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A. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor. B. James

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A. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor. B. James [#permalink] New post   19 Jan 2013, 14:47
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A. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor.
B. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSED Irish ancestor.

Can we say which one of above is correct without knowing the intent of Author ?

MGMAT says second statement is correct because James Joyce may or may not be Max's ancestor, but James Joyce was certainly Irish. Thus,we want the adjective supposed, so that we can modify the noun ancestor.


My questions is how do we know the author's intent ? For all that matter James Joyce could be certainly Max's ancestor but he may or may not be Irish.
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Re: A. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor. B. James [#permalink] New post   07 Jun 2014, 02:11
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Supposedly is an adverb, so it modifies Irish rather than ancestor.

Supposed is an adjective, so it modifies ancestor.

Therefore, A is saying that James Joyce is Max's ancestor, but JJ is "supposedly" Irish. (The author suspects that JJ is not really Irish.)

In B, the author suspects that JJ is not really Max's ancestor.
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Re: Adjective Vs Adverb [#permalink] New post   20 Jan 2013, 02:17
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You're correct in theory. However, the example you're citing is just that--an example used to illustrate a principle. On the real test, we wouldn't be faced with that particular choice. We have to divine the author's intent from the context of the sentence in its five variations, and there should always be enough context to make the right decision. We choose the version that most clearly expresses what the author seems to be trying to say without making any grammatical errors. Don't worry--you won't have to know anything about the subject of the sentence to get it right!
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Re: A. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor. B. James [#permalink] New post   07 Jun 2014, 00:07
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A. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor.
B. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSED Irish ancestor.

Can someone explain the difference in meaning of the above two sentences?
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Re: A. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor. B. James [#permalink] New post   09 Apr 2021, 23:44
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DmitryFarber wrote:
Supposedly is an adverb, so it modifies Irish rather than ancestor.

Supposed is an adjective, so it modifies ancestor.

Therefore, A is saying that James Joyce is Max's ancestor, but JJ is "supposedly" Irish. (The author suspects that JJ is not really Irish.)

In B, the author suspects that JJ is not really Max's ancestor.


So, shouldn't we write it the following way?

James Joyce is Max's supposed, Irish ancestor.

The adjectives 'supposed' and 'Irish' both qualify ancestor, making it a case of coordinate adjectives that require a comma between them.


Thanks in advance! :)
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Re: A. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor. B. James [#permalink] New post   18 Feb 2024, 15:33
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Re: A. James Joyce is Max's SUPPOSEDLY Irish ancestor. B. James [#permalink]
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