Which of these sentences is correct?
I'm a musician with an unhealthy addiction.
OR
I'm a musician who has an unhealthy addiction.
Or are they both correct? Any help would be really appreciated!
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Both correct, but the former sounds more natural here.– Cerberus_Reinstate_MonicaFeb 13, 2013 at 20:29
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1 Answer
They're both fine. You could switch it up and use both for the sake of repetition and variation. One just uses a relative clause to describe the speaker where the other uses a prepositional phrase.
MUSICIAN: I am a musician who has an unhealthy addiction--I write so much music that I don't get any sleep.
2ND MUSICIAN: I am also a musician with an unhealthy addiction--I write so much music that I forget to eat.
Since the relative pronoun is redundant and is not really doing much of anything outside of the structure of the sentence, the preposition strikes me as a better place to start for style points. While it would be more concise and maybe a little more natural to use the with, in the examples above, I start with the who so that the second speaker isn't upstaging the first.
This might be a good time to review other types of relative clauses:
Non-restrictive clause: The musician, who has an unhealthy addition, is adamant about following his 12 step program.
Restrictive clause: The musician who has an unhealthy addition will crash and burn.
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+1 for an excellent example showing they're actually so interchangeable that you can use both in the same sequence without it even being particularly noticeable. Feb 14, 2013 at 1:13