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  • Re: killed in a car accident

    From HenHanna@HenHanna@dev.null to rec.puzzles,sci.lang,alt.usage.english on Sun Jun 1 19:54:42 2025
    From Newsgroup: sci.lang

    On Sun, 1 Jun 2025 15:14:03 +0000, Tony Cooper wrote:

    On Sun, 1 Jun 2025 10:40:53 +0000, arthurvarr@gmail.com (navi) wrote:

    1) The last time I saw Tom, he was talking to Henry Jones, killed in a
    car accident.
    2) The last time I saw Tom, he was talking to Henry Jones, who was
    killed in a car accident.

    Do these make sense?

    No. It has Tom talking to a dead man.


    1 and 2 are both bad.

    some might say and write 2 --- esp. if Tom is a psychic or a
    Medium.



    Obviously Henry Jones was killed in a car accident after Tom talked to
    him.

    If written like this:

    The last time I saw Tom he was talking to Henry Jones, who was
    later
    killed in a car accident.

    it would establish that Henry died after the conversation. Your
    version's first comma is not needed.



    ___________________________________________


    The last time I saw Tom he was talking to Henry Jones, who was
    later
    killed in a car accident.


    for me, the following version is much better.


    The last time I saw Tom, he was talking to Henry Jones who was
    later
    killed in a car accident.
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