sentences "when"

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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tp
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sentences "when"

Post by tp »

Dear Alan

Please help me with these three sentences . are they correct?

1. Mark has the same height as John.
2. Mark is the same height as John.
3. When I rode my bike, my sister drew <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=pi ... ictures</a> on the road yesterday.

thank you for your help
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Alan
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Re: sentences "when"

Post by Alan »

tp wrote:Dear Alan

Please help me with these three sentences . are they correct?

1. Mark has the same height as John.
2. Mark is the same height as John.
3. When I rode my bike, my sister drew <a href="http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=pi ... ictures</a> on the road yesterday.

thank you for your help
#2 is acceptable; #1 is not.
I can't read most of #3!
tp
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"the same as"

Post by tp »

Dear Alan,

thank you for your reply and i wonder if the below sentences are correct or not.

1. I HAVE the same trouble as you.
2. When I rode my bike on the road, my sister drove a car to the park yesterday.

thank you for your prompt reply.
best regards.
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Alan
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Post by Alan »

#1 is fine.

#2 is structurally possible, but strange and unnatural: 'yesterday' should be placed earlier in the sentence (e.g. after 'road'), and 'when I rode...' should be changed to 'while I was riding...'.
tp
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"the same ... as"

Post by tp »

Dear Alan,

Thank you so much for your explanation for the above sentences, however, I still wonder about the two sentences below;

1. Mark IS the same height as John.
2. I HAVE the same trouble as you.

Why do we use different VERBs for these two sentences???

Thank you in advance for your advice.
Best regards,
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Alan
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Post by Alan »

We refer to height using 'be', not 'have', because we are originally saying e.g. 'He IS one 1.89m TALL' (with complemental adjective 'tall' premodified by NP 1.89m). So even when using the noun 'height' in place of the measurement phrase, e.g. in 'What height are you?', the verb 'be' continues to be used under the influence of the original sentence.
tp
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Post by tp »

Dear Alan,

I see... thank you very much..

See you later.
BEst regards.
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