Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 4 down vote favorite
  1. He was charged with killing 13 people.
  2. He was charged with having killed 13 people.
  3. He was charged with the crime he killed 13 people.

I suppose the phrase no. 1 is correct but the others also make sense or are they grammatically wrong?

share|improve this question
2  
3 looks as if it has two main verbs in a single phrase and would benefit from some adjustment such as "that" or ";" between crime and he – Henry Aug 6 '12 at 11:16
2  
1 and 2 are both correct, but 1, out of any context, is ambiguous: it could mean 'He was assigned the task of killing 13 people.' 3 is syntactically incomplete, as Henry says; I would write 'He was charged with the crime of having killed &c'. – StoneyB Aug 6 '12 at 11:38

1 Answer

up vote 9 down vote

1 and 2 are correct.

3 is wrong. You could break it into two sentences:

He was charged with the crime. He killed 13 people.

But I think what you really mean is:

He was charged with the crime of killing 13 people.

share|improve this answer
1  
3 is just missing a that after crime and before he. Whether you can skate by without it is an open question. – tchrist Aug 6 '12 at 12:29
1  
@tchrist My grammatical intuition tells me very clearly that He was charged with the crime that he killed 13 people. is wrong. I can't explain exactly why, but I'm sure it's wrong. – Pitarou Aug 6 '12 at 12:49
1  
@Pitarou, I think it's your lexical intuition - the sentence is unidiomatic, but grammatically and syntactically unexceptionable. – StoneyB Aug 6 '12 at 13:56
@StoneyB Is this a matter that can be settled by Google NGram viewer? – Pitarou Aug 6 '12 at 14:05
1  
For the third one adding in which before the second he can fix the grammar. – Noah Aug 6 '12 at 14:50
show 4 more comments

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.