Is this grammatically correct English sentence?

Question

I am a university student of English Language and Culture and I was asked to do an observation task: this means that I have to give some of my fellow students a grade for their presentation and give an explanation as to why I chose that certain grade.
Now the presenter produced the following sentence:
"You have the most pieces of the puzzle"
To me this sentence does not sound like a correct english sentence at all and I would like to get opinions about this from some native speakers.

I just realised that I forgot the determiner "a" before "grammatically" in my question....of course I don't want to know whether my question is correct.

Answer 1

If the puzzle is an actual puzzle...one you can physically touch, then that sentence is correct. If the "puzzle" is a perplexing situation that does not have a simple solution, then the correct way would be, "You have the most pieces TO the puzzle".
The more pieces OF the puzzle you have, the more pieces you can contribute TOWARDS solving that puzzle.

Answer 2

There are a lot of answers here, but I think only a few of them brush on the core problem.
You asked if the sentence is correct English, and it is. That is not the issue though. The issue is whether the sentence makes sense in the context of the presentation that they were giving. No one can answer that without first knowing the context.
Several of the above answers allude to the different meanings. You could then deduce what they were intending, but we cannot actually tell you if the sentence made sense in the context without seeing more.

Answer 3

If you have the highest number of pieces of the puzzle compared to anyone else, then yes the sentence is grammatically correct. Otherwise the sentence should read "You have most of the pieces of the puzzle."

Answer 4

Being gramatically correct is an academic affair. I personally try to communicate ideas rather than concentrate on the words. I feel that the Meat of a subject is far more important than the trimmings. After all, we think using ideas (thought clusters), not words. Although some poeple are very adept at word usage, it is often distracting for the listener to concentrate on the subject matter, when part of the brain is attempting to decipher the words.
I would probably say "You have most of the puzzle pieces."
I don`t like the two "the`s" used in the sentence (why the redundancy?) , though this might be gramatically acceptable.

Answer 5

It's grammatically correct and does make sense if the statement is a comparison (comparing the number of pieces that person has to that held by others). However, it would be clearer and more readily understandable if it is "You have most of the pieces of the puzzle".

Answer 6

This is a grammatically correct sentence.

Let's break it down: There is a subject (You) and a predicate (have the most pieces of the puzzle).

The predicate can further be broken down into the verb (have) and the direct object (the most pieces of the puzzle).

The direct object can further be broken down into noun phrase (the most pieces) and prepositional phrase (of the puzzle).

The noun phrase has an article (the), a superlative (most), and the noun (pieces), and the prepositional phrase has a preposition (of), an article (the), and noun (puzzle).

This sentence is not a fragment because it contains both a subject and a predicate. It is also not a run-on sentence because it consists of just one independent clause and no dependent clauses. Everything about it is grammatically correct.

Answer 7

It's correct; it means that you have the majority of the pieces of the puzzle as compared to someone else.

If he were to say "You have most of the pieces of the puzzle," it would mean you have the majority of the pieces, but not in comparison to someone else.

Answer 8

To me, a 69-year-old Briton living in southern England, "You have most of the pieces of the puzzle" ( with amendments as I have written) is good, just one of several ways of saying that you have generally understood a fairly complex idea.

Indeed you must omit "the" in front of "most", and construct the sentence as I have done. The quotation as written by you is not correct in grammar or usage.

Answer 9

Hi, I'm a native English speaker..

I think the correct way to say it would be
"You have most of the pieces of the puzzle"

=]

Answer 10

In the sense that one has the "majority" of the puzzle pieces, it is near correct.
"You have most " of " the pieces " of " , or " from " the puzzle."