# Language question **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2014, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049 "2014-11-19T05:05:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Reza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reza)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/1 "2014-11-19T05:05:21Z")
Hello everyone, My question is about the adjective “flat” in below sentence: He was intrigued by the acclaimed **flat** he received. Why this adj has come after the noun? A case of author pen style or test register? When can we ususally do that? Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/2 "2014-11-19T05:19:20Z")
Looks to me as if “acclaimed” is the adjective and “flat” is the noun here, though I’m not sure what “flat” means in this context. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/3 "2014-11-19T05:33:03Z")
Where did you see this sentence? The word “flat” doesn’t makes sense in that context. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/4 "2014-11-19T06:06:04Z")
I wonder if “fiat” was intended. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/5 "2014-11-19T06:28:44Z")
The only way I can make grammatical sense of this is if “flat” means an apartment that happens to be be acclaimed and has been received by someone. That’s unlikely but not beyond the realm of possibility–I suppose some luxury apartments may very well be acclaimed, and some people may receive them in inheritances or divorces or such. ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/6 "2014-11-19T07:06:55Z")
Whey you google this you get the sentence “He was intrigued by the acclaim flat he received.” on several websites. _Acclaim not acclaimed._ Which makes even less sense. It seems to be part of some English as a second language teaching material for Persian students. My guess is someone goofed and it’s just an error of some sort. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/7 "2014-11-19T07:32:40Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > Whey you google this you get the sentence “He was intrigued by the acclaim flat he received.” on several websites. _Acclaim not acclaimed._ Which makes even less sense. > > It seems to be part of some English as a second language teaching material for Persian students. > > My guess is someone goofed and it’s just an error of some sort. Yes. Perhaps it should be “the acclaim that he received.” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/8 "2014-11-19T10:25:09Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Yes. > > Perhaps it should be “the acclaim that he received.” I think you are right, and that still is weird, because “intrigued” is an odd main verb for that clause, but people trying to come up with example sentences come up with bizarre things all the time, especially if they are not native speakers themselves, and are good with straight up grammar, but unclear on usage. When I was at Gallaudet, some of the example sentences that Deaf English professors came up with were…intriguing. The grammar was impeccable, but sometimes the usage was just strange, especially if they were trying to work in a particular word. You’d see stuff like “He applied the hammer to the nail,” which wasn’t wrong, but nobody ever _says_ that. ---
**Author:** ![Reza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Reza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reza)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/9 "2014-11-19T10:38:48Z")
Thanks everyone, yeah, to err is human ---
**Author:** ![Reza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Reza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reza)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/10 "2014-11-19T10:41:08Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > Whey you google this you get the sentence “He was intrigued by the acclaim flat he received.” on several websites. _Acclaim not acclaimed._ Which makes even less sense. > > It seems to be part of some English as a second language teaching material for Persian students. > > My guess is someone goofed and it’s just an error of some sort. How did you come with " … for Persian students. " necessarily ? I don’t think so, it’s been complied and distributed globally, not for specific region. ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/11 "2014-11-19T11:29:17Z")
> [@Reza](#): > > How did you come with " … for Persian students. " necessarily ? Those are the sites that came up when I googled that sentence. [This](http://quizlet.com/11416591/450-toefl-in-persian-flash-cards/) for example, and [this](http://www.studystack.com/flashcard-951668). And other sites using Persian script, or with the .ir tld country code. I did see one Russian/Cyrillic page, but the rest were predominantly Persian/Iranian. ---
**Author:** ![Reza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Reza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reza)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-question/705049/12 "2014-11-22T11:36:07Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > Those are the sites that came up when I googled that sentence. > > [This](http://quizlet.com/11416591/450-toefl-in-persian-flash-cards/) for example, and [this](http://www.studystack.com/flashcard-951668). > > And other sites using Persian script, or with the .ir tld country code. I did see one Russian/Cyrillic page, but the rest were predominantly Persian/Iranian. I see, Thanks for your time. That was the first time I visited those web pages, interesting. But I got the pdf file from a website which I can’t remeber the name but I’m sure enough that it was not a persian one, and the name of the file is " Essential Words for the TOEFL ".