Thread: Combine words into a sentece

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?

------
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.