Use of the word "of"

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pengyou
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Use of the word "of"

Post by pengyou »

A student recently showed me this sentence:

Time is what the fully employed wife has no more to spare of then her husband.

...and asked me about the position of the word "of". My first thought is that the sentence contains the idiomatic expression "has no more of" which is used to compare two or more things, and the writer of this sentence put an infinitive in the middle of the expression, i.e. maybe it should read "Time is what the full employed wife has no more of to spare than her husband."

Am I correct? or can this sentence be correct as it stands?
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Alan
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Re: Use of the word "of"

Post by Alan »

Assuming you meant to write:

Time is what the fully employed wife has no more to spare of than her husband.

informally acceptable, but would be formally phrased

Time is that of which the fully employed wife has no more to spare than her husband.
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