To alienate. help me.

[Alexandro]

Hi,

Can you say: 'During their divorce he alienated their children from their mother.'
(meaning: he made sure that the children didn't see their mother again.)

'Jason didn't pay very much attention to his wife anymore, in fact, he didn't share his problems and happiness with her anymore. She felt alienated.

Are these sentences correct?

Please help me.
Thank you.

Alexandro.
_________________
'Everyone can mistakes! After all, nobody's perfect.'

[Jamie (K)]

Both sentences are correct. However, in the first one, it means that not only did the man make sure his children didn't see their mother, but that he also turned them against her emotionally.

[Justin_Huang]

Is it a good style to put 'during' at the beginning of a sentence? A local website suggests that we should avoid putting preposition about time at the beginning of a sentence.

[Jamie (K)]

It's perfectly OK to put "during" at the beginning of that sentence. It's not wrong, and it's not bad style.

[Alan]

Hi Justin_Huang,

I don't know which

[Justin_Huang]

Hi Alan,
I learned it from a Chinese website (the author is an American).
http://www.chineseowl.idv.tw/html/unit3.htm

The website teaches technical writing. In the article, he says that many Chinese writers are used to putting prepositions, such as 'during', 'unitil', 'before', at the beginning of a sentence and he thinks it is a bad habit in English. He thinks this kind of usage is to continue its previous sentence. In other words, if the sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph or the sentence is independent from its previous sentence, we should NOT put such preposition at the beginning of the sentence.

[Jamie (K)]

I don't know what he's talking about. I would have to see the kind of Chinese "mistake" he's talking about, but there is nothing wrong with putting a prepositional phrase at the beginning of a sentence in technical writing or any other kind of writing.

I have seen the same kind of restriction in some English stylistic rules issued by a French company. In that case, they claimed that "American" style doesn't allow it, but that's also ridiculous.

[Alexandro]

Thanks Jamie (K) for your explanation. But is there also a difference between: 'to be alienated from' and 'to get estranged from.' I think so, but my intuition is not always correct. Would you be so kind as to shed some light on this. Thanks Alexandro.
_________________
'Everyone can mistakes! After all, nobody's perfect.'

[Jamie (K)]

I think there is a difference, but it's so subtle that I can't explain it. It's best to check a dictionary.

[Justin_Huang]

Hi Jamie,
I believe he was trying to provide a stricter rule for Chinese-speaking people to follow. In Chinese, we usually put time phrase or time adverb at the beginning of a sentence. Perhaps he had seen too many people wrote English in that way throughtout their whole article.
Anyway, I am glad to learn that it is not really a mistake.

Thank you.

Justin