Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

A student asked why "were" can be omitted after "some" (some were
serious) in the following sentence and in which cases this type of
omission is possible:

"The swimming competition was a great spectacle with over 1100 competitors from all over Finland for the race of a weekend, some serious about their winning and some just taking part for the love of ice poll swimming."

Could someone help with an explanation?

Thank you.

[alphakennyone]

I believe that sentence is a specific kind of adjective/relative clause (participial phrase? I can't remember). It can be written a couple different ways

The swimming competition was a great spectacle with over 1100 competitors from all over Finland for the race of a weekend, some serious about their winning and some just taking part for the love of ice poll swimming.

", some who were" (the "who" in this case describes the swimmers) would also be ok. You can omit the who (since it's the subject) and in this case the verb - but only be. Try it with another verb, in this case swim

, some who swam for winning and some who swam for fun

you CAN'T say "some for winning and some for fun"

Sorry - it'd be easier if I had a grammar text to refer to.

[Koveras]

The some clause is a list, meaning it's dependent and doesn't need to be complete. It also works with other quantitative adjectives - like several, a few, most - though not quite so well as with some.

Kids filled the pool, some fat. [Sort of works, but weird, I think, because it only lists one thing.]

Kids filled the pool, some skinny, some fat, and some in between.

Zombies filled the pool, most skinny, some in between, a few rather plump.

[SharkDiver]

It seems to me that the phrase

"some serious about their winning and some just taking part for the love of ice poll swimming."


is an adjective phrase modifying "competitors". It does not need the verb 'to be' because it is only a phrase. You can equally use an adjective clause (aka relative clause) instead to do the modifying. A clause has a subject and predicate (verb), so if you choose this method you need to add a verb....namely 'were'. When you put in 'were' you must put it in before 'serious' AND ' after 'just'. In this case I think you need a semicolon after 'weekend'.

Hope this helps.

[raewon]

Thank you for your replies. Your responses enabled me to use google
magic and find the following:

--------------
An adjective phrase:
� is a reduced adjective clause. Adjective clauses can be reduced in ONLY one situation. Only adjective clauses that have a subject pronoun ("who", "which", "that") can be reduced.
� has the same meaning as the adjective clause.
� has no subject.
� has no verb.
� follows two general rules:
- When the adjective clause has a "be" verb form, omit the relative pronoun and the "be" verb form.
- When the adjective clause does not have a "be" verb form, omit the relative pronoun and change the verb to its participle (-ing) form.
� uses commas to separate a "non-identifying" adjective phrase from the independent clause.
------------------

Thanks a lot.