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A puzzle for the grammar police.

Alceste

Vagabond
"Fast, vicious and strong, all creatures of nature fear the blood-sucking man-bat."

Does this sentence convey that the creatures or nature are fast, vicious and strong, or that the blood-sucking man-bat is?

I think it's the former.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
The fast, vicious, strong, blood-sucking man-bat is feared by all creatures of nature.

Or .... All creatures of nature fear the ....... man-bat.

I think the essential problem is too many adjectives. That adds to the clumsiness.
 

Alceste

Vagabond
I may be wrong, but shouldn't it be "Fast, vicious, and strong?"

I'm generally doing without the Oxford comma in this project, to give an impression of spoken language.

But the answer is yes, it would be "proper". OTOH, this is not a case where the lack of a comma would confuse the meaning, like...

oxford.jpeg
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
"Fast, vicious and strong, all creatures of nature fear the blood-sucking man-bat."

Does this sentence convey that the creatures or nature are fast, vicious and strong, or that the blood-sucking man-bat is?

I think it's the former.

I think it's the latter.
 

Alceste

Vagabond
The fast, vicious, strong, blood-sucking man-bat is feared by all creatures of nature.

Or .... All creatures of nature fear the ....... man-bat.

I think the essential problem is too many adjectives. That adds to the clumsiness.

The adjectives are sort of necessary to imply the sprite's attack, defense and speed stats. I mean, the stats will also be there, but the purpose of the sentences is to give a general impression of what the sprite is good at. The vampire is a good all-rounder.
 

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
"Fast, vicious and strong, all creatures of nature fear the blood-sucking man-bat."

Does this sentence convey that the creatures or nature are fast, vicious and strong, or that the blood-sucking man-bat is?
It conveys that latter (poorly) only because otherwise one would be forced to imagine "all creatures of nature" as being "[f]ast, vicious and strong."
 

Alceste

Vagabond
It conveys that latter (poorly) only because otherwise one would be forced to imagine "all creatures of nature" as being "[f]ast, vicious and strong."

Right. I swapped it round. It's a little better now. The sentences I've written are all slightly silly, intentionally, but I still don't want them to be outright wrong.
 

Sapiens

Polymathematician
And I thought it should read: "fast, vicious and strong creatures of nature all fear the blood-sucking man-bat."
 

Treks

Well-Known Member
I also say it's the latter, but I would have put a semi-colon in it:

"Fast, vicious and strong; all creatures of nature fear the blood-sucking man-bat."
 
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