Learn English – Is an “are” omitted in this sentence

commasellipsis

I just read a sentence:

Three things in life that, once lost, hard to build up.

Can I rewrite it as:

Three things in life that are once lost hard to build up.

Is my sentence correct?

What are the functions of commas?

Best Answer

I think there is a word missing in the sentence, but not the one you think it is.

I would expect

Three things in life that, once lost, are hard to build up.

Once lost is a "small clause", equivalent to once they are lost; it is also common enough to qualify as an idiom.

Note also that this is not a full sentence, since everything after "that" is a subordinate clause. The full form would be

There are three things in life that, once lost, are hard to build up.

The writer is using an informal style, where they have left out the "There are". But I don't think anybody would leave out the later "are" in speech: I think this is just a mistake.

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