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I know the brother of Ram who loved Rani.

In the above sentence what does it mean? Who loved Rani?? Ram or his brother??
Because we use the word 'who' just after Ram. But it might be different as here the preposition 'of' before Ram. I am totally confused about it.

Bella Swan
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Sahil Laskar
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1 Answers1

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In the particular example of this sentence, it is impossible to know who loved Rani: was it Ram? was it the brother?

The real meaning can be understood only if more information is provided.

Adding a comma will not help either:

I know the brother of Ram, who loved Rani.

It still remains ambiguous.

There is no simple way to fix this sentence to make it unambiguous.

One possibility is:

  • I know the brother of Ram. Ram loved Rani.

or:

  • I know the brother of Ram. This brother loved Rani.

But if you say:

  • I know the brother of Ram. He loved Rani.

then it becomes ambiguous again.

It is the same kind of ambiguity as in the following sentence:

The girl came to her mother laughing.

We cannot know if the girl was laughing or the mother.

virolino
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