Thread: Combine words into a sentece

Hello guys. I have been thinking already for 2 hours. I'll be glad if someone completes it. Is there anyone?

You should combine the words below into a sentence.

An, into, child, born, is, who, a family, made, adopted, was, legally, he, has, of, member, the child, been, that, not

Tricky one. Are you sure there is nothing like "but"?

Yep, that's all I have

Let me walk you through this...

You see, you have three verbs: "born, made, adopted" and four auxiliary (helping) verbs: "is, was, has, and has been".
So you could have:
"is born"
"was born"
"has been born"

"is made"
"was made"
"has made"
"has been made"

"is adopted"
"was adopted"
"has adopted"
"has been adopted"

Next, take the nouns and pronouns that could serve as subjects: "he, child, family, member".

With them would be the possible adjectives, "a (instead of "an" because there are no words listed here that you could use "an" with; I will explain this a little farther later on), the, that, legally".

You also have two prepositions: "of, into"; they will both need an object...which must be a noun or pronoun.

The pronouns "that" and "who" can be used to introduce a clause which would complete the thought (sentence)

Taking just a few of those combinations for examples:
"A child is born..."
"A child was made..."
"A child has been adopted..."
"A family has adopted"

"A child is born into a family."
"A child was made a member."
"A child has been adopted into a family."
"A family has adopted a child."

You could put "the" in place of "a" and "he" in place of "child" (dropping the "a" or "the") in the first three sentences.
Here are a few combinations using some of the words you listed to show some of the problems that would arise:

"A child was made a member of the family who legally adopted him." ("him" instead of "he")
"The family that legally adopted the child was made a member... (of what?)" (incomplete sentence)
"He was legally adopted into a family that (or "who") was (or "has) not...(what?)" (again, an incomplete sentence)

Now maybe you can see that there is such a number of combinations to starting a sentence from these words. But to put all those words into one sentence, that would be grammatically correct and make sense, is impossible.

What are you trying to say?
Where did you get such a group of words?

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A note on the use of "an" and "a".
Most of the time "an" is used before a noun or adjective beginning with a vowel (i.e.: an apple, an elephant, an idea, an open door, an understandable choice) and before a word that begins with a silent letter (i.e., most common: an hour, an herb).

"a" is generally used before a word beginning with a consonant: i.e. a sweet apple, a big elephant, a good idea, a door, a choice, a minute, a vegetable, etc.

"an" does not fit any of the words you have listed:
"an child" - no!
"an family" - no!

Originally Posted by genuinefarmgirl

"an" does not fit any of the words you have listed:
"an child" - no!
"an family" - no!

An adopted child?

Originally Posted by dtrq

An adopted child?

Yes, "an" in the instance of "an adopted child" is correct - it comes before a vowel - adopted.

Originally Posted by gentywole

Hello guys. I have been thinking already for 2 hours. I'll be glad if someone completes it. Is there anyone?

You should combine the words below into a sentence.

An, into, child, born, is, who, a family, made, adopted, was, legally, he, has, of, member, the child, been, that, not

Either:

He is an adopted child who has legally been made into a family member of the child that was not born.

or

He is an adopted child who was legally made into a family member of the child that has not been born.

(Select text to see answers.)

Both are grammatically possible, although the first one would make sense only if you were talking about a wealthy aristocrat who left all his money to his unborn son, but the pregnancy miscarried or was aborted, and an adopted child became the heir, or something equally complicated!

The second sentence would describe the more "normal" case of a husband and wife who adopt a boy while the wife is pregnant; the boy becomes the legal brother of the unborn baby.

PS. That was a very tough головоломка! I'd be truly impressed if any non-native English speaker could figure it out...

Arrgh, I did my best to hide the answer... apologies if my post was a "spoiler" for anyone!

I will have to congratulate you! From my experience, I wouldn't have known that one...so it is grammatically possible!

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Arrgh, I did my best to hide the answer... apologies if my post was a "spoiler" for anyone!

I just used my mouse and highlighted the text to see it.

The child, that is an into the family born child, has been made member, not he, who was legally adopted.