Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Smee]

Dear friends.
Can I say: "The rebellious had an outsider taken to Aunt Amy several conserves as an anonymous gift"? or I should say: "The rebellious had several conserves taken to Aunt Amy by an outsider as an anonymous gift".

Thanks

[Lib]

Neither of those sentences makes sense to me.

[bud]

Smee, I agree with Lib that the sentences make no sense. However, the second appers to be much more grammatical than the first. Here are two problems that I see with the second sentence:

1. "Rebellious" is technically an adjective (you need a noun there), although in informal speech we sometimes use an adjective as a noun. For example, I think you mean "rebellious people" or "rebels." (The two terms are not exactly synonymous.) If you meant "rebellious people," we sometimes would say "the rebellious" (omitting "people") after a context for it was set.

2. You probably want "conserve" to be singular as it is a mass noun. (I had to look that one up. You mean jam, right?)

As far as I can see, that would make your sentence correct. But it still is a peculiar sentence. Why would the rebellious people be going to so much trouble to get some jelly to Aunt Amy anonymously? But it might make sense in context. Was Aunt Amy also a rebel, and some secret was hidden in the conserve?