The monk did blessing on me by chanting mantra

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1
  1. You can trace a person’s ancestry state and clan based on the last name.
  2. The monk did blessing on me by chanting mantra.

Are the above sentences written correctly?

2
  1. You can trace a person’s ancestry and clan based on their last name.
  2. The monk blessed me by chanting a mantra.
3

Beeesneees,
Can I write as below for clarity:
‘You can trace a person’s ancestry through his state and clan which are based on their last name.’?

4

Beeesneees,

Is the sentence below also correct?
You can trace a person’s ancestry, state and clan basing on their last name.

5

BN,

is the phrase “ancestral state” incorrect (in general)?

6

No, that does not provide clarity. A person’s state and clan are not based on the person’s last name as you indicate in your version.

7

No, that doesn’t work.

8

In general terms I suppose it is perfectly possible for that phrase to exist. However your mention of it here is the first time that it has been used in this thread, and it is not used in the original question. It would also not fit into the original sentence and I cannot imagine a scenario where it would be used.

9

In general terms I suppose it is perfectly possible for that phrase to exist. However your mention of it here is the first time that it has been used in this thread, and it is not used in the original question. It would also not fit into the original sentence and I cannot imagine a scenario where it would be used.
[/quote]

It popped up in my mind when i read the original question as a modification to it,

the ancestral state and clan can be…

though you have used ancestry and state as different terms in your modification, I saw it coming as a single phrase,i.e. ancestral state (of the person)

correct me where i am wrong.

Thanks.

10

The phrase used in the original sentence was ‘ancestry state’.
As that didn’t make sense to me I modified it to what I thought he meant.
Later, upon reflection, I realised that you could not trace a person’s ‘state’ through their surname so I edited the term out completely - sorry if you missed the edit.

11

I got it now.
Thanks.

12

Hi, could you explain why it doesn’t work here?

  1. You can trace a person’s ancestry and clan based on their last name. [color=red]Correct
  2. You can trace a person’s ancestry and clan basing on their last name. [color=red]Incorrect

In #1, I think the sentence can be phrased as follows:

You can trace a person’s ancestry and clan which is based on their last name.
Is that correct? If so, does “which” mean “the tracing” ?
How about #2, why it is incorrect?
3) You can trace a person’s ancestry and clan basing on their last name.
4) You can trace a person’s ancestry and clan which bases on their last name.

I thought that #3 has the same meaning as #4.

13

Your entire premise is not correct. ‘which is’ does not belong there.

if one thing is based on another, it uses it or is developed from it

You can think of ‘based on’ being the same as ‘from’
You can trace a person’s ancestry and clan FROM their last name.