I have found A,B,and C through Google books. I am wondering if I have correctly rephrased them? Would you please correct me? especially B and A.
"Is my rephrasing grammatically sound?
A. The last competitor to finish took more than 2 hours.
B. She was a good student, finishing in half the time it took the others to finish.
C. What normally took me a week to finish took three months.
Revised A. To finish took the last competitor more than 2 hours.
Revised B. ...finishing in half the time to finish took the others.
Revised C. It took three months to finish what normally too me a week.
Thanks
Answer
Sentence A definitely sounds odd. It is not at all idiomatic. I would rephrase it to:
It took the last the last competitor to finish more than 2 hours.
The to finish modifies the last competitor, not took. In this sentence it does not imply a difference in meaning, though in other cases it might. However, because it is this competitor that is being modified and not the verb, it needs to stick to the competitor and you cannot place the phrase to finish in initial position (at the start of your sentence).
Sentence B also sounds really odd. You should rephrase it like so:
...finishing in half the time the others took to finish.
Still, the original sentence is more idiomatic than this rephrased version.
Sentence C sounds alright, except for the typo.
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