Can a and b be combined into c?
a. The crowd overflowed into the street.
b. The crowd overflowed the auditorium.
c. The crowd overflowed the auditorium into the street.
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Apollyon
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I think it's worth noting that a "wild card" search in Google NGrams for overflowed the * into produces no output, because the sequence is just too uncommon.... – FumbleFingers May 23 '21 at 13:23
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...but if I include an explicit preposition overflowed from the * into, I get plenty of hits. I suggest you do likewise, but this is basically just Off Topic writing advice. – FumbleFingers May 23 '21 at 13:24
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If you google that sequence with double quotation marks on Google Books, you'll find some results. – Apollyon May 23 '21 at 13:27
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Oh, wow! I didn't realise Google Internet searches can now handle that wildcard asterisk! I probably last checked that point at least 5 years ago, which just goes to show that things are constantly moving forward, and even things I discovered relatively recently might no longer be true! Anyway, I've definitely learned something useful from this question, even if you don't! :) – FumbleFingers May 23 '21 at 13:38
1 Answers
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I think it would be clearer as "The crowd overflowed the auditorium, pouring into the street." Then it would be clear that the direct object in c., auditorium, is not itself being pushed into the street.
Jack O'Flaherty
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I think that's a common expression, so it's right by definition. – Jack O'Flaherty May 23 '21 at 13:47