piyushpopli wrote:
Hi
I have a simple yet a little confusing (at least to me) doubt..
Consider these two statements
1.) Because the French strategy was weak, they were easily conquered
2.) Jim's room is so dirty that even his mother never enters it.
The first statement has a pronoun error (according to the SC Bible) as "French" is an adjective and hence "they" doesn't have an antecedent.
The second is correct (according to Manhattan SC guide) as it is an illustrative question.
What puzzles me is that if the reasoning for the first statement is correct then the second is wrong too as "Jim's" is an adjective modifying "room" and therefore "his" has no antecedent..
Hope to get an answer..
if you consider the first sentence, the word "french" is an adjective. why? it describes or modifies a thing(here it is strategy). the strategy is of type french, if the sentence read something like "because the strategy of the french was..." then "french" clearly refers to the french people. so,it will become a noun.
For example :in chess there is a defense technique called french defense. the french here is similar to that. we cannot say it denotes the french people.
on the other hand,in "Jim's room" obviously denotes the person named Jim. we know this is a noun because a noun is used to name or identify a person, place, thing, quality, or action. basically if you know the difference between a noun and an adjective, you can crack this easier.
hope this helps