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Here's the example:

"They are first taught the basic procedures for scuba diving, including safety and communication with fellow divers, then familiarize themselves with the equipment before dipping their toes into the water."

I could come up with simpler examples but this is the one that I'm struggling with. Is it odd either syntactically or semantically?

Masoud
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    I was taught French at school, then went to France on a family holiday. Nothing wrong with that, imho. The OP's example sounds clumsy to me, though, because the combination of a switch from passive to active plus the sheer length of the first clause makes it distracting for the reader to have to remember a "deleted" subject *they* before *familiarize. But that's a matter of good writing style*, not syntactic rules. – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '23 at 11:37
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    (Personally, I'd replace the comma with a period, starting the new sentence *Then they [familiarize themselves...]*.) – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '23 at 11:45
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    Obviously the answerer found this hard to parse (they have now deleted what was probably a wrong reading). FF's example is certainly grammatical and natural-sounding, but doesn't have the lengthy and involved main clause that the original does. I'd say it's better (not mandatory) to retain '[ ... divers,] and [then] they [familiarise ...]'. // Another problem I find with OP's example is the switch from being under instruction/a watchful eye to acting independently within the same sentence. It's jarring, especially with a deleted second 'they', as I think you feel, Masoud. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 16 '23 at 11:49
  • Better to help the reader than say It's correct. Let them figure it out. "They first learn the basic procedures for scuba diving, including safety and communication with fellow divers, then familiarize themselves with the equipment." – Yosef Baskin Jul 16 '23 at 12:16
  • @YosefBaskin: I don't think your comment practices what it preaches! Your rewrite gets rid of the jarring passive/active switch - which has the net effect of lessening the "clumsiness" caused by deleting the subject in the second clause, after that lengthy main clause. But it gives no indication as to whether OP's original is syntactically valid in the first place, nor does it give him any clue as to why *my* example is unquestionably fine, whereas his example is at least "stylistically weak". – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '23 at 15:21
  • @FumbleFingers Yes, your example is unquestionably fine, and the original is stylistically weak as a result, in my opinion, of expecting the reader to flow with the switch. – Yosef Baskin Jul 16 '23 at 15:47
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    @YosefBaskin: I think this is a context where we can trot out the old adage Politeness costs nothing. And I would say that repeating rather than deleting the second instance of the subject in OP's example (not mine! :) is *a polite courtesy to the reader.* It's not syntactically necessary, but failing to do so implies carelessness and/or incompetence on the part of the writer. (Unless he's not a native Anglophone in the first place! :) – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '23 at 16:11
  • @FumbleFingers I really appreciate this discussion. I think I should clarify about where I got the original example. It is actually a wrong option taken from an multiple-choice question from an advanced English test. The phrase "then familiarize themselves" is used as a wrong choice, and the phrase "and familiarized" is the correct choice/the answer. I was basically trying to understand why the test designer has considered "then familiarize themselves" to be a wrong option. – Masoud Jul 16 '23 at 22:11
  • Based on your comments, I now think that "then familiarize themselves" is not actually syntactically wrong, but most probably is not the option that "best completes the sentence" (test instructions), because of stylistic reasons. – Masoud Jul 16 '23 at 22:12
  • @Masoud: I don't really understand that. Unquestionably, "then familiarize themselves" is perfectly valid (just "awkward"). But past tense "and familiarized" could never be valid as a second clause following present tense "They are...". Is this just another one of the garbage multiple choice questions from incompetent non-Anglophone setters that we often see here? – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '23 at 23:26
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    @FumbleFingers “and familiarized” is not really past tense here. It is passive with an omitted “are”. – Masoud Jul 16 '23 at 23:53
  • oic - that's an appalling construction! – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '23 at 23:56
  • Consider this simplified version: They are first taught A and familiarized with B before dipping their toes into the water. This sentence seems to be taken from a longer reading passage found here: https://www.scribd.com/document/539087289/B2-English-Level-Practice-Test – Masoud Jul 17 '23 at 00:03
  • The reason it sounds so bad is that the verb in the second coordinate should be a to-infinitival, not a bare one. This sounds much better "They are first taught the basic procedures for scuba diving, including safety and communication with fellow divers, (and) then to familiarize themselves with the equipment before dipping their toes into the water." – BillJ Jul 17 '23 at 13:44
  • "Parallelism" is not a "rule" to be used. It's a fact about language that often shows up. That's all; no license is given. There are rules that provide such license, but that would require more than handwaving. – John Lawler Sep 19 '23 at 14:17

2 Answers2

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This is not ungrammatical:

They are first taught the basic principles of lift and drag, then familiarize themselves with the plane's instrumentation panel before taking 400 people on a six-hour flight.

You can carry "they" forward into the second clause implicitly as subject of the verb familiarize. However, your listener or reader may be carrying the verb taught forward and may expect to find that verb complemented by a non-finite to+infintive clause and thus stumble on familiarize because it is missing to. So there's good reason to repeat the pronoun and to separate the independent clauses with and, for the sake of syntactic clarity:

They are first taught the basic principles of lift and drag, and then they familiarize themselves with the plane's instrumentation panel before taking 400 people on a six-hour flight.

TimR
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  • I'm not convinced you can be taught [how] to familiarize** yourself with anything, so that's not a parsing that native Anglophones would ever settle on. But they might be irritated by the "garden path" nature of text which forces them to abandon an untenable parsing that only arises because the writer hasn't provided the relevant "courtesy to the reader" (of avoiding deletion of the subject in that potentially awkward context). – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '23 at 15:31
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    It's a well-established pedagogical approach. To wit: "In the study of the law the student should be required to carefully study standard works which may be cited as authorities [...] and also the student should be taught to familiarize himself with digests, reports, text-books and all abbreviations used to that when he enters upon the practice of his profession he will have such knowledge as will enable him to rapidly and intelligently examine legal questions." Michigan State Bar Association Proceedings, vol 1902. – TimR Jul 16 '23 at 16:14
  • "Students are taught to familiarize themselves with the main ideas and organization of the chapter by focusing on subheadings, illustrations, and reading the chapter summary in the “survey” pass." Interventions in Learning Disabilities: A Handbook ..., 2016. – TimR Jul 16 '23 at 16:17
  • "Participants are taught to familiarize themselves with their Post Crisis Plan and fill in any information they can prior to a crisis occurring...." Community Psychology and Community Mental Health. Geoffrey Brian Nelson, ‎Bret Kloos, ‎José Ornelas ( 2014 ) – TimR Jul 16 '23 at 16:21
  • There teach has a dual meaning: "give facts and info/explain how something works" and "instruct/guide/encourage". – TimR Jul 16 '23 at 16:27
  • Okay - I'll grant that [subject] is taught* [to do something]* is valid in certain contexts. So there's Our children were taught to be polite** as opposed to Our children were taught good manners. But that simply compounds the awkwardness of the OP's example! Not only is there a switch from passive to active - there's also a switch between how "transitive" *to teach X* is being used (in the first instance, being taught actual knowledge, then being taught how to act / what to do). It's all just "jarring". – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '23 at 16:51
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    Yes, not only valid but a long-established turn of phrase that has worn a rut in pedagogical discourse . – TimR Jul 16 '23 at 17:38
  • I can believe that! It may not be obvious, but I now think it's precisely because OP's example juxtaposed two different uses of *to be taught [information | behaviour]* that I didn't initially think of the second type of usage there. I was still clinging to the direction of the garden path set up by the first occurrence in the example text. It's all down to the power of suggestion. – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '23 at 17:47
  • The reason it sounds so bad is that the verb in the adjunct should be a to-infinitival, not a bare one. This sounds much better "They are first taught the basic procedures for scuba diving, including safety and communication with fellow divers, (and) then to familiarize themselves with the equipment before dipping their toes into the water." – BillJ Jul 17 '23 at 13:43
  • @BillJ Yes, that is more felicitous as regards parallelism, but it changes the meaning. // I suppose using 'they' as the subject of a compound predicate involving active and passive verb phrases is borderline zeugmatic. FF's 'I was taught French at school, then went to France on a family holiday' sounds acceptable to my ears, while I'd rewrite OP's example. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 21 '23 at 10:15
  • @EdwinAshworth No, it doesn't change the meaning. The verb "taught" is ellipted (call it 'gapping') but understood. In full, it is "They are [first taught the basic procedures for scuba diving, including safety and communication with fellow divers], [and then taught to familiarize themselves with the equipment before dipping their toes into the water]." The two bracketed elements are a coordinaation of subordinate clauses as complement of "are". – BillJ Jul 23 '23 at 10:27
  • I'm reading the [first, they are taught ...'] [then, they familiarise themselves ...] as the likely reading. Familiarisation being taught by an outsider sounds rather contradictory. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 23 '23 at 13:33
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If you wish to use a compound predicate as here (or indeed a compound sentence), then it's better to connect with a coordinator "and". The sentence diagram would be as the following:

the sentence diagramming

Edwin Ashworth
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tung hai Kuo
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  • Hello, tung hai Kuo. Compound predicates (no [overt] second subject). // There are many accomplished writers who are happy to use sentences such as 'I went to high school, then I went to college' and 'I popped the cup into the microwave, set it to nuke anything unfortunate enough to be caught within its grasp for thirty seconds, then raided my fridge for sustenance.' See Brenner's fine article at Can 'then' be used as a coordinating conjunction?. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 21 '23 at 10:26
  • Sorry, I made a mistake. Compound sentence is two clauses connected by a coordinator. – tung hai Kuo Jul 22 '23 at 10:15
  • @tunghaiKuo Please do not use the Reed-Kellogg method of diagramming. This system is obsolete in the US, and was never even taught elsewhere. – BillJ Jul 23 '23 at 07:33