Sentence: Though her qualities often are seen as positive, he could not...

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

Hello there!

I just signed up for this one question but maybe this forum will prove to be usefull in other situations! =)

I’m a danish student at my 2. year at an education institution called “gymansium” here in Denmark that you probably could compare to college prep or something related :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyway, i’ve been fighting with my english teacher over this sentence:

a. Though her qualities often are seen as positive, he could not…

b. Though her qualities are often seen as positive, he could not…

I claim a to be right and my teacher claims that b is the correct one.

So my question to you out there is a very surprising one (:P): which one is correct?

If a is correct, could you please explain using complex grammar rules, why it is? I need to convince my teacher afterall :slight_smile:

Thanks!

Vincent from Denmark.

2

B is the more correct sentence under ordinary circumstances.

Normally the position of the adverb inside the sentence is after the position of the auxiliary verb (whether there is an auxiliary verb or not). “Are” is the auxiliary verb, so “often” is positioned correctly in B.

A is possible if you want to put a lot of emphasis on the word “often”, but if you don’t want to stress that word, you have to go with B.