Comparisons

[kouranjelika]

Hi guys,

I am going over the FofV cover to cover and have a question regarding this sentence:

pg. 101 Drill 6.1 #3.

"Although Balaji managed to eat 75 hot dogs with incredible speed, the hot-dog-eating contest trophy ultimately went to another competitor. "

So in the answers it says that this sentence is correct. I agree in terms of modifiers, but wouldn't it better if the two clauses used comparative structure? As in, the depended clause describes what B did, so wouldn't it be better to say in the independent clause (main one), what actually happened to him? For example:
Although Balaji managed to eat 75 hot dogs with incredible speed, Balaji did not win the hot-dog-eating contest trophy ultimately went to another competitor.
or
Although Balaji managed to eat 75 hot dogs with incredible speed, Balaji did not ultimately win the the hot-dog-eating contest's trophy (or trophy of the hot-dog-...).

So on this note, DO the dependent and independent clauses have to be mirroring each other in meaning and structure? If not, in which cases not?

Thank you,
Anjelika

[RonPurewal]

I actually have no idea what "dependent clause" and "independent clause" are. (I don't know any grammar terms beyond fifth-grade parts of speech"”noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition. That's about it.) So, I can't address that aspect of the question.

--

There's no reason to complicate the issue here (and definitely no reason to go swimming in unnecessary terminology).

Just understand that these kinds of constructions work like this:
Although (sentence), (sentence)

As long as ...
1/ the two sentences are legitimately sentences
2/ their relationship makes sense with the word "although" (i.e., there is actually some kind of contrast)
... the overall sentence is fine.

Your version would also be fine, as long as you got rid of the second "Balaji" and replaced it with "he".

[kouranjelika]

Got it. I just wanted to know that the two elements/clauses/sentences/call-them-whatever, don't have to be parallel or comparative in structure.
I think you answered my question that it's ok either way. I've also been noticing other examples of this construction in the correct answers, so I think I'm good on this.

Thanks a lot Ron, as always, a pleasure!

[jnelson0612]

Great! :-)

[ParthJ26]

6th Edition. FoV. Pg 111. Drill 6.1. Question no. 3

Although Balaji managed to eat 75 hot dogs with incredible speed, the hot-dog-eating contest trophy ultimately went to another competitor.

What role does the underlined subordinate clause "Although Balaji managed to eat 75 hot dogs with incredible speed play?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

I'm not sure what you mean. I guess there are two facts in this situation: 'Balaji managed to eat 75 hot dogs with incredible speed' and 'the hot-dog-eating contest trophy ultimately went to another competitor'. The word 'although' connects them by implying: "it was pretty amazing how quick Balaji ate the hot-dogs, and you'd expect with that kind of speed that he'd have won the contest, but actually it wasn't to be".