If the police conclude that the person died by accident, should I say 'The police concluded in an accident' ?
To me, this sounds like they finish the story by having an accident.
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Yes it does sound as though the police have an accident.– chasly - supports MonicaOct 30, 2015 at 23:05
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The police concluded that the death was due to an accident. Or they concluded that it was an accidental death.– Hot LicksOct 30, 2015 at 23:55
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Note that this sense of "conclude" is synonymous with "determine" -- "The police determined that the death was due to an accident". There is a somewhat different sense of the word, eg: "The trial concluded in a hung jury." This second sense is not synonymous with "determine".– Hot LicksOct 31, 2015 at 0:21
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Though 'finish in' and 'end in', meaning 'finish with the result of', are sometimes used (It finished/ended in a three-way tie for second ...), 'conclude in' is unidiomatic in my opinion. And the usage you want is certainly unacceptable.– Edwin AshworthOct 31, 2015 at 0:29
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@EdwinAshworth - The sense of "conclude" here is not "finish" but "determine". We're talking about conclusions (determinations) such as Sherlock Holmes might arrive at. I suspect that this difference is a part of the OP's confusion.– Hot LicksOct 31, 2015 at 1:08
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2 Answers
I tried to look up the usage in BBI Collocation and I find nothing. But I guess you would like some sentences like
The concert concluded with a rousing chorus.
Therefore you can try
The crime investigation concluded with an identified accident.
However, if you want to place police on the subject slot, according the meaning and usage listed in AHD, I think you must use the conclude as a transitive verb, which should be The police concluded the investigation with an identified accident.
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1While it may be technically correct, using "concluded" twice in a single sentence is very poor form. (And note that "conclude" has at least two distinct senses, so you can't simply take a usage from some example and apply it in an unrelated context without some appreciation of the difference.) Oct 31, 2015 at 0:26
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I ended up using something like this. I guess it just isn't possible to do with a preposition. Thanks!– user145185Oct 31, 2015 at 8:20
"Conclude in" sounds wrong You maybe try to translate the french verb "conclure à", which means : "to arrive at a conclusion"
However I'm not sure at all that "conclude at" would be correct. I only know "conclude something", "conclude by ...", "conclude that ..." As I'm not native speaker, wait another response
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"Concluded at an accident" would suggest that the police stopped playing license plate bingo when they encountered an accident. Oct 30, 2015 at 23:56
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That's exactly the verb I'm trying to translate ;) I agree with Hot Licks– user145185Oct 31, 2015 at 8:18