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Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way...



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
Error identification | Bed 'n' Breakfast
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Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way... Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:06 am  Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way...
 

Hi

Could you please tell me how the given sentence sounds to you? Is it grammatically OK?

1- The wooden cupboard to his right gave way and came tumbling on him.

Tom
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Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way... Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:22 am  Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way...
 

Hi Tom

I'd add the word "down":

The wooden cupboard to his right gave way and came tumbling down on him.
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Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way... Thu Oct 12, 2006 22:30 pm  Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way...
 

And I'd have said: 'The wooden cupboard on his right...'.
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Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way... Thu Oct 12, 2006 23:43 pm  Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way...
 

Tom wrote:
Hi

Could you please tell me how the given sentence sounds to you? Is it grammatically OK?

1- The wooden cupboard to his right gave way and came tumbling on him.

Tom

Could you say 'came tumbling down onto him'? I know onto isn't exactly commonplace, but I think it might be correctly used here as a preposition.
Pyro
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Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way... Thu Oct 12, 2006 23:53 pm  Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way...
 

Hi Pyro

Using the word "onto" is also OK. In fact, "onto" has a sense of motion in it since it literally means "to a position on".

Amy
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Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way... Fri Oct 13, 2006 0:07 am  Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way...
 

Thanks for clarifying! I wasn't too sure whether that would work or not.
Pyro
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Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way... Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:36 am  Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way...
 

Tom wrote:
Hi

Could you please tell me how the given sentence sounds to you? Is it grammatically OK?

1- The wooden cupboard to his right gave way and came tumbling on him.

Tom

I wonder whether "tumble" is an appropriate verb here. It has a base sense of "turn" or "spin", as in "tumbler" (= acrobat), or "tumble-dryer". Even in its sense "fall down" (e.g. "he tumbled down the stairs"), it has a sense of a turning or floppy or ungainly or uncoordinated fall.

A cupboard on the other hand is mostly rigid. The contents of a cupboard (e.g. piles of linen) might tumble out on top of you, if they had been stacked with insufficient care; but I'm not sure the components of a cupboard could "tumble", after "giving way".

Perhaps:

1- The wooden cupboard to/on his right gave way and fell on top of him.

MrP
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Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way... Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:31 am  Expression: The wooden cupboard to his right gave way...
 

Hi,

Surely the use of 'tumble down' here is intentionally graphic suggesting almost that the cupboard is animate.

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