Att'n Duncan: Please clarify...

[Guest guest]

Hello Duncan,

I like your posts... I am owed by how much you know and by how well you

express what you know. But -- interdum et Homerus dormit: now and then

even Homer dozes off -- just now I read a sentence of yours that puzzles

me. La vooila:

I have a tub of stabilised oat bran I use to thicken dishes with, similarly

enhanced by extraction from whole food.

To begin with there should be a " which " between " oat bran " and " I use. "

No question about that. The adjectival clause " which I use to thicken dishes

with " is a non-restrictive clause; ergo, a " which " is required to introduce it.

The " with " at the end of it, by the way, could be dropped without loss of

clarity.

But the omission of the " which " is merely a slip. It's not critical for

understanding your sentence. It's the " similarly enhanced by extraction from

whole food " that baffles me. You seem to take too much for granted. A little

expansion of your phrase would/might help. As it stands, I can't do much of

anything with it.

Call me a " Dummkopf, " if you want. I taught English Literature and Grammar for

years, in high school and at unniversity. If the meaning of your phrase,

however clear to you yourself, eludes me, what about the rest of your readers?

Nichts fuer ungut -- no offense intended,

waterbuf, alias Ambros Prechtl, MA ND PhD