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Moira
which sentence is right?
1.This English song was heard sung by the girl in her room.
2.This English song was heard to be sung bythe girl in her room.
My English teacher said the first one was right but I didn't agree with her.
Jul 11, 2011 8:15 AM
Answers · 6
1
You can say 'This English song was heard sung by the girl in her room or being sung by the girl in her room.' sung/ being sung by the girl in her room' are participle clauses 'sung' = completed 'being sung' = in progress. BUT the use of the passive in the first part of the sentence makes it ambiguous. The construction of the sentence is not good. Who sang the song and who heard it? Did the girl in her room hear the song or did she sing it? It would be better to write They/We heard this English song sung/being sung by the girl in her room.
July 11, 2011
1
Both are wrong!
This English song was heard being sung by the girl in her room.
July 11, 2011
1
The second one may be correct enough to be understood, but the first sentence is more correct.
Easier to understand for me, and my explanation may be wrong, would be:
This English song was heard being sung by the girl in her room.
I think it is because "was heard" indicates to me that what we are talking about something which happened in the past while "to be sung" means "will be sung" in the future. It seems that the (past / present / future) tense disagrees in your second example.
"was heard being sung" means that it was both heard and sung in the past and sounds more natural to me.
Please note that this is not my strong point in English though, so I might be wrong about this.
July 11, 2011
Moira,
They both are acceptable but have different meanings.
The verb "to hear" has several definitions.
to hear.....to perceive by the ear.
1.This English song was heard sung by the girl in her room. =
The girl sang the English song in her room and someone heard it sung.
to hear .....to receive information by hearing
2.This English song was heard to be sung by the girl in her room. =
The girl sang the English song in her room and someone heard about it.
They heard that the girl sang the English song in her room.
July 11, 2011
the first one is right.
July 11, 2011
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Moira
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Spanish
Learning Language
French, Spanish
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