An aunt of hers/ One of her aunts

Metamorfose · Post by **Metamorfose** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 2:31 pm

Given these two sentences:

(1) An aunt of hers told me to leave the party.
(2) One of her aunts told me to leave the party.

Is there anything wrong with the second sentence? People here in Brazil say that the second one is wrong, what do you think?

José

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 5:04 pm

The second is definitely correct, and by far the most common.

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 9:00 pm

"An aunt of hers," sounds more formal but also slightly stilted. "One of her aunts," isn't informal, though.

I think this would be the plainest sentence. Use it unless you want to show someone as being slightly old fashioned.

Metamorfose · Post by **Metamorfose** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 11:52 pm

Got it people, thank you very much.

As to so "grammarians" of English one can find in this side of the village they may also think "Why will we simplify it if we can make it complicated???"

José