This next sentence reads
Claire (Caitriona Balfe), Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and Roger (Richard Rankin) turned up to stop Bonnet getting away
I think it should be "From getting away" I feel it's incomplete without it.
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
The sentence is correct as written. To see how the syntax works, you could assume that a preposition has been omitted, as you did:
Claire (Caitriona Balfe), Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and Roger (Richard Rankin) turned up to stop Bonnet from getting away.
Another option is:
Claire (Caitriona Balfe), Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and Roger (Richard Rankin) turned up to stop Bonnet's getting away.
A possessive noun modifying a gerund is often changed to the noun's base form. (Doing so often sounds more natural to fluent English speakers than keeping the possessive form, as in this case.) If you're interested in that topic, it's been discussed many times on this website. (I recommend searching for the tags "gerunds" and "possessives". For example, here is one ELL question that deals with this issue: Possessive form of the noun...why is it incorrect?)
answered Feb 20, 2023 at 4:14
-
Thank you! But there's one thing I would like to ask, in my example, there's no "s" in the proper noun Bonnet. I think "getting away" is a noun in this case.– QuiqueCommented Feb 20, 2023 at 12:06
-
@Quique It is the gerund form either of the verb "to get" (modified by the adverb "away") or the phrasal verb "to get away". Some people call gerunds nouns, but it is more common to consider them forms of verbs that function "nominally" (and thus can be objects of prepositions such as "from" or verbs such as "stop"). It is also possible to consider it a present participle (modifying "Bonnet"), but I don't find that construction very satisfying here. Commented Feb 20, 2023 at 18:31