laughter + passive voice verb

10:45 Jan 17, 2018 

The laughter is described as "behind his back/shoulders" in the original source text which I translated as "out of earshot" because "behind somebody's back" is normally used in a rather less amicable way in English.

In fact, I did restructure it following advice from all contributors (which I appreciate in each case), and eventually took Victoria's suggestion of "granted us...", and I have put:-

"The professor emeritus had first of all granted us a blissful snooze, and was now sending us into peals of throaty laughter, far out of his earshot of course."
My question was whether I should use a verb after the comma like this:
"...laughter, which RIPPLED far out of his earshot." (or other verb, which is what I asked for help originally.)
....OR whether "far out of his earshot" sounded OK standing alone without a verb, as per my first example above.

The idea is that they were being discreet, but I am trying not to restructure whole sentences unless absolutely essential so as to maintain the characterisation, and also because the client sensitive about structural changes.

21:45 Jan 16, 2018 

Needs complete re-write

18:11 Jan 16, 2018 

As it stands, your sentence is just plain grammatically wrong, and no amount of lexical juggling can put that right. What it says, as written is:

"The professor emeritus had graced us with a siesta, and now [he graced us] with some rippling laughter.

This is clearly not only nonsensical, but meaningless!

'graced us with' is IMHO quite the wrong choice of verb, even if being used ironically, and there is little to justify linking the two parts of your sentence with 'and now' — what is the actual temporal connection here, if any?

'laughter' can probably be used without a verb at all — but certainly not in this awkward a unidiomatic structure you have here. It seems to me that you would be much better off splitting the sentence into two parts, justifying if necessary any temporal link, if indeed such exists, and above all avoiding any sort of precious use of a passive verb with laughter.

First of all, it is far from clear what the ideas being expressed here are trying to say? Why was this laughter 'far out of his earshot'? Do you mean they were out in the corridor or something? I feel sure you really mean 'discreet laughter, so he would not hear it.

17:32 Jan 16, 2018 

Thank you, that's a start.

17:31 Jan 16, 2018 

laughter (being) heard...

Perhaps 'heard' is the word you are looking for.

17:28 Jan 16, 2018 

There is no need for confusion. I was basically looking for a good verb-collocation for laughter in the passive voice. I was not looking for somebody to rephrase the entire sentence, though obviously I appreciate the help. A good collocation for a verb is a good collocation, however you phrase the rest of the line.
My first discussion entry should explain it all.

16:59 Jan 16, 2018 

It sounds like the sentence is incomplete. The last part doesn't seem to have a subject. Who's the subject for the last (missing) verb?

16:34 Jan 16, 2018 

The reason I posted this in English, is because I am just looking for clarification about whether I need a verb, and which verb would be the best one to use. If I had posted in Italian I would have probably ended up with lots of suggestions for the entire phrase, when I would rather stick to my own structure.

16:24 Jan 16, 2018 

Perhaps:
"...he now treated us to a siesta" (the tone, obviously, being dryly ironic).

15:53 Jan 16, 2018 

For anyone who's still confused by this question, the context is in Lara's other questions, which are Italian to English. The professor has given a boring speech, which has sent the two people to sleep. They are now having a laugh at his expense.

15:29 Jan 16, 2018 

I think "opportunity for a siesta" would work, and you don't need a verb with the laughter. Something like, "...had graced us with [or maybe "granted us"] an opportunity for a siesta and now with some laughter - out of his earshot, of course."

15:22 Jan 16, 2018 

[Sorry for any confusion from my previous entry, which I have deleted. Still early for me. :)]

Maybe:

After allowing us to take a siesta.

[I do not think that "providing us with a siesta" works (since "siesta" is not a tangible object, but rather "an opportunity for rest."]

15:13 Jan 16, 2018 

or did he authorise some kind of break for the students?

15:05 Jan 16, 2018 

The Italian uses "regalato", which means to gift somebody with something. You think "provided us with a siesta" might be better?

Obvious = what the narrator means is that they would not dare laugh within his earshot, so "obviously", they had their laugh about his speech when they were out of his sight.

14:47 Jan 16, 2018 

I don't understand your sentence either. Why don't you post it as an Italian to English question with plenty of context?

14:45 Jan 16, 2018 

I agree with Danya's implication that the English, as written, does not make sense.

What might work here:
That professor emeritus had graced us with a siesta, where rippling laughter could now be heard well out of his earshot.
[So, no verb in this particular solution. Not sure what meaning "obviously" would have here {how could the professor's not hearing the laughter be "obvious"?}. "Graced with a siesta" also strikes me as odd/affected.]

14:16 Jan 16, 2018 

Your sentence is not very clear on who laughed

13:59 Jan 16, 2018 

I have used "given" and "taken" as examples, and have also considered "expressed", but I am not sure if these collocate well, and if there might be something better I could use. I want to try to keep the grammatical structure as I have presented it, so original source text should not really be relevant here, but original, in Italian reads:
"...e delle grasse risate adesso. Alle sue spalle, è ovvio."

Or, perhaps the verb is OK not to be sued here?