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Recently, I came across a question that asks whether a given sentence is correct. If not, we're required to select an option that corrects the error.

Question: Having given birth to six kittens, my friend, Neha anxiously watched her exhausted cat.

(a) My friend, Neha anxiously watched her exhausted cat having given birth to six kittens.

(b) Having given birth to six kittens, my friend, Neha anxiously watched the exhausted cat.

(c) My friend, anxiously watched Neha, her exhausted cat having given birth to six kittens.

(d) Having given birth to six kittens, my friend Neha watched anxiously her exhausted cat.

I'm told by my friend that (d) is supposed to be the correct option. However, (d) seems to imply that it was Neha who gave birth to the six kittens, not the cat. Further, "watched anxiously her exhausted cat" seems to be wrong.

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    Whoever made the test does not know English well. The sentence is incorrect, and so are all of the alternatives. There's a comma mistake and a dangling participle mistake. and other mistakes in individual alternative sentences. Find a different textbook.
    – John Lawler
    Apr 9, 2021 at 16:24
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    Her exhausted cat having [just] given birth to six kittens, my friend Neha watched it anxiously.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Apr 9, 2021 at 16:28
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    Truly a bad test. I hope grammarnerd616 is not paying for this poor quality of education. In (c) it is not even clear whose cat had the kittens.
    – Michael Harvey
    Apr 9, 2021 at 17:35
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    You just want to avoid confusion whether the cat or the woman gave birth, and which of them is anxious.
    – Xanne
    Apr 9, 2021 at 18:01
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    A person trying to express this idea in normal English would say something like this: "My friend Neha anxiously watched her exhausted cat, which had just given birth to six kittens." All of the alternatives offered in your list are, at best, borderline ridiculous.
    – Sven Yargs
    Apr 14, 2021 at 21:01

1 Answer 1

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The original sentence and all the possible "corrections" are wrong.

My friend Neha anxiously watched her cat who, having given birth to six kittens, was exhausted.

Or, more simply:

My friend Neha anxiously watched her cat who was exhausted after giving birth to six kittens.

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