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Nightedge Aug 26th, 2015 03:26 am

clarify
 
Could I use a person as the object of clarify?

-Kindly be :cool:clarified :cool:that this university is closed.

susan53 Aug 26th, 2015 06:31 am

Re: clarify
 
This doesn't make sense at all. It's not grammatical and means nothing. To clarify is a transitive verb and means to make something clear. Eg :

The students obviously don't understand the use of the present perfect so I'll try and clarify it in the next lesson.

Here are some examples from the passive - notice that the object of the active verb (the "something") becomes the subject of the passive verb :

  • This difference is readily clarified by referring to Table 1.
  • This connection was clarified by Smith and Smith (1922), who showed that ...
  • Such legislation was clarified and extended from time to time thereafter. In 1913...
  • ... when the norms were clarified and made more precise

It's not possible therefore to use it as a passive imperative which would need a personal subject. It means nothing.

I think what the writer means could be something like : Please note that this university is closed...
but as always, without the context it's impossible to interpret it accurately.

Nightedge Aug 27th, 2015 02:23 pm

Re: clarify
 
Excellent answer. Thank you.


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