I saw this sentence in a book and seems wrong to me. What do you think?
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at
5:45 pm
asked:
“Three people saw a man driving his motorcycle through the flower garden at City Hall.”
Person to Person 1, Jack C. Richards, et al., Page 16
As far as I know we shouldn’t use the verb “drive” for a motorcycle.
“Three people saw a man driving his motorcycle through the flower garden at City Hall.”
Person to Person 1, Jack C. Richards, et al., Page 16
As far as I know we shouldn’t use the verb “drive” for a motorcycle.
Tagged with: Flower Garden
Filed under: Flower Garden
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Perfectly fine.
I think you are right.
It would sound more natural to day he rode it.
What verb would you like? And before you say “ride”, remember that could apply to a passenger as well. You would like “operate” better?
It’s perfectly fine.
Hmmm.
It’s not incorrect, but it DOES sound weird. It definitely should have used the verb ‘ride’ =)
DRIVE: b: to operate the mechanism and controls and direct the course of (as a vehicle)
I don’t see anything wrong with “drive.” You could use “ride,” but that would make it unclear as to whether the man was driving or a passenger.
its perfectly ok because it is communicting to the reader in present tense so it can be give correct.
Ride may be more usual with motorcycles, but I think in this case drive is suitable. Ride is a bit more passive. ‘Riding down the highway on a motorcycle’ implies simply travelling in a normal way. It isn’t normal to take a motorcycle into a flower garden, and drive used here implies that the man purposely steered the motorcycle into the flower bed. It was not travelling in a normal way.