Which one is correct ?
a)The police officer was waiting for her whom she met ten years ago by the same bridge
b)Ten years ago he was a police officer waiting for who had met her by the same bridge
c)Waiting for her was a police officer to be meeting her by the same bridge ten years ago
d)Waiting for her was a police officer who had met her by the same bridge ten years ago [color=green](Answer Key)
Source: school exam
Hello,
I have never seen such a difficult question ever in my life. I am really confused. Could you please tell me why A, B and C are wrong?
Thank you.
They contain elements which should not be in the sentence.
On scrutinizing it, you should spot some oddities scattered over a)-c):
‘officer was waiting for her whom SHE met’ – police officer was ‘she’ (!?) ‘had met’ is expected anyway. (A)
‘Ten years ago he was a police officer [even if we believe he was] waiting for who had met her… [= for someone who had met her’]. Sounds good?.. (B)
‘to be meeting’ doesn’t correspond with the past, pointing to the future ©
Only D is clear of any of those logical lapses/traps and sounds meaningful from the first reading.
There are more problems with the sentences than evenb the above suggests. Here are possible corrected forms.
The police officer who(m) she had met by the same bridge ten years earlier was waiting for her.
Ten years ago when they first met at the bridge he had been a police officer.
Waiting for her was the police officer she had met at the same bridge ten years ago.
Thank you both.
a)The police officer was waiting for her whom [color=blue]he [color=red]she met ten years ago by the same bridge.
I think if I use “he” instead of “she” in option A it would be acceptable.
Aren’t I right?
I know that option A is correct but if you don’t tell me that which part of option A has a wrong word order, I may not learn this very well.
Thank you.
Option A is NOT correct. Using ‘he’ instead doesn’t make that any less so, as you cannot use a pronoun there.
The police officer was waiting for the lady who(m) he met ten years ago by the same bridge.
Hello again,
One native ENglish speaker in one of the forums said that if I use “the woman” instead of “her” in option A, it would be correct.
englishforums.com/English/T … #sc2305068
i. e.
a) The police officer was waiting for her whom she met ten years ago by the same bridge. color=red
a) The police officer was waiting for the woman she met ten years ago by the same bridge. color=green
Do you agree with him/her?
Thank you.
Compare it with Bev’s “was waiting for the lady (who) he met…”
Of course it sounds good (provided the police officer was a woman too).
I wonder if it’s the only reason you opt A out. In my view, “The police officer was waiting for [size=150][color=darkred]us[/size] who he deemed to be responsible for what (had) happened 10 years ago.” could also be heard (not best wording admittedly).
I believe the test question was designed to check your ability to single out the only flawless, in terms of grammar, sentence. The three others, if streamlined, could sound meaningful, but only D sounds error-free and doesn’t need any amendments.