Questions tagged [construction]
A construction is an established 'template' for combining words.
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“What is its name” vs “What is the name of it”
Let’s say a friend of mine is listening to a song, and I heard the song while he is listening to it; and I wonder what the song is called. Can I use these sentences interchangeably to ask him the name ...
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There is the next task
Students and a teacher are doing language related exercises. There are 3 of them. The first two have been done and the teacher wants to inform that there is another one because the students seem not ...
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Multiple consecutive verbs with ambiguous objects
I found the following sentence:
It was a fine gun which he forged, stocked, and completed himself.
I can't just figure out the exact meaning of "completed himself", does that mean:
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Plural nouns that fit in the construction "to be all (plural noun)"
I'm familiar with "to be all thumbs" and "to be all ears" but I recently came across "She was all smiles", which I thought was interesting.
I'm wondering whether there ...
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I would rather he should do it
I would rather he should do it.
Is it OK to use "should" after "would rather"? If it's OK, are these OK?
I would rather he should have done it.
I would rather he should have be ...
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"all evening today" vs. any better variants
Does it sound natural if I say --
My neighbor has been playing loud music in their apartment all evening today
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Or
My neighbor has been playing loud music in their apartment the whole time this ...
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These things are what makes
Answering the question, the student used the following:
'When the water vapor goes high, the cooler air causes water drops to stick to particles of dust or ice. These things are what makes clouds ...
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a snapshot of what life was like…
The book offers a snapshot of what life was like in Britain under the Romans.
Does that phrase sound fine by you?
I like its construction but I’m not sure if it is correct.
Thank you…
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would rather + past perfect + a point in the future
Can the past perfect be used to indicate a future action?
I would rather you had finished trimming the lawn by the time we come back.
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It is impossible that . . . / It is not possible that . .
I'd like to know if the following sentences are correct. The intended message is that he cannot be a good student. What are the constraints on "It is impossible that . . ." and "It is ...
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'so much too..' construction
I would like someone to explain the way the "so much too" construction works in sentences. What prepositions work after this construction? I made up these sentence and would like to know if they work:
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What are these constructions?
When you red painted the car, you scratched it. (When you painted the car red)
If I hand make something I sell twice the regular price. (If I make something with my hands)
What if I ice freeze the ...
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Having pp, have pp sentence
I'd like to ask questions about the exact tense of participial construction like the following sentence.
Having worked in the industry over the years, I have sometimes been surprised to see young ...
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What happened to "widely spread"?
According to statistics and Google Ngram "widely spread" is dying out, and is being used less and less often while "widespread" is becoming popular.
There's also "spreads widely" that is also ...
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