Is the sentence correct?

No, sentence one is not correct. The only meaning which sentence one could have is that Mr. Gupta, having previously been disassembled, assembled himself on the the lawn--a patent impossibility.

Many thanks, Setanta.

Set is correct. Grammatcally, only the second sentence makes sense.

I think that this is yet another situation where "correct/not correct" are poor terms to describe what's going on here.

First to your question, Ms Tan.



The verb 'has' does not use subject/verb inversion to mark a question form. What you've done above is create a question that is perfectly understandable,
but it's not natural. That's not the same as correct/incorrect.

Is sentence 1 correct and does it have the same meaning as sentence 2?

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So what is inappropriate about # 1. My guess is that it comes as the result of a direct translation. That tells us why it may have happened but that doesn't tell us why it's inappropriate, and it has nothing to do with the literal meaning of 'assemble', meaning "put individual parts together".

?? 1. Mr. Gupta, accompanied by his friends, has assembled on the lawn.??

Is the same sentence used in the simple past, [1a, below], natural English?

1a. Mr. Gupta, accompanied by his friends, assembled on the lawn.

No, it's not. Mr. Gupta is the subject of the sentence and "accompanierd by his friends" is an auxiliary clause--it is not part of the subject. One person cannot assemble. "Mr. Gupta and his friends assembled on the lawn" would be correct because the subject is Mr. G and friends.

You could also say something like "Mr. Gupta assembled his friends on the lawn", tho it does sound a little bit like he's using a bunch of do-it-yourself kits to create friends.

Monterey Jack is correct.

1a. Mr. Gupta, accompanied by his friends, assembled on the lawn.

1b. Mr. Gupta, along with his friends, assembled on the lawn.

1c. Mr. Gupta, with his friends, assembled on the lawn.

Just to confirm: All the above sentences are acceptable?

Thanks.

No, because as Monterey-Jack points out, in each case Mr Gupta is the subject of the verb but it takes a number of people to assemble.

"Mr Gupta and his friends assembled on the lawn." would work

No, they're all wrong.

Thanks, Spikepipsqueak and McTag.

2a. Mr. Gupta, accompanied by his friends, gathered on the lawn.

2b. Mr. Gupta, along with his friends, gathered on the lawn.

2c. Mr. Gupta, with his friends, gathered on the lawn.

Anybody seen Mr. Gupta?

Yeah, he's out on the lawn, George. Got some people with him.

I thought you intended the edited 'go', Merry, sort of a tongue in cheek.

Anybody seen Andrew's tongue?

Not since he pulled it out of his cheek, George. [I was gonna but I decided, "no".]