ShmoopTube

00:04

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by untouched coconuts. We bet some of them

00:08

are in dire need of a hug.

00:25

The best placement for the underlined portion would be... where?

00:29

An untouched coconut has three layers.

00:32

And here are the potential answers:

00:37

The underlined portion consists solely of the adjective "untouched." How do we know

00:42

it's an adjective?

00:43

Because it's doing its best to describe a noun, which is, in this case, "coconut."

00:46

Let's take a stroll though these options and see which one best helps our adjective

00:51

do its job.

00:51

Choice (C) says that the writer should place "untouched" before the word "layers."

00:56

If the writer does this, the sentence would read, "An coconut has three untouched layers."

01:01

Uh... terrible idea. For one, it uses the word "an" where it should use "a,"

01:05

since "coconut" begins with a consonant.

01:07

More importantly, it completely changes the meaning of the sentence. The writer isn't

01:10

describing the layers of the coconut; he or she is telling us about the coconut as a whole.

01:14

Choice (D) would read, "Untouched an coconut has three layers."

01:19

This option has tons of problems. There's the a/an issue from before. Also, "untouched"

01:23

needs a comma after it.

01:24

Ultimately, it's just a wonky way of expressing the thought and is undeserving of further attention.

01:28

Choice (B) suggests placing "untouched" before the word "has." So the sentence

01:32

would read, "The coconut untouched has three layers."

01:36

This option is incorrect, because the adjective is usually placed before the noun it's modifying, not after.

01:41

This means that the original placement was right all along, and the correct answer is (A).

01:45

The sentence should indeed read, "An untouched coconut has three layers."

01:49

Warning: we set booby traps around our coconut trees to ensure that our coconuts remain untouched.

01:54

Proceed at your own risk.

Full Transcript