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I need to know whether the sentence bellow sounds natural in English or not. If not, then how shall one indicate it in a more natural way:

  • Her lipstick mark left on the rim of the cup.

Please let me know if any further information is needed. For me, the sentence is expressive by itself. Meanwhile, for me as a non native speaker, it seems to be absolutely correct, but I doubt if a native speaker would say it in a more complete way or not. For instance, I've often seen the sentence below:

  • Her lipstick left a red mark on the rim of the cup.

Where the color of the lipstick (as a compulsory/optional) details of the lipstick is mentioned in the the sentence. I doubt, if my sentence, sounds idiomatically natural to native speakers too.

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For me the first sentence does not sound like a full sentence:

Her lipstick mark (that was) left on the rim of the cup...

therefore more information is needed to finish the idea. Or if you would like to express what was being said in the second sentence, you need to have the verb "to be"

Her lipstick mark was left on the rim of the cup.

All in all, the second sentence that you provided is a more natural expression to me.

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  • Thank you @Duc. Now imagine you do not tend to mention the lipstick collar! How about that?
    – A-friend
    Commented Apr 8, 2017 at 12:08
  • Don't you mean "color" as in the color red? Anyhow, please clarify your question. I'm not sure what you're asking, regarding the color detail of the lipstick. "Lipstick collar" doesn't have any meaning at all; it somehow makes me think of a lipstick mark that a mistress left on a man's shirt collar.
    – AnodeHorn
    Commented Apr 8, 2017 at 12:16
  • Sorry for the typo @Duc. I edited my thread to avoid any probable misunderstanding.
    – A-friend
    Commented Apr 8, 2017 at 12:28
  • So please kindly do me a favor and complete the answer @Duc.
    – A-friend
    Commented Apr 8, 2017 at 17:10
  • I still do not know what question you have for the color detail, please be clear and explicit about that before I could help you.
    – AnodeHorn
    Commented Apr 9, 2017 at 13:09

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