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"Young learners, no doubt, are very investigative by nature. Whenever they come across a new thing or they hear about it, a number of questions hit their curious and tender mind. They want to know appropriate answers to their questions. They find their parents and guardians in their very environment from whom they can know whatever they require. It is the due responsibility of parents and guardians to give them satisfactory answers…"

Can anyone explain me the meaning and grammar of the bold part? I can't figure it out.

My friend said that the sentence in bold is grammatically correct, but it's for informal use.

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    Odd. It's markedly formal, not informal. Also, it sounds like it was written by a non-native speaker.
    – user230
    Oct 27, 2015 at 7:38
  • @snailboat : Yes, it's written by Indian (in a children book). Is is grammatically correct?
    – Sour Tofu
    Oct 28, 2015 at 6:40
  • Is this sentence grammatically correct?
    – Sour Tofu
    Oct 29, 2015 at 1:32
  • Can I change the bold part into this: "Young learners, no doubt, are very investigative by nature. Whenever they come across a new thing or they hear about it, a number of questions hit their curious and tender mind. They want to know appropriate answers to their questions**, so they will find their parents and guardians in their very environment to ask whatever they require**. It is the due responsibility of parents and guardians to give them satisfactory answers…"
    – Sour Tofu
    Oct 29, 2015 at 1:57
  • "parents and guardians" is weird to me. No sure what you're really intending. Would "adults" work instead of the phrase?
    – MaxW
    Oct 29, 2015 at 9:21

3 Answers 3

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The sentence is grammatical.
(But it's not informal. It's markedly formal.)

I take it that your problem is about sentence structure rather than vocabulary. I believe that the meaning will become clear to you if we rearrange the sentence a little and group some phrases to make them more obvious. Here is the sentence, bracketed to make its parts more obvious.

They find [ [ their parents and guardians ] in their very environment ] from whom [ they can know [ whatever they require ] ].

We can reduce the sentence to:

They find X from whom they can know Y.
​　(X = their parents and guardians in their very environment)
​　(Y = whatever they require)

We can convert this complex sentence into two simple sentences:

  1. They find X.
  2. They can know Y from X.

It should now be clear that the sentence simply means:

  1. They find their parents and guardians in their very environment.
  2. They can know whatever they require from their parents and guardians (who are in their very environment).
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  • So I am correct to say, you are tellling us that the young learners are very investigative by nature. So that so, they need or they want appropriate answers from sombody ( whatever you can name. ). And ( this is my personall assumption ( it would be lucky enough for these learners ) can find parents and -- guardians ( probably meaning same as protectors ), which is according to you, 1 The find X, and therefore? they can learn from their parents, which is your 2 They can know Y from X. Am I wrong?
    – user17814
    Apr 16, 2016 at 13:48
  • You're right, for the most part. The way it's phrased in the original doesn't really make 2 as a consequence of 1 (even though it may appear so and it's reasonable to assume so). The original simply states two facts in two clauses.
    – Damkerng T.
    Apr 16, 2016 at 13:52
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I think the meaning in plain words would be:

A curious child would go to his parents (or guardians, which I think is a reference to an elder individual more than a "guardian" per se) to clear any doubts. As a kid, we generally run to our parents whenever we have an unanswered question because we know that they will have an answer to everything (or so did we believe). I think the 'bold' part in your extract conveys the same meaning. And I'm not sure with the whole "environment" thing. I'm guessing the author just means that we often run to our parents back at 'Home', assuming that they'll be there.

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The bold sentence can be paraphrased as

They will ask a nearby parent or guardian about whatever it is that has aroused their curiosity.

The "guardian" in question can be a grandparent, aunt, uncle, teacher or anyone else that the child trusts.

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