Question

Which sentence has the most traditional syntax?

A) Stepping onto the sidewalk, her tears and breath were deep and drying.
B) She took a deep breath and stepped onto the sidewalk as her tears were drying.
C) Tears drying and a deep breath, she stepped onto the sidewalk.
D) With a deep drying breath, she stepped onto the sidewalk with tears.

Answer 1

B) She took a deep breath and stepped onto the sidewalk as her tears were drying.

Step-by-step explanation:

Syntax is: "the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language."

In option B we have a simple traditional arrangement with a phrase that begins with a pronoun as subject, followed by an action and a predicate. The others do not start with a clear subject in the beginning.

Answer 2

The correct answer is B) She took a deep breath and stepped onto the sidewalk as her tears were drying.

Syntax has to do with the way that words in a sentence are ordered. In English, the traditional order of words is S-V-O, which means Subject-Verb-Object. If you take a look at the examples above, you will see that only sentence B has this particular structure. The other examples do not start with the subject, but rather with some adverbial phrase.