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Thu 11 Nov, 2010 09:25 pm
The Greeks were not great explorers but they were great thinkers on the nature of matter. Thales, a philosopher(,) observed that substances can be transformed and he called it element.
As water is the most abundant thing and it made up the oceans and rivers, Thales thus believed this element was water.
The above is what I read on a tuition centre’s notice board. It seems there are a couple of errors in the few sentences.
Below are my doubts..
1. Is it necessary to insert a comma after ‘philosopher’? The original does not have one.
2. Should ‘element’ in bold be enclosed by inverted commas?
3. Is it correct to use ‘it made up’/
4. Are there any other errors?
Thanks in advance.
@tanguatlay,
Could somebody please reply to my post.
As i learned English, yes there would be a comma after philosopher--"a philosopher" is essentially a parenthetical insertion which doesn't effect sense of the sentence.
I don't see any reason to put quote marks (or what you call inverted commas) around the word element.
There is nothing wrong with the construction "it made up" to mean it consisted of, or was comprised of. It's a commonly used construction.
There are several mistakes in the first sentence.
1. You need to add a comma after explorers. You also need to add a comma after transformed.
The Greeks were not great explorers, but they were great thinkers on the nature of matter. Thales, a philosopher(,) observed that substances can be transformed, and he called it element.
2. "Substances" is plural. Therefore you shouldn't refer to substances with the pronoun "it" (singular). Change to:
. . . observed that substances can be transformed, and he called them elements.
@Roberta,
Quote:1. You need to add a comma after explorers. You also need to add a comma after transformed.
The Greeks were not great explorers, but they were great thinkers on the nature of matter. Thales, a philosopher(,) observed that substances can be transformed, and he called it element.
You don't need to put commas in the positions Roberta has pointed to but you can.
Many thanks to Setanta, Roberta and JTT.
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