A 60-year-old motorcyclist was left / after an accident with a lorry in Tampines on Saturday afternoon (July 3).
Is “left” redundant?
Thanks!
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I don’t think ‘left’ is redundant but I can understand that sentence. A 60 year old motorcyclist was left what? injured, dead etc?
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Please review your sentence. Hardly can I make out what you mean!
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And you are a spammer who has been silenced.
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Left is not redundant. It’s the only verb.
The motorcyclist was left with a lorry.
The motorcyclist remained behind with a lorry after the accident.
I would prefer “with the lorry” immediately following the verb.
A 60 year old motorcyclist was left with a lorry after an accident on Saturday.
An alternate interpretation of the original sentence might be:
The man owned a motorcycle and a lorry. He wrecked his motorcycle. So now he only has the lorry.
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It should be “left unconscious”. Sorry for the error and the late response.
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This gives slightly more information, but it makes no difference in the grammar. “Left” is still the only verb.
I think what is confusing people is why he was left with a lorry. If he was unconscious, why was he left at all, instead of going to a hospital?
I should also note that the word lorry is not used at all in American English. I thought it was some sort of vehicle, but I had to look it up to find out for sure. If an ambulance is considered a lorry, then the sentence would make a little more sense. However it doesn’t appear that an ambulance would be called a lorry.
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I think that most Europeans (including all Brits) now also use the term ‘truck’ instead of ‘lorry’.
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@Kohyoongliat ,
Thanks for the clarification.
He was left unconscious after a collision with a lorry.
If you delete left most people would still infer that he was unconscious as a result of the collision. If you leave left in, the sentence is a bit more explicit.
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Apparently I completely misunderstood the sentence. I was thinking along the lines that “was left with” means “remains”. They left him with the lorry. That’s why the sentence didn’t make sense.
This is far more clear. I suppose it was my fault more than the sentence structure. I totally misread it.
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What about the verb “was”? The motorcyclist didn’t leave, he was left. Like in “He was left behind”, which is different from “He was behind”.
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I was misunderstanding the sentence. I was thinking that someone left him. It turns out that’s not what the writer meant.
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Now, to me, this would look much better:
A 60-year-old motorcyclist was left alone after an accident with a lorry in Tampines on Saturday afternoon.
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