SC 6th ed -- page 229 idiom-- usage of "fault"

[yangfan0307]

Hi,

My question is about usage of "fault" . It is on page 229, Manhattan Prep SC 6th ed.

The whole sentence in Prep is:

Wrong: It is the fault of the criminals who broke the law.

Is it correct that I use " to" instead of "who"?

Thanks.

[cgentry]

Hi,

My question is about usage of "fault" . It is on page 229, Manhattan Prep SC 6th ed.

The whole sentence in Prep is:

Wrong: It is the fault of the criminals who broke the law.

Is it correct that I use " to" instead of "who"?

Thanks.

With your change, I believe the sentence would need other changes: "It is the fault of the criminals to break the law."

But this would still be a poor idiomatic construction. I can think of two idiomatic uses of "fault": one is to say someone is "at fault", that is, to assign blame. This is the correct example used on that page of the Strategy Guide. The other is to both assign blame and describe what the fault is: "It's your fault that the milk spoiled, because you left it on the kitchen counter." And every example of this construction I can think of uses the word "that" to describe the fault.

In your example, you're saying that "of the criminals" is the fault. But how can "of the criminals" be a fault?

I hope this helps!