HOW DO I FIX THIS SENTENCE?

Arlene Miller is back to give advice on grammer and sentence structure. If you have a question about a sentence, please submit the sentence in a comment and she will try to help you with the correct words.

Submissions:

A cloaked figure stealthily walked the landscape, careful not to snap a twig or rustle the leaves that lie hidden beneath the mist.


A cloaked figure stealthily walked the landscape, careful not to snap a twig or rustle the leaves that lay hidden beneath the mist.

The first sentence is correct. It should be "lie" unless it is past tense, but it sounds present tense to me. The leaves lie. I lay the leaves down. Lay needs a direct object. For example,

I lie in the sun -- but

I lay the blanket on the sand
                                                                   ****
He could not get past the lump in his throat.



He could not get passed the lump in his throat.


He could not get pass the lump in his throat.

Wow! That is an easy one! Not even in my book! The first sentence is correct!

Passed is used to describe motion, eg: I passed by the house.

Passed – a verb in the past tensePast is used to describe the passage of time, eg: It was past ten o'clock in the morning.

Passed is the past participle of the verb “to pass”. It can be an intransitive verb (one which doesn’t require an object) or a transitive verb (one which requires both a subject and one or more objects).

“To pass” means “To proceed, move forward, depart; to cause to do this.” (OED) This can refer to movement forwards in time, in space, or in life (such as “to pass  a car ”).

•“The days passed quickly.” (Intransitive: subject “the days” and no object).

•“I passed all my tests!” (Transitive: subject “I” and object “my tests”.) 

 

 Past – relates to location.

The word past locates something in time, and sometimes in space. It can be
used as an adjective, noun, or adverb.

Past as an adjective:
•“The days for studying until midnight are now past.”
When attributed to a group of people, past can also mean “Having served one’s term of office; former.”
•“All past teachers in the school were female.”
And in grammar, we have more examples of past being used as an adjective, such as in “past tense” and “past participle”.

Past” as a noun:
The main meaning for the noun form of past, is “The time that has gone by; a time, or all of the time, before the present.”
•“In the past, standards were lower.”
•“Elderly people live in the past.”

“Past” as a preposition:
As a preposition, past can mean:
•“It is almost half past twelve.”
It can also be used for location:
•“The meeting is the held in the building just past the school.”

“Past” as an adverb:
For example:
•“The ball zoomed past the goalkeeper.”

Arlene Miller, M.A. - bigwords101 - Your words are our business!
Author of The Best Little Grammar Book Ever!
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on the web: http://www.bigwords101.com/