He was shot and died

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1
  1. He was shot in the head and he died.
  2. He was shot in the head and died.
    Which one is correct?
    Please comment. Thanks.
2

Hi,

Both are fine. Adding ‘and he’ simply emphasises the consequence of the shooting.

Alan

3

Mr. Alan,
The first part is in passive voice and the second part in active voice.
So we can coin sentence like this.
Am I correct?

4

Hi Allifathima,

Your first sentence is fine, and I doubt that anyone would ever actually misunderstand your second sentence. However, you do need to be careful with sentences such as your second one. If someone heard that sentence spoken (i.e. if they couldn’t see the spelling of ‘died’), they could theoretically misinterpret it as meaning this:

  • He was shot in the head and (he was) dyed.

It’s generally best to keep the same format as what has already been used when you start omitting words. Thus, it might be argued that the following sentence is better:

  • He was shot in the head and killed.

In the sentence above you have a passive verb form in both halves. In other words:

  • He was shot in the head and (he was) killed.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure what Alan actually meant when he mentioned adding ‘and’ since ‘and’ was used in both of your sentences.

[color=darkblue] _________________________________________________________________[/i]
[size=75]“When they asked Jack Benny to do something for the Actor’s Orphanage, he shot both his parents and moved in.” ~ Bob Hope[/size]

5

Hi,

Thanks for that. I should have said ‘and he’.

Alan