How would the error/s in the following sentence be classified (gramatically)?

Question

"...," Bush said after having lunch at his lakeside hotel with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of America's strongest allies in Iraq, Vietnam and other conflicts.

Answer 1

It's a "misplaced modifier." AUSTRALIA was one of America's strongest allies in Iraq, Vietnam and other conflicts, not just PM Howard. Generally these adjective phrases must immediately follow the noun to which it is modifying. Otherwise you get:

"The Major met informally to discuss food prices and the high cost of living with several women."

As this sentence reads, it sounds like he's discusssing the cost of being a polygamist, instead of what the true meaning is:
"The mayor met informally with several women to discuss high food proces and the high cost of living."

In your sentence, the phrase should be arranged to say
... " Bush said after having lunch at his lakeside hotel with P.M. Howard of Australia, one of America's strongest allies in Iraq, Vietnam and other conflicts.

Or better yet:

... Bush said after having lunch with Australian P.M. Howard. Australia has been one of America's strongest allies in Iraq...

(P.S. the sentence is not "passive" as some have asserted, because the attribution of a quotation can come before or after the quotation. Futher, this sounds like a news story, and certainly the quote is more important. Finally, "passive voice" is where the person or thing doing the action becomes a direct/indirect object of the sentence; and the true "direct object" becomes the subject:
The paper was reviewed and corrected by John.
Rather than
John reviewed and corrected the paper.

Passive voice is not grammatically incorrect; it's just not as strong as an active voice sentence.

Here, the subject is "Bush," the verb is "said." It's still "active." The passive construction woudl be "...." was said by Bush. The mere fact that the quote comes first does not make the sentence passive.)

Answer 2

I think there should be a comma after said and Vietnam, and I think it's a run-on sentence. To be safe, I'd write:

"...," Bush said, after having lunch at his lakeside hotel with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Prime Minister Howard is one of America's strongest allies in Iraq, Vietnam, and other conflicts.

p.s. Yes, preserving the English language would be great... There is nothing passive in this sentence though... While looking up passive and active verbs, maybe look up the correct usage of semi-colons.

Answer 3

Correct rendition -"..." Bush said, after having lunch at his lakeside hotel with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of America's strongest allies in Iraq, Vietnam and other conflicts.

It's clunky but gramatically correct.

Answer 4

Oh, my god. "What errors?" Why doesn't anyone wnat to preserve the English language anymore? Anyway:
What do you mean by classified? The biggest one is that the verb usage is passive, it should be "Bush said "____" after having lunch..."
But also it would be much better switched around; better comprehension.
Also, are Iraq and Vietnam considered conflicts all by themselves, or should the word "war" be used somewhere in there?

Answer 5

The first two use correct syntax. (Understand that the grammar is indicative of the Appalachian dialect.) The third sentence does not. The dual verbs "done seen" are not proper, regardless of the dialect. The sentence should correctly read "Ever since ya'd seen them thar possums..."

Answer 6

Maybe it is the dots befor Bush . Is that suposed to be a picture or something ?

Answer 7

In sentence construction: sentence is too long , some punctuation marks missing.

Answer 8

You will definitely turn out to be a great scholar.

Answer 9

the word conflicts??

Answer 10

What grammatical error/s???