my daughter and John

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Joe
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Re: my daughter and John

Post by Joe »

navi wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:19 am Can one use:

1) My daughter and John's arrival brought us great relief.
2) John and my daughter's arrival brought us great relief.

instead of:

1a) The arrival of my daughter and John brought us great relief.

2a) The arrival of John and my daughter brought us great relief.

I think '1' and '2' sound pretty bad, but are they ungrammatical?

Gratefully,
Navi
Grammatically 1 and 2 are not wrong.

But one is left unsure of the meaning, even in 1a and 2a. Because the word "arrival" CAN refer to somebody's birth, perhaps in this case your daughter's. Since she is your daughter you were presumably involved in her arrival. But does it also refer to John's birth? It's not clear, though no doubt the context might elucidate :roll:
"We are not wholly bad or good, who live our lives under Milk Wood :-| " — Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood

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