4 ms·
Since we're on a grammar tangent already, as a non-native speaker, I thought "was it a man who did this" was a valid construction. Am I in error?
by rebuilder 6y ago
Since we're on a grammar tangent already, as a non-native speaker, I thought "was it a man who did this" was a valid construction. Am I in error?
- Freak_NL 6y agoThat is fine, but keep in mind that a valid answer to that question can be “No, it was a cat that did it.”. If you are already sure it was a person and wanted to be specific, you could rephrase that as “Was the person who did this a man?”. (The answer to that might of course be “I don't know, they looked rather androgynous.” or the more down to earth “Dunno. Couldn't tell if it was a bloke or a gal.”.)
- Rotten194 6y agoI wrote a more detailed answer to GP: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24576616 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24576616, but basically: yes that's totally natural, but in edited writing / speech sometimes should be avoided for clarity reasons. But I didn't blink twice at the comment myself.