Help with wording please

bkwriter · Jan 20, 2009

I hope this is the right forum for this. Anyways. In spell check in microsoft word I'm useing the Grammatik device and sometimes it will come up with "The verb went does not usually take an object." What does this mean?

Ex: she went the opposite direction

Don't I have the subject acting on the verb?

Thanks for the help.

HeronW · Jan 20, 2009

http://www.iscribe.org/english/verb.html

might help

angelgirl · Jan 20, 2009

Your grammar program is misinterpreting what you wrote. Go is an intransitive verb - it does not require an object. Basically, you are saying that she went IN the opposite direction. Because you left out the preposition, your program is interpreting "the opposite direction" as the object. Transitive verbs like "throw" and "give" require an object because you have to throw or give something. Hope that helps.

Long story short - your sentence is fine.

OpheliaRevived · Jan 21, 2009

I'm a new, so I'm curious. Why would "went IN the opposite direction" be wrong? Could this be why the program is flagging it?

maestrowork · Jan 21, 2009

OpheliaRevived said:
I'm a new, so I'm curious. Why would "went IN the opposite direction" be wrong? Could this be why the program is flagging it?

Both are grammatically correct, but they mean different things.

Mr. Chuckletrousers · Jan 21, 2009

maestrowork said:
Both are grammatically correct, but they mean different things.

They do? They mean the same thing in my dialect.

Maryn · Jan 21, 2009

Mine, too. But I've only spoken English for 55 years and change.

Maryn, still learning

qwerty · Jan 21, 2009

"she went the opposite direction" is not a complete sentence. She can go the other way, but needs to go in the opposite direction.

You wouldn't say she went the pub - you'd say she went to the pub.

blacbird · Jan 22, 2009

OpheliaRevived said:
I'm a new, so I'm curious. Why would "went IN the opposite direction" be wrong? Could this be why the program is flagging it?

Because Microsoft is smarter than you are, and knows that your character should go in the other direction.

caw

IceCreamEmpress · Jan 22, 2009

"Went in the opposite direction" is correct.

"Went the opposite direction" is also correct, but more colloquial in the US (and may be not correct in the UK at all).

MSWord's grammar check is flagging the more colloquial one as "incorrect" because MSWord's grammar check was designed for business use, not for creative writing.

ideagirl · Jan 22, 2009

qwerty said:
"she went the opposite direction" is not a complete sentence. She can go the other way, but needs to go in the opposite direction.

You wouldn't say she went the pub - you'd say she went to the pub.

It is a complete sentence: it has a subject [she] and a predicate [went the opposite direction]. You don't need to say "in"; not everything used with go/went needs a preposition. This particular sentence works either with or without the "in."

StephanieFox · Jan 23, 2009

My understanding is that 'She went in the opposite direction' would mean that she was going East and turned around and went West.

If 'She went in the opposite direction' she would be going in a different direction from someone else or her movement was not physical; "He was a staunch Republican but she went in the opposite direction [from him] and joined the Green Party.'

Is this correct or simply a local colloquialism?

Bufty · Jan 23, 2009

Again, context is everything, combined as usual with where one is.

Here, in the UK - 'She went the opposite direction' with the 'in' omitted, might be said in conversation but it is sloppy and I doubt it would be accepted in written narrative.

Not all sentences make sense everywhere even though technically they may be a complete sentence.

ideagirl said:
It is a complete sentence: it has a subject [she] and a predicate [went the opposite direction]. You don't need to say "in"; not everything used with go/went needs a preposition. This particular sentence works either with or without the "in."

Help with wording please

bkwriter

HeronW

Down Under Fan

angelgirl

OpheliaRevived

Real Men Have Gills

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

Mr. Chuckletrousers

Sith happens.

Maryn

I Tried

qwerty

exiled Brit

blacbird

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

ideagirl

StephanieFox

Maybull the Bulldog

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?