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I have this sentence: "Tilly laid down in the center of the room, arms under her head and eyes closed serenely."

Do I need pronouns before the nouns ie "Tilly laid down in the center of the room, her arms under her head and her eyes closed serenely."

Do I need the repetitious "her arms; her head; her eyes" or is my first sentence still correct?

Thank you.

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  • I'd say both are acceptable, but I prefer the one with all the possessive determiners. Omitting the one before 'head' here sounds distinctly off, though 'hands on head' is a different animal. Commented Nov 18, 2019 at 19:24
  • Thank you both! I'm American, but I do prefer British spellings in quite a bit of my work!
    – Narmowen
    Commented Nov 18, 2019 at 20:24
  • This is perfectly OK: " "Tilly lay down in the center of the room, arms under head and eyes closed serenely.", although I would write 'centre'. – Commented Nov 18, 2019 at 22:39

1 Answer 1

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Both versions are acceptable, the latter a bit smoother in my opinion, but please note the erroneous use of “laid”, which is the past tense of “to lay”, in place of “lay”, the past tense of “to lie (down)”.

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