a. You ruined a great chance for both of us.
Is the above sentence grammatically correct?
Is 'for both of us' adjectival (modifying "a great chance") or adverbial (modifying "ruined")?
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b. You ruined a great chance for both of us to get rich.
Is the above sentence grammatically correct?
Is "for both of us" adjectival or adverbial?
My problem is that I think in (a) it is adverbial and in (b) 'for both of us to get rich' is one single unit and it is adverbial.
Many thanks
for both of us to get rich
Moderator: Alan
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Alan
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Re: for both of us to get rich
1. A moot point.
It could represent either:
[1] You ruined something that was a great chance for both of us. (ADJ)
or
[2] You ruined, for both of us, what was great chance. (ADV)
2. Adjectival (modifies 'chance' by specifying whose chance it was). ('To get rich' also adjectivally modifies 'chance', specifying what kind of chance). Note that the meaning would be unaffected by reversing the order of postmodifiers: '...a great chance to get rich for both of us'). However, the original order is the more natural, since the agent (us) normally precedes its verb (get).
It could represent either:
[1] You ruined something that was a great chance for both of us. (ADJ)
or
[2] You ruined, for both of us, what was great chance. (ADV)
2. Adjectival (modifies 'chance' by specifying whose chance it was). ('To get rich' also adjectivally modifies 'chance', specifying what kind of chance). Note that the meaning would be unaffected by reversing the order of postmodifiers: '...a great chance to get rich for both of us'). However, the original order is the more natural, since the agent (us) normally precedes its verb (get).