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Jerry Chen
Joined: 26 Jan 2006
Posts: 115
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 Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:33 am Post subject: Need help from native speakers of English |
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Hello,
Please read the following sentence:
The twinkling stars can be seen from far away.
I wonder whether "far away" in the above is a noun.
Thanks for your help!! |
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ESL-ish
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 44
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:03 am Post subject: |
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I think the short, practical answer is, "How badly do you want to know? Let's just substitute "Mars" for "far away" and be done with it."
Well, I'll take a crack at this. If one of the other teachers can back me up with grammar rules, I'd appreciate it!
| Quote: |
| The twinkling stars can be seen from far away. |
"from far away" is a adverbial phrase describing where you can see the stars.
So far so good.
"away" is an adverb, like "home". "far" is an adverb which tells about the degree of "away".
OR
"away" is a place-noun, like "home". "far" is an adjective which tells about the location of "away".
| Quote: |
1. Johnny ran home.
2. Johnny ran far away.
3. Johnny ran to his home.
4. Johnny ran to far away. |
1, 2 and 3 are fine. 4 is not allowed.
Now I'm getting confused. I think I'm starting to babble. One grammar source describes "from afar" as idiomatic. So how about the following sentences?
| Quote: |
5. Johnny came from home.
6. Johnny came from far away.
7. Johnny came from away.
8. Johnny came from Chicago. |
I think you can say #7, but it would definitly be idiomatic.
Oh most senior grammar teachers, can you parse this?
By the way, I found a cool quote while I was researching this question.
| Quote: |
| There is no distance on this earth as far away as yesterday. � Robert Nathan. |
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Warning: I have a dictionary and I'm not afraid to use it! |
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Mary W. Ng
Joined: 26 Jun 2006
Posts: 261
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| Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 1:15 pm Post subject: Re: Need help from native speakers of English |
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| Quote: |
The twinkling stars can be seen from far away.
I wonder whether "far away" in the above is a noun. |
Far away is an adverb phrase.
Do keep in mind that not only nouns, pronouns, and noun equivalents but also adverbs, adjectives and prepositional phrases, follow prepositions.
(See my previous post: http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/student/viewtopic.php?t=21082)
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Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com |
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ESL-ish
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 44
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:10 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks, Mary. I really led myself down a garden path on that one!
_________________
Warning: I have a dictionary and I'm not afraid to use it! |
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