Questions tagged [grammaticality-in-context]
For questions about whether something obeys the rules of English grammar in a certain context.
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the use of import (important) not "of import"
I have had a lot of trouble finding an answer on this, mainly because searching for import obviously has far more results for the other meaning.
The few results I have found always give examples of ...
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1
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Does using "there" a second time matter?
I'm going to the hospital tomorrow. Usually, there are more people waiting to see the doctor than you can count, so I'll be late.
I'm going to the hospital tomorrow. Usually, there are more people ...
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2
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Why the article is omitted in this context?
When scouring thefreedictionary to find a word I didn't know the meaning of, I encountered this definition for the phrase "hands off"
An instruction for one to refrain from touching or ...
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Can "whose" be replaced with "with the/a" in this sentence? Which sentence is better?
I wrote a simple Email whose goal was to inform friends and family about the party.
Can the "whose" in the sentence be replaced with "with a/the" to make the sentence like:
I ...
0
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2
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When to use 'know' and 'knows'?
Do you use 'know' or 'knows' in this sentence
As the clued-up population of this century know/knows...
My English tutor suggests 'knows'.
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1
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"Global trade is carried by sea"?
Is this sentence grammatically correct? And why?
about 80% of global trade is carried by sea, and estimates of the volume carried through the South China Sea range from 20% to 33%
I am not sure ...
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2
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4
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"was the first to" VS "is the first"
One Shenzhen Bay was the first urban complex to be built in Shenzhen.
One Shenzhen Bay is the first urban complex to be built in Shenzhen.
One Shenzhen Bay is the first urban complex to have been ...
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1
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Instruction Meeting or Introductory Meeting?
Which of the following two constructions is correct? Instruction Meeting or Introductory Meeting? The context is the title of a business meeting that is supposed to happen in the future, not with a ...
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Did you spend it with her?
How did your daughter's birthday go? Did you spend it with her?
I know you'd normally be talking about who you'd be spending your own birthday with, but do you think the question in the above context ...
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2
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Has/ have verb third form today or did the second form today
Learning grammar mistakes, today I found a sentence I have visited Niagara falls last weekend incorrect. The correct form “I visited Niagara falls last weekend” so
She has done it today.
She has done ...
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“Present Indefinite vs Past Simple Tense in cricket “
Vaibhav Arora to Moeen Ali, lands on a length, around off and it comes into the left-hander. Ali leaves it alone.
Kagiso Rabada to Ambiti Rayudu, FURE! Sheer timing this time! Back of a length, ...
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Can a semi-colon be used like this? Are there more reduced forms of these sentences?
Is it understood when semi-colons and commas are used to combine long, similar clauses like this? Which one is correct of the following?:
A) The color on the square to the right turned red, the one to ...
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1
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Is the word " clean off" an adverb in the sentence below?
'It( his hand ) froze, and would have dropped clean off, if—' He shivered suddenly, and continued to shiver as if he felt the cold again.
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1
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Do we say "most of + possessive + a noun"?
Someone asked the grammaticality of this sentence in our group:
I liked the most our trip to Scotland.
Someone has tried to help. He wrote that the sentence could be fine if they removed "the&...
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Do we not normally use "also" in negative sentences?
Not only have I had enough with him, but I also don't care about him
anymore.
My sentence above has been corrected for me like this:
Not only have I had enough of him, but I also don't care about ...
- 4,103
2
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1
answer
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Do we invert a linking verb and a subject to describe shockedness?
This is a line that I took from a cartoon Spongebob Squarepants from the episode "Ghoul fools" where you can see the transcripted dialogue here.
Dutchman! Boy, am I glad we finally found ...
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1
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Can we say "how to not to be..."?
You should learn about how to not to be egoistic.
2 people (both are English native speakers) have corrected my sentence above,
You should learn how not to be egoistical.
You should learn how to not ...
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0
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'in time' or 'on time'?
Is it 'in time' or 'on time' here?:
...
GERRARD: Hello. Yes, speaking. Sorry I can’t let you have the props in
time for rehearsal...
It's from a story in which Gerrard talks over the phone to ...
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2
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Why do we say "all the building", but not "all the room"?
I'm doing the exercises on Hewings' book: Advanced Grammar in Use and came across this problem that I have. Anyway, first, let me quote the explanation in the book.
Before singular countable nouns we ...
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3
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That box will never get opened vs will never be opened
What is the difference and which is more correct?
That box will never get opened vs will never be opened.
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2
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"At no time, was I informed" - looking for an explanation about this sentence
I've taken a grammar test on an online site, and I've got 3 choices to choose out of them the correct one:
A. At any time, was I informed
B. At no time, was I informed
C. At no time was informed I
I ...
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1
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Duties - everything / anything
I have two questions concerning my sentence:
Is "duties" the correct word for my context (I'm talking about doing homework)? In case it is, does it mean moral obligations in this sentence?
...
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1
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At / in those moments - would be + verb form
The only thing I'd love to do at / in those moments (stressful ones) would be to hang out / hang out / hanging out with my friends.
I have two questions about this sentence:
Which is the correct ...
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Can 'ready' play a role of a 'predicate continuation'?
https://www.lexico.com/definition/unmade
(of a bed) not having the bedclothes arranged tidily ready for sleeping in.
I'm a little confused about the usage of the word 'ready' here.
Does it just mean ...
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Construction of phrasal verbs
I was thinking about how phrasal verbs are constructed. You take a verb and add a preposition to it. Like, Put off, Break up, Make out e.t.c.
As a learner of English I kind of have to memorize them if ...
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We didn't know what to do, so we did nothing/ were doing nothing
I was advised to ask this question here, which was originally posted here:
[https://english.stackexchange.com/q/580212/381160]
I came across this sentence in one of my workbooks:
We were in a ...
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4
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767
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Money come vs Money comes?
Today I came across a quote
Money come by love or by vote.
I directly thought that it might just be a mistake, because I think it should be "Money comes by love or by vote.", but when I ...
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2
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Is saying 'why do you not do something' wrong when making a suggestion?
In my textbook (Grammar In Use by Hewings), it says:
We can make a suggestion with Why not + verb or Why don't /
doesn't... (but not Why do not / does not)
However, please look at this Ngram Viewer ...
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"The perfect cure-free worries scattered mind." [closed]
"The perfect cure-free worries scattered mind."
This is a sentence I heard from the video Stress Management Strategies: Ways to Unwind
(at 1:23 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fL-pn80s-c)...
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2
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Can 'there' in 'there be' be replaced by an actual place?
I took this sentence from Oxford Grammar:
In the bath was the biggest spider I had ever seen.
I had always thought that the construction there + be is united before reading this example. I would ...
- 4,103
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Why does (I have to get together with someone) sound clumsy?
As an English learner, I don't see anything wrong with this sentence:
I have to get together with Jóse soon.
This translation from Spanish is suggested by Duolingo. In case any of you know about ...
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1
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Come to terms with
Why do we use "come" after "have/has" in "to have come to terms with sth"?
Shouldn't we use "came" instead of "come" due to the present perfect ...
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Is anything wrong with the sentence "Who watched it?"
When asking a group of people about whether or not they've seen a certain movie, are there any arguments against using the following sentence:
"Who watched it?"
Using the past simple ...
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How to say thinking in the past but it's just in a short time?
A sentence might help to understand my question:
I ___(think) that you were no longer interested in him, but I was wrong.
What tense should I put there?
I'm trying to translate my language into ...
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2
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Passive forms in English
From what I know perfect continuous tenses don't have a passive form , but could we construct a sentence using the same structure as perfect continuous tenses , I mean instead of 'be' we can put 'get' ...
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What is the difference between 'I can't imagine...' and 'I don't imagine...'?
Swan says in his book Advanced Oxford Grammar that we usually use this construction:
I don't imagine + affirmative verb
E.g. I don't Imagine John will read the instructions I sent him.
I've been ...
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2
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Meaning of "better than + infinitive"
Recently, I have seen the sentence
I should've known better than to get my hopes up.
What does it mean?
I couldn't find any explanation about the grammatical structure I've mentioned in the title. ...
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1
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Should "as" be dropped in "Incredible lock picking skills as demonstrated by ..."? Why or why not?
I know that "as demonstrated by" is correct usage here:
I have incredible lock picking skills as demonstrated by abc and xyz.
In the above sentence, dropping "as" would be ...
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What is the meaning of "would" in this example?
The label and concept would be focusing on experimental electronic oriented music. I'll be bringing out as always - unknown obscure tonal delights that goes hand in hand with coherent looking designed ...
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Can we say 'She sat in front of me'?
I don't know why the key answer in my book chose this sentence:
She sat down opposite me and started talking to me.
Instead of
She sat down in front of me and started talking to me.
The ...
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Is the phrase 'just any' separable?
In his grammar book, Swan tells that just any is used in negative sentences to make the meaning [any: 'one or another - it's not important which'] clear.
I wonder if this sentence below:
You can't ...
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1
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"It provides opportunity for" vs. "It provides the opportunity for"
I came across this expression in this newspaper article:
"It provides opportunity for a small nonprofit organization to be
competitive with a major brand with huge marketing budget."
I was ...
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The general difference between 'is no' and 'is not'
Even though there's already a similar question here, mine is a bit different. I want to know if they can be used interchangeably.
This question came to my mind, actually when I was playing Duolingo. I ...
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"The Lakers have been winning in a row"
I wonder if we can say, "in a row" without specifying how many times in a row. For example, do you think sentences like the ones below can be said by native speakers?
The Lakers have been ...
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ability and inabilty (Positive and negative)
Context: I am not good at drawing, so which sentence should I use?
Don't judge me by my ability to draw
or
Don't judge me by my inability to draw
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Where does the word "to" refer to in the following sentence?
This is a paragraph from a programming language book:
It's important to know that C# cannot exist alone; after all, it's a
language that runs on variants of .NET. In theory, someone could
write a ...
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(Do/Don't/Did) you remember that X did sth (in the past)?
Context:
I was in dispute with a guy, we talked about a character of a film. He said, she (the character) was nice and shouldn't be killed in the film. I want to remind him, however, I don't know ...
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Why can 'it is/was' be followed by plural?
This is a subchapter from my grammar book [book by Swan] about emphasizing with it and what, and there are some sentences (that in my opinion) break the grammar's rule.
We can emphasize a part of a ...
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'So to speak/as it were' and 'like', are they used interchangeably?
She is, so to speak/as it were, living in a world of her own.
(makes what you are saying less definite/precise; as it were is
more formal.
That's what I took from my book. I have difficulty ...
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Construction Shift [closed]
I need to construction shift this sentence but I have two options in mind that make sense somehow and those two options are options B and D.
There was no remedy available for his constant attacks of ...
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