom. This is a good old fashioned restrictive clause. Presumably there are other snatch thieves out there that the police were either not looking for or who they had not been looking for for the past two weeks.
The other version assumes the police already knew Rupert was the snatch thief or that he was being sought by the police for some other matter. I'm assuming that the police were looking for the snatch thief and that all you are saying is that that snatch thief was, in fact, Rupert. And if you want to go all high-register I would pied-pipe that whom up front and say:
Rupert, for whom the police had been looking for the past two weeks, was the snatch thief.
If you want good old colloquial English, who is just fine in this context:
Rupert, who the police had been looking for for the past two weeks, was the snatch thief.
#213217 - 11/14/13 02:35 PM Joined: Apr 2000
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this too shall pass
#213227 - 11/15/13 12:45 AM Joined: Dec 2000
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#213259 - 11/17/13 06:48 PM Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 41 Lionel Koh
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Last edited by Lionel Koh; 11/17/13 06:59 PM.
#213260 - 11/17/13 09:27 PM Joined: Apr 2000
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this too shall pass
yes, I gathered this much, but those are rather geographically separate areas, and this doesn't really address my question as to the origin of the term.
#213263 - 11/18/13 01:26 AM Joined: Dec 2000
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#213265 - 11/18/13 03:41 AM Joined: Apr 2000
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