As we have been taught, there is some difference between go to hospital and go to the hospital. The former implies that you fell ill after eating the fruits and consequently you had to go to hospital to consult a physician.
In any case, proposal 3 does not sound okay as opined by Torsten.
I think in American English the phrase ‘go to hospital’ does not exist. It’s possible that Brits and Aussies say ‘go to hospital’ which is simply a short version of the more popular phrase ‘go to the hospital’. I would be interested in hearing @Alan’s opinion on this.
I thank you all for your opinion and explanation.
Indeed, this was one of the six sentences the third form pupils have been given during the first term exam. It was in the section III about Guided writing.
In sentence 6 it was written like this: they/ after eating/ to hospital/ some/ went/ fruits/
When correcting I wrote: After eating some fruits they went to hospital. They went to hospital after eating some fruits.
The problem is that I saw on my colleagues’ paper the third propoasl I mean the following one: They went after eating some fruits to hospital.
Of course he also took one of the two first proposals or both. But I am afraid of what his pupils should take from him.
I thought the sentence could be right if he wrote They went, after eating some fruits, to hospital. But I am unsure.
I don’t feel well when correcting my colleague’s mistakes because they cannot accept the correction and the conflict can start.
Not quite, Andrea. It depends on various factors like context, mood, style etc.
I think ‘The speaker, after pausing for a moment, continued his speech more effectively.’ is more suitable than ‘The speaker continued his speech more effectively after pausing for a moment.’ in a dramatic narrative.
Yes, that’s legalese. Your example confirms the fact that it is grammatical. And what is grammatical can be correct and suitable. There is no reason why one cannot adopt such sentences though they might sound pedantic and formal.
In TG grammar, Chomsky quotes sentences that are absolutely grammatical but they make no sense at all. What we are discussing here is a sentence which makes perfect sense though its syntax may be not so common as a native speaker might expect or use.
Language, after all, is for unambiguous communication. When we are able to convey our thoughts and ideas in a grammatically acceptable form without ambiguity, the purpose of the language we have used as the medium is served!
I agree with you, Andrea. Born4Jesus asked us which sentences we think would be acceptable solutions for the scrambled sentence exercise. In this context I don’t think They, after eating some fruits, went to hospital can be deemed correct.
Torsten, we are unanimous on the correctness and acceptability of the first two choices of the poster. The alternate sentence, after some modification, was suggested by me. And it has led to this discussion. Good; thanks.
Now, we seem to have noted the structure acceptable to native speakers and the structure used by non-native speakers. Be that as it may. Thanks to Andrea as well.
I thank you all for the debate and sharing. Finally I think Andrea is right. And after think a bit more I disagreed with Anglophile. Now I understand you all better after reading all your debate.
Once more I THANK YOU. Then I can easily comfort my viewpoint.