What's wrong here? "I was tempted to abandon everything I had planned and instead lead the men across the river."
A noun | 5 (6%) |
A verb | 31 (38%) |
A conjunction | 38 (46%) |
A preposition | 7 (8%) |
When I read this sentence in a book, the verb "lead" threw me because I thought it was supposed to be "led," the past tense form. So congrats to 38% of you. We can clarify the sentence with just one word:
"I was tempted to abandon everything I had planned and TO instead lead the men across the river."
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9 comments:
It was the lack of parallelism that caught me. I wanted the infinitive form of both verbs, as you have done.
I'm glad we think alike!
I, too, noted the lack of parallelism. But didn't you just split your infinitive?
Write on!
Sharon
Hmmm. Except that a split infinitive is not a real grammar problem! See Invented Grammar Rule 3 here:
http://www.writermag.com/en/sitecore/content/Home/Columns/Watch%20Your%20Language/2009/11/Ditch%20imaginary%20grammar%20rules%20part%201.aspx
How is "to lead" a conjunction?
I'm not saying it's a conjunction. "To lead" is an infinitive. The added "to" helps readers understand the sentence and makes it parallel: to x and to x.
I was tempted to abandon everything I had planned.
I instead led the men across the river.
Your version would read, "I was tempted instead to lead the men across the river." Not what the author intended, I am sure. The person was tempted to abandon his plans, but decided against temptation and led the men across the river. The first clause is passive and the second, active. You need to write out both sentences in full with "I" subjects and join them with either a semi-colon or a "but," rather than an "and," in my opinion.
My bad. I totally misread the sentence. It is a very confusing construction. The temptation is to lead the men across the river and therefore abandon everything previously planned. I thought the author intended the past tense of the verb "lead." The ideas really are not parallel, one should be subordinated to the other:
I was tempted to lead the men across the river, abandoning everything I had planned.
There is one temptation and one consequence if that action is taken. Writing both sentences out in full you have:
"I was tempted to abandon everything I had planned, and instead I was tempted to lead the men across the river."
If we have to rewrite this sentence this much, it must be criminal!
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