Matching prepositions

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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Pedantric
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Matching prepositions

Post by Pedantric »

I am unsure about this sentence: 'Looking back, I remember feeling sadder at seeing her personal effects in our lounge than in actually attending her funeral.'

My question is would the sentence better if the prepositions in each half of the sentences matched. The options could be:

1) Looking back, I remember feeling sadder IN seeing her personal effects in our lounge than IN actually attending her funeral.

2) Looking back, I remember feeling sadder AT seeing her personal effects in our lounge than AT actually attending her funeral.

Or perhaps someone has a better option. This sentence doesn't feel right to me, and I'm not sure why. Are there any grammatical rules to help clarify this?
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Alan
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Re: Matching prepositions

Post by Alan »

I agree: #2 is better.
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