english question: the man the soldier the sargent hit shot ran?

Question

i got a question from my english teacher asking what the sentence "the man the soldier the sargent hit shot ran." it is a GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT sentece! We are supposed to figure of what it means and the only thing i can think of that makes sense is: the man hit the soldier shot the sargent ran. you cant add in any words and there are no commas or anything. can somebody help me out? thanks!

Answer 1

First, I hope your English teacher did not give you that. 'Sargent' is not a word in English. There is a word 'sergeant', meaning a noncommissioned officer.

Assuming that is the only error, you can make a grammatically correct sentence with punctuation:

The man (the soldier) the sergeant hit (shot) ran.

Trouble is, it makes just as good a sentence as:

The man the soldier (the sergeant) hit (shot) ran.

Adding parentheticals to expain/elaborate on/further define words used is an acceptable method, but this one seems to have been contrived as an example, not as a real-world sentence.

Answer 2

The sentence is missing the linkages "that" or "whom" and that's why it's confusing. But here's what it means:

The sargent hit the soldier. The soldier shot the man. The man ran.

Answer 3

I'm confused by the two verbs in succession. Maybe using parentheses to make one of the characters an appositive would help, something like: The man the soldier (the sergeant) hit ran. Here a soldier (who's a sergeant) hits a man who then runs away. Or: The man the soldier--the sergeant--shot, ran. That's the best I can do, but I'm betting I'm not on target. Are you sure the teacher had both "shot" and "hit" in the sentence?

Answer 4

The man the soldier, who was a Sargent, hit with his shot ran away.

Answer 5

The sergeant ran the soldier the hit man shot.

Since the sergeant is in charge of the soldier(s) under him/her, then he is said to run them. This is the only way I can think of that this would make sense sans any added words or punctuation marks. Also, doing it this way makes "hit" a noun by placing it with "man", thus having the man be a hit man (a person who gets paid to kill people).

Answer 6

The man, the soldier the sergeant hit - shot - ran?

meaning did the man, who was actually a soldier who was hit (shot) by the sergeant,run?

Answer 7

the man hit the soldier the shot sargent ran?

Answer 8

You have to break it down from the inside out.

The sargent hit a soldier, who shot a man, who ran.