To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable

Hello IanStewart,

I have silly doubt about this sentence. Is "Paris was her home long before Paris was fashionable to be an expatriate" correct sentence/English ?

Thanks,

No, that's not correct, for a few reasons, for one because the city Paris cannot be "an expatriate" (only people could be). But I think I see why you're asking. In the sentence "Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate," the "it" does not refer to "Paris". This is an example of what is sometimes called the "empty 'it' ", where the "it" doesn't refer to anything in particular, and is just used to talk about the general circumstances. We use "it" that way very often, for example in a sentence like "it is raining".

Thanks IanStewart for your quick reply . What is the meaning of Fashionable to be an expatriate. Expatriate is someone living abroad. Does this sentence mean "It is fashion to live abroad"

If you change that to "it is fashionable to live abroad", then yes, that is the intended meaning. And that was very likely true in the late 1920s - Paris in particular was then a very popular place for American artists and writers to live, for example.

I don't exactly get why E is wrong as,'Long before it was fashionable being an expatriate' modifies Paris so why are we not putting Paris just after this modifier instead of Josephine Baker

Hi medhawi,

The phrase long before it was fashionable being an expatriate is a not a very good way to communicate that idea. Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate is much better.

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma AndrewN

How to eliminate option B??

Hello, warrior1991. There are a few issues with (B) that I cannot ignore. For one, what is it trying to say? Are we trying to understand that Josephine Baker was an expatriate, or that she called Paris her home? The double-stacked phrase and introductory clause are confusing. Is the information about being an expatriate, for example, simply interrupting the thought that Josephine Baker called Paris her home?

For Josephine Baker, long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her home

Also, when you jump across the comma to the non-underlined portion, you are left with two strangely paired independent clauses:

Paris was her home, and she remained in France...

Yikes! Notice how the correct sentence avoids these issues:

Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris her home, and she remained in France...

By combining the phrase and clause in (B), we now have a clear lead-in to the main clause. The expatriate is Josephine Baker, and she was an expatriate before being one was considered fashionable. Furthermore, she has a clear referent in Josephine Baker, without having to sort out the possessive in (B).

If nothing else, I guess the question illustrates why you cannot go by your ear. I hope that helps clarify why (B) is suboptimal next to a clearer alternative. Thank you for thinking to ask me.

- Andrew

Hi experts AjiteshArun VeritasKarishma egmat,

1. Since both the clauses here are independents clauses because of the presence of comma + and, why is it necessary to have the subjects of both the clauses in parallel?

To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, and she remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance

2. I see there is a difference in meaning in choice A and choice D.

In Choice A: J.B's home was Paris.
In Choice D: J.B. made Paris her home. It seems that J.B. did something to make it her home, whereas the intended meaning of the original sentence states something else.

Please help me in understanding where I am stumbling.

Hi thereisaFire,

1. I would not say that it is necessary to make JB the subject of that clause.

2. To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home is quite awkward.

Overall, D is just a much better way to say the same thing, and we should not overlook that. It'd be great to see other opinions on this, but I don't think that we can point to something in A and say that it is impossible (an "absolute" error).

Only (C) and (D) are parallel to "she remained in France during the Second World War..."
Between (C) and (D), (D) is clearer. Let me know if it does not make sense

I agree with you. we can say gmat prefers " it is ... to do" over " to do is ...". look again the problem we still have some other points.


To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, and she remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance

(A) To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate

(B) For Josephine Baker, long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her home

(C) Josephine Baker made Paris her home long before to be an expatriate was fashionable

(D) Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris her home

(E) Long before it was fashionable being an expatriate, Paris was home to Josephine Baker

choice d is better than choice c becaue "Baker" is more close to "she" which is in the second clause. "she" must refer to "Baker" and "she" and "Baker" should be close.

"long before... expatriate" , in choice d, is an adverb which modify both clauses " Baker made..., and " she remained". this is quite different from choice c, in which, " long before... expatriate" is adverb of only the first clause "Baker made...". this is correct grammatically and 2 meanings are different. I dont know which meaning is correct but they are different meanings.

so, choice d present 3 different points from choice C.

similarly, in choice a, "she" is not parallel with " Baker". this is inferior . and " Paris" is parallel with "it was" . this make us think "it was" refers to "Paris". this can be correct but inferior.

in short, this is a hard problem.

Please help me understand how "Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate" part of the sentence modifies Josephine Baker in option D.

Also, in Option C - Is it incorrect because "Paris was her home" and "she remained in France" are not in parallel to each other.

I wouldn't necessarily say that "Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate" modifies "Josephine Baker".

"Long before...." is a dependent clause (an adverbial clause) and so modifies the "verb" made. Basically this adverbial clause is answering the question:

When did Josephine Baker make Paris her home?

Answer: Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate.

D makes sense from a parallelism perspective. Notice the following parallel structures:

i) Josephine Baker made Paris her home
ii) She remained in France during Second world war


Notice the clause in C:

To be an expatriate was unfashionable.

Notice that the infinitive ("To be") is the subject of this clause. This is something like:

To work hard is my motto.

Purely from a stylistic perspective, a better way to articulate this would be:

It is my motto to work hard.

Hello Experts,

Though I have gone through every post here,but I want to know why in D are we neglecting the misplaced modifier issue? The modifier clearly refers to Paris, so how can it refer to J.B?

Thanks in advance

DmitryFarber KarishmaB GMATNinja IanStewart

I am unable to reject even a single answer choice in this question. I request you to help me understand this sentence and to share the reasoning to reject the incorrect choices.

Thanks in advance!!

We need to look for the best option and that is why we eliminate the other options here.

(A) To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate

First of all, I would think that 'her' is redundant here. When we say "To J, Paris was home" it implies that J thought Paris was her home.
Also, "she remained in France..." the subject "she" of the second independent clause has J as its antecedent. It is better placed as the subject of the first clause.
"J made this and she stayed there..." is clearer with 'she' referring to J. We discuss this in pronoun ambiguity that 'she' - the subject of the second clause will naturally refer to J, the subject of the first clause. If it cannot, then we need to "find" to whom it is referring and that is sub optimal.
Another thing - I like the "J made Paris her home" construction much more than "Paris was her home" with the presence of "long before it was fashionable..." When I want to say "long before this", I would like to say "J did that" - an action, not a state. The use of "made Paris home" is better than "was home" in this case. Not that I can find much fault with "Paris was home" either but since we seem to be pointing to a time before it became fashionable, "made" seems more apt. She did this before that happened.
Mind you, inspite of all these issues, I would hold on to (A).

(B) For Josephine Baker, long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her home

The double stacked phrases ("for J..." and "long before it was...") are not suitable if not really necessary hence will avoid this option.

(C) Josephine Baker made Paris her home long before to be an expatriate was fashionable

This is a bit of a clutter. "long before to be ... " is confusing. Only after reading the entire sentence do we understand what it meant. We usually use "it is fashionable to be an expatriate" and not "To be an expatriate is fashionable".

(D) Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris her home

Sorts out all problems discussed above.

(E) Long before it was fashionable being an expatriate, Paris was home to Josephine Baker

Wouldn't look at this option now with "being an expatriate". One is an expatriate, not being an expatriate. It is a state, not a temporary condition.

Answer (D)