At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.
(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)The highlighted part seems to say there are the grounds between the flat lawn and the forbidden forest, and the lawn is on the opposite side of to the forbidden forest. Is this the right understanding?
Answer
That is correct. The alignment would be like this:
Flat Lawn |Rest of the grounds | Forbidden Forest
Or, in words: “The Forbidden Forest is outside the grounds. On the opposite side of the grounds is the flat lawn.”
Rowling phrased it rather unfortunately, at least to my American understanding. I personally would have written something like:
. . .toward a smooth, flat lawn located across the grounds from the Forbidden Forest.
Note that “opposite to” or “in opposition to” is grammatically correct, but as you have seen it does have potential for ambiguity.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Listenever , Answer Author : Jonathan Garber
