Tyrannosaurus description "It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever i

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Евгений (Eugene)

Professional Teacher

Tyrannosaurus description "It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight." Where is the verb here? Why is it skipped? If I wrote this description I would have said: It ran, AS its pelvic bones WERE crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet WERE clawing damp earth, WERE leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight." Thank you!:)

Jul 26, 2018 6:43 PM

Answers · 6

The phrases you have added extra verbs to are called 'present participle phrases'; they have no main verb because they qualify the main verb 'ran'. Adding verbs to these phrases is not replacing something missing, it simply means you are splitting a single sentence into multiple shorter sentences: Sara is correct that this is a different style, but it is also grammatically different.

July 26, 2018

I'd say it's a matter of style. The 'were' is already implied and it makes the description more emphatic, realistic, and sort of poetic if we omit it.

July 26, 2018

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