3

Many ethnic groups migrated into Vietnamese territory at different historical periods: some came thousands of years ago, fairly early, and some hundreds of years ago. Regardless of that, once you have lived on the S-shaped strip of land*, you are all considered of the same roots and are compatriots united by mutual understanding, allegiance, attachment and care.

*Vietnam is a long, narrow nation shaped like the letter S.

Some hundreds of years ago: I think this is a case of 'verb ellipsis' but I've read some examples on google and are now really confused. I'm not sure if it truly is or if I'm doing it right.

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    A comma after 'some' would make it clearer. The verb 'came' is not repeated, as you have noticed.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Oct 16, 2022 at 15:14
  • 3
    Please provide proper attribution for the text that you quote. That means title, author, and publication, or as many of those as are available. If the source is long, such as a book, please include a page number or other location also. If the source is online, please include a link also. See Marking and Attributing Examples, Sources, and Other Quotes
    – David Siegel
    Commented Oct 17, 2022 at 1:15
  • 1
    From the OP's subsequent post, it appears that this is their own composition.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Oct 17, 2022 at 10:22

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

Yes, it is ellipsis. "Some came thousands of years ago... and some [came] hundreds of years ago."

What may be confusing you is that some before a number can sometimes mean approximately that number, so some hundreds of them would mean approximately several hundred of them. However, because of the parallel with the earlier phrase, I'm sure that in this case it refers to 'some of the ethnic groups'.

Improve this answer
1
  • 2
    Another way to mark the contrasting clauses: “Some came thousands of years ago, and others hundreds of years ago” (with or without verb ellipsis). Some/others is more common for mutually-exclusive clauses rhan some/some.
    – Davislor
    Commented Oct 17, 2022 at 0:28

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .