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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / January 2006a grammar question
In the following passage 1. what does "they" refer to? paths or planets? 2.I think there is a grammar mistake.it must be written "the paths which are followed by planets without perturbing effect" instead of " they would be without this perturbing effect". Am I right? if I am not right, can you explain this grammatical usage of comparatives? Thanks in advance. Passage: For planets without observable natural satellites, we must be more clever. Although Mercury and Venus (for example) do not have moons, they do exert a small pull on one another, and on the other planets of the solar system. As a result, the planets follow paths that are subtly different than THEY would be without this perturbing effect. > In the following passage > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > the solar system. As a result, the planets follow paths that > are subtly different than THEY would be without this perturbing effect. It's not comparatives. Comparatives are smart, smarter, smartest if regular, or good, better, best if irregular. What you have is a pronoun-antecedent question. The pronoun takes the place of the noun (antecedent) before it. Simply repeat the noun rather than using the pronoun to see what I mean. Although Mercury and Venus (for example) do not have moons, Mercury and Mars do exert a small pull on one another ... As a result, the planets follow paths that are subtly different than the paths would be without this perturbing effect. 2.I think there is a grammar mistake.it must be written "the paths which are followed by planets without perturbing effect" instead of " they would be without this perturbing effect". There is no mistake. The perturbing effect is the other gravitational pulls that subtly alter the orbits of Mercury & Mars as they follow their main gravitional pull around the sun. |
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