Author Topic: About the placement of prepositional phrase "to the international classroom"...  (Read 3492 times)

Spreen

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About the placement of prepositional phrase "to the international classroom" in a sentence. Which of the following sentences is correct or, are both of these sentences correct, and do they have the same meaning?

Our 20-year experience in teaching brings to the international classroom students who have exceptionally high IQ.
Our 20-year experience in teaching brings students who have exceptionallly high IQ to the international classroom.

Thanks for your help.

Joe Carillo

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Both sentences are grammatically correct. The first construction puts "students," the direct object of the operative verb "brings," after the prepositional phrase "to the international classroom"; the second puts that direct object right after the operative verb. In terms of clarity, however, the second version is better because the direct object is closer to the operative verb.

When the direct object is far from the operative verb, which is the case in the first version of that sentence, it becomes more difficult to figure out their grammatical relationship. In that first version of the sentence, in fact, it requires some mental effort to figure out if the word "students" is the direct object of the verb "brings" or a part of the noun phrase "international classroom students." In making a choice between these two construction alternatives, therefore, we should play it by ear as to which sounds clearer. More often than not, the better choice is the version that puts the direct object closer to the operative verb.