Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[nawee]

Hello,

Can someone please tell me where the grammatical mistake is in this sentence and how I can correct it? The numbers indicate that the words that follow are those which could be a mistake.

"We usually interpret someone's quick nose touch (1)as an itch, or (2)that (3)when they rest their hand on their face - they are deeply interested in us, without (4)ever suspecting that we're boring them to death."

Thank you,

Nawee

[Anuradha Chepur]

Atleast 'Anuradha grammar check' is not able to spot any grammar mistake.

[Mary W. Ng]

[Charles06]

It seems that keeping "(2)that)" makes the whole sentence difficult to read and that the use of dash is not required. The whole sentence thus becomes:

"We usually interpret someone's quick nose touch (1)as an itch, or (3)when they rest their hand on their face, they are deeply interested in us, without (4)ever suspecting that we're boring them to death."

This is a compound-complex sentence.

[redset]

The numbered words look fine to me but that dash (much as I like them) really has to go. I'd leave the that though - it specifies what's being interpreted in the second part.