question - karen

New York city police continue their investigation after gunning down a man they say lunged at them with a nife yesterday in Times Square. Well, this is the whole sentence. You said that there should be only one 'who' before 'they say'. But what I wanted to ask you is why there shouldn't be more relative prounouns before 'lunged at'. For me, it just looks like that 'a man' is an objective, and 'they say~~ with a knife' is just some kind of adjectives, so it adds more meanings about 'a man'. So, from now is more closed to what I'm trying to say. I've learned that relative pronouns must be before past verbs when they have them, like 'He is the one who called me.' But.... this is a little bit diffrerent from what I've learned....

Happy weekend [이름]! (=

How's your weekend coming along? I hope you are having a blast ^^. Thank you for sending in your question. I was waiting for it last Friday. Whenever you send your question, I find what you mean easier to understand than on the phone. -___- Kkkkk Anyway, I placed the corrections below, so please study them. I also tried to answer your question. I hope you are able to understand the explanation that I have provided below kkkk. If you have any more questions, please ask away. I find your questions challenging ^__^ so I want to answer them for your as much as I can. ~,~

P.S. You told me that you will read a book. So, how many chapters did you already finish reading? Kkkk O.o

-t.Karen =^.^=

New York city police continue their investigation after gunning down a man they say lunged at them with a nife yesterday in Times Square.
Well, this is the whole sentence.

>> Correct! ^^ 
You said that there should be only one \'who\' before \'they say\'.

>> You said that there should only be \"Who\" before \"They say\". 
But what I wanted to ask you is why there shouldn\'t be more relative prounouns before \'lunged at\'.

>> Correct grammar! ^^ But be careful with your spelling when typing down words, \"Pronouns\" . 

For me, it just looks like that \'a man\' is an objective, and \'they say~~ with a knife\' is just some kind of adjectives, so it adds more meanings about \'a man\'.

>> For me, it just looks like that \"A man\" is an object, and \"They say...with a knife\" is just some kind of adjective, so it adds more meaning about \"A man\". 

>> ** Be careful with your terminologies, it is supposed to be called an 'Object' (not 'Objective').

>> ** Check your subject-verb agreement. Since you are talking about a single clause (which is \"They say...with a knife\"), you should use the singular form of the word \"Adjective\". And because you already have the adjective \"More\", you should use the singular form of the word \"Meaning\". 
So, from now is more closed to what I\'m trying to say.

>> So, this is what I am trying to say.

>> ** I\'m not sure about what you are trying to say here, but I hope this is what you mean.

I\'ve learned that relative pronouns must be before past verbs when they have them, like \'He is the one who called me.\'

>> I\'ve learned that relative pronouns must be placed before past tense verbs, if there are any, like \"He is the one who called me\". 
But.... this is a little bit diffrerent from what I\'ve learned....

>> Correct grammar! ^^ But be careful with your punctuation mark. You should only use one to end your sentence.

>> ** Be careful with your spelling when typing down words, 'Different'.

>> ** EXPLANATION:

A.)The way I see it, if we separate the sentence into clauses, the independent clause is, 'New York city police continue their investigation after gunning down a man'. If we break down this clause:

-The subject is 'New York city police'.

-The verb is 'Continue'.

-The direct object is 'Investigation'.

- The prepositional phrase is 'after gunning down a man'. It acts as an adverb, answering the question 'When'.

B.) As for 'WHOM they say lunged at them with a knife yesterday in Times Square.', this is a relative clause functioning as an adjective, describing  'A man'. 

-Relative clauses follow this pattern: Relative pronoun as the subject of the clause + Verb

-The relative pronoun is 'Whom'.

-The verb is 'Lunged'.

-Like what you have mentioned, relative pronouns do need to come first before verbs. But it doesn't mean that you can't have a few words in between them. You can, in fact, fit a word or two in between them. BUT remember, that the relative pronoun will always come before the verb. Examples:

1. who ran quickly- correct

2. who I think ran quickly - correct

-If you add another relative pronoun 'Who', immediately before 'Lunged' ('Whom they say WHO lunged at them