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GMATMadeeasy
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While leaving the bank, Evelyns purse was stolen. 13 Jan 2010, 08:58
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While leaving the bank, Evelyn’s purse was stolen.” (Incorrect, underlined portion is a phrase)

See this one :

1. As she was leaving the bank,Evelyn’s purse was stolen . Is it correct ?

2. Evelyn’s purse was stolen,As she was leaving the bank, . Is it correct ?

two thigns to look for: Adverbial clause can be used this way , Yes ? second , can we use "She" subject for possesive used before ?



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While leaving the bank, Evelyns purse was stolen. 13 Jan 2010, 12:35
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lagomez
GMATMadeeasy
While leaving the bank, Evelyn’s purse was stolen.” (Incorrect, underlined portion is a phrase)

See this one :

1. As she was leaving the bank,Evelyn’s purse was stolen . Is it correct ?

2. Evelyn’s purse was stolen,As she was leaving the bank, . Is it correct ?

two thigns to look for: Adverbial clause can be used this way , Yes ? second , can we use "She" subject for possesive used before ?

What's the question?
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The question is if sentences 1 and 2 are correct or not. and explain why ?
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While leaving the bank, Evelyns purse was stolen. 13 Jan 2010, 13:58
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I think B is correct.

I have no firmly grounded reasoning except to say
statement 1 makes the sentence ambiguous.
it could mean evelyn's reason for losing her purse was because she left the bank.

statement 2 makes it sound like an action that happened during the time she was leaving the bank.
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While leaving the bank, Evelyns purse was stolen. 14 Jan 2010, 11:53
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Ideally, the sentence should have been
Evelyn was leaving the bank when her purse was stolen.
I think it would be better to split the sentence into clauses which can then be joined be joined by a conjunction.....
Further, I find the use of 'As' a bit awkward since it appears more like a cause of an event rather than signifying two parallel events.
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While leaving the bank, Evelyns purse was stolen. 05 Mar 2010, 19:16
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1. When she was leaving the bank,Evelyn’s purse was stolen .
This may be the correct use of adverbial clause, however present of "she" and noun "Evelyn" in the two clauses making the sentence refer to two different person's while it is actually one "Evelyn".

Better option is,
When Evelyn was leaving the bank, her purse was stolen .



2. Evelyn’s purse was stolen,when she was leaving the bank, .
This correction feels good.
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While leaving the bank, Evelyns purse was stolen. 06 Mar 2010, 19:25
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Hey All,

Lots of good discussion on this one, but also some fundamental mistakes that need to be addressed.

1. As she was leaving the bank,Evelyn’s purse was stolen . Is it correct ?

2. Evelyn’s purse was stolen,As she was leaving the bank, . Is it correct ?

There are two issues here: modifiers and pronouns. The bigger problem is pronouns. In both of these sentences, the pronoun "she" is supposed to be referring to Evelyn, but believe it or not, Evelyn is not in either of these sentences!

Take a closer look at "Evelyn's purse". Purse is a noun, and Evelyn's is a possessive adjective. A pronoun CANNOT refer to a possessive adjective. It's called a pronoun because it stands in for a NOUN. Because of this, neither of these sentences are right.

Furthermore, sentence one has a prepositional phrase acting as modifier, so whoever is leaving the bank should come directly after the comma. In that example, the purse is coming after the comma, not Evelyn. Sentence two shouldn't have a comma after stolen, otherwise it would be fine (not including the pronoun issue).

Hope that helps!

-t
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While leaving the bank, Evelyns purse was stolen. 07 Mar 2010, 05:22
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TommyWallach
Hey All,

Lots of good discussion on this one, but also some fundamental mistakes that need to be addressed.

1. As she was leaving the bank,Evelyn’s purse was stolen . Is it correct ?

2. Evelyn’s purse was stolen,As she was leaving the bank, . Is it correct ?

There are two issues here: modifiers and pronouns. The bigger problem is pronouns. In both of these sentences, the pronoun "she" is supposed to be referring to Evelyn, but believe it or not, Evelyn is not in either of these sentences!

Take a closer look at "Evelyn's purse". Purse is a noun, and Evelyn's is a possessive adjective. A pronoun CANNOT refer to a possessive adjective. It's called a pronoun because it stands in for a NOUN. Because of this, neither of these sentences are right.

Furthermore, sentence one has a prepositional phrase acting as modifier, so whoever is leaving the bank should come directly after the comma. In that example, the purse is coming after the comma, not Evelyn. Sentence two shouldn't have a comma after stolen, otherwise it would be fine (not including the pronoun issue).

Hope that helps!

-t
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Thank you, this is a wonderful explanation.
Question: In second sentence, when comma is not there , how come it is correct ? I do not get it clearly. Still, "She" is referring to "Evelyn" no? which it should not. Could you clarify please.
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While leaving the bank, Evelyns purse was stolen. 07 Mar 2010, 10:08
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Hello GMATMadeeasy,

No worries! I'm happy to explain further. Okay. Two questions:

1) The comma CANNOT be there in the second sentence. This is one of the weird things about English grammar. If you put a prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence, it uses a comma more often. The correct way to say the second sentence is "Evelyn lost her purse as she was leaving the bank." Basically, you can't start the sentence with a full sentence (Evelyn's purse was stolen), then try to modify it. You have to start with a modifier, then have the full sentence.

2) As for the Evelyn issue, you have to understand that Evelyn is not IN either of these sentences. Evelyn is a NOUN, but "Evelyn's" is an ADJECTIVE. A pronoun can't refer to an adjective, so both sentences are incorrect. Is that clearer?

-tommy



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