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..but the winding roads allowed only the passengers to enjoy...
English translation: ..but the winding roads
GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:
..but the winding roads allowed only the passengers to enjoy...
Selected answer:
..but the winding roads
13:49 Apr 7, 2013
The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2013-04-10 14:54:08 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO] General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / English or not ?
English term or phrase:..but the winding roads allowed only the passengers to enjoy...
A student of mine wrote the following about a drive on a mountain road: "....but the winding road allowed only the passengers to enjoy. The driver needs to keep his eyes....etc". Will the sentence be ok if you insert "scenery" after enjoy, eg ? Or is it just un-English. ? A road can allow two cars to pass but can it allow passengers to enjoy the scenery..?
Thank you - can I pick your brains in the future ?
In return I'll let you see my paintings...:-))pictify.com/user/fangok 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
as Charles says, putting it before "allowed" changes the meaning of the sentence and no longer contrasts driver and passengers. I agree with Tony that "allowed" is fine, if not magnificent; "enjoy" does indeed need an object, as David says.
I've just seen the last bit of your question, and I think I can at last see what you were getting at — and it's neither of the things we've been answering!
Yes, you can use 'allowed' with 'winding road' as its subject like this — because in this situation, it is the winding-ness of the road that allowed or did not allow... although literally one might try and pick holes in it, any native EN speaker would read across this without any problem, since the intended meaning is unequivocally clear. Note, though, that 'road' on its own without any qualifier would probably not read so cleanly; think of it if you like as working because we read it as 'the winding {nature of the} road...'; that would probably help guide you in other situations.
I agree with Charles: I don't see anything unnatural in Charles's suggested rewording — though of course there are plenty of other possibilities.
If anything, I find the original sentence in the question rather stilted and unnatural; but I guess if this is some kind of language learning exercise, that's not entirely surprising.
and for that reason I think the best place for "only" is where your student put it: before "the passengers", because the passengers are being contrasted with the driver. If you put it before "allowed", readers will understand what you mean (because it is clear from the context that it really means "only the passengers, not the driver"), but I think it's the wrong place; "only allowed the passengers to enjoy the scenery" would normally imply "but didn't allow the passengers to do other things". It might be better to phrase it differently; perhaps "because of the winding road, only the passengers were able to enjoy the scenery", for example.
And yes, you quite definitely need an object after enjoy, and "the scenery" seems suitable. I think that was your question.
The position of only seems to be what you are really asking about here?
'only' should usually be placed immediately before the item which is exclusive (here, passengers) — sometimes it can come after, but whichever, it needs to be as close as possible, to avoid misinterpretation.
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Answers
12 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +4
..but the winding roads
Explanation: ...only allowed the passengers to enjoy the scenery, trip etc. The driver had to...
As an ENS of some years, I'd say it should have been written like this - and yes, you do need an object of "enjoy" here.
David Moore (X) Local time: 14:53 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 32
Grading comment
Thank you - can I pick your brains in the future ?
In return I'll let you see my paintings...:-))pictify.com/user/fangok
Notes to answerer
Asker: Only must come before allowed, yes. Tah, mate