Tense: He cooked an egg, brought a fresh cabbage and sat in the chair.

[kohyoongliat]

He cooked an egg, brought a fresh cabbage and sat in the chair.

Is the sentence correct and is the sequence clear?

1. cooked an egg

2. brought a fresh cabbage

3. sat in the chair.

To me, the sequence is clear, but I've been told that it isn't.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[bibliolept]

It's reasonably clear. It could be argued that the chronological order is not absolutely established, but one would under most circumstances assumes that the order as related in the sentence is the order in which the events transpired.

 

[kohyoongliat]

Many thanks, bibliolept.

 

[Nunty]

In normal, natural speech, I think the sequence would be reasonably clear. If it were an exercise in writing about sequential actions, though, I would expect to see some adverbs of time.

 

[Cagey]

I think the actions themselves present some challenge to understanding the sequence. I can understand cooking an egg and (then) sitting in a chair, both of which might happen in the kitchen, for instance.

However, it is hard to understand what he was doing when he "brought a cabbage" and how it would fit in. Did he leave the house and bring a cabbage in, or did he bring the cabbage from one place in the house or another?

I think content interferes with understanding this as a series of actions.