paraphrasing of one sentence 20

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Would you share with me your opinion concerning the following two sentences?

  1. I could not understand what was going on as I was standing on the extreme outer edge of the crowd.
  2. I could not make sense of what is going on as I was standing on the fringe of the crowd.

Thanks for your efforts.

2

I could not make sense of what is going on as I was standing on the fringe of the crowd.
This sentence is not structured properly.
It should be "I could not make sense of what WAS going on as I was standing on the fringe of the crowd.
Fringe means edge.
Make sense of means:- Did not know/ couldnt undersand/wasn’t aware of.

Both sentences mean same thing.

3

Hi Katty2010,

Thank you for your relevant amendment.

Ivo

4
  1. I could not make sense of what is going on as I was standing on the fringe of the crowd.

Even though it doesn’t look like grammatically correct i think the NES sometimes speak this way in order to make the event (situation in which they happened to have been involved) more alive (dramatic) for the listener.

I’d say it could be very advanced English. Not for me at the moment.
But who knows, one day…

Thanks for correcting my wrong thinking.