Questions tagged [verbs]
A verb is a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence.
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What does the verb 'describe' mean?
In this following context, what does the verb 'describe' mean?
What is different between the verbs 'describe' and 'apply'?
Is the 'which' an object of 'describes'?
I think the 'it' is dummy subject ...
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2
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What does "keep with" mean in this context?
I'm learning Html programming on one of the websites and during the course, there was a problem to solve which was phrased like this:
"To keep with the same color theme you have already been ...
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Can anyone provide a definition for "find" in this context?
This context comes from the book "Black Rednecks And White Liberals" by Thomas Sowell
"Both in Brazil and in the United States—the countries with the two largest slave populations in ...
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Are all of the following correct? "She enjoys/keeps/has good health."
a. She enjoys good health.
b. She keeps good health.
c. She has good health.
In academic discourse we usually read 'enjoy good health', does it mean other expressions are wrong or have other sense ...
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Is "I am given" wrong in this sentence?
I am given by Jesus Christ forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Is "I am given" wrong in this sentence? Could you please also explain why it is wrong? What is the difference between that ...
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Can I use "work to" as a synonym of "make an effort to"?
In my native language, we use the verb for "work" + the infinitive marker to indicate that someone is making an effort/striving/endeavouring/trying to do something. To me, it seems that all ...
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Would you help me with "help grammar" [duplicate]
Would you please help me with this verb Grammer?
The volunteers help........ The project
complete
completing
to complete
1 and 3
What I know is we add ING to the second verb
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Can I add an object after the verb "live"?
I wrote the following sentence
They lived a lot of good experiences together.
but started wondering whether it is correct to add an object after "live". Here are some other ways to say ...
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Is using "deal" as a verb in a sense of "make a deal" proper English? (Major spoilers ahead from the movie "se7en"!)
This context comes from the movie "se7en" by David Fincher. Spoilers coming in 3,2,1. The conversation takes place after a criminal eluding capture by a pair of detectives Mills and Somerset ...
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Is "I differ" idiomatic?
In this comment I was asked to explain the expression "I differ" which I learned from this context. I don't know if just saying "I differ" is enough to express disagreement?
I ...
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What's the difference between to figure and to calculate
What's the difference between to figure and to calculate. And what's the difference between to price and to value? I'd like also to get usage examples of these words :)
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Preposition "to" after the verb "Dream" followed by another verb (doing something)
I was trying to find out if a preposition to after the verb dream is correct, as in this example:
Why do they all dream to come here?
The person who said that in her YT vlog is not a native English ...
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Sequence of verbs: present perfect after past simple
For a while I have been using this table of sequences of verbs as a reference. Today I found this sentence, which doesn't correspond to either of the rules form the table:
You didn't answer the ...
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Making a distinction between phrasal verbs and verbs
A definition of a phrasal verb slip through, is "to fail to be noticed, resulting in problems", and the definition of a verb slip is "to go somewhere or put something somewhere quickly,...
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The meaning of the clause "his chin nuzzled into his breast"
I started to read a novel written by Jorge Orwell - "1984". There is a clause in a sentence "Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape a vile wind, slipped ...
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Is there any difference in meaning between "pass something" and "pass by something"?
Can you please tell me if there as any difference between pass something and pass by something in the sense of going past it? For example:
On your way to the grocery store, you are going to pass a ...
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Does the sentence containing "I’ve done made" make sense?
I’ve done made a black tea with a slice of lime on it .
it appeared in a group chat that include many non-English native speakers and seems odd to me.
since "done" can be a transitive verb, ...
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Why is it "desperate want make them" instead of "desperate want makes them"? [duplicate]
This context comes from the book "Black Rednecks And White Liberals" by Thomas Sowell.
"He urged charitable efforts toward blacks after they were freed, lest “desperate want” make them ...
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2
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Verb form with name of subject ending in "studies"
Which verb form should be used with names of subjects ending in "studies" – that is, for instance, subjects such as "religious studies", "literary studies", and so on? ...
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Are my classifications of the types of words here correct between the verbs and adjectives connected to miss/missing/missed?
In the following sentences are my classifications of the type of word connected to "to miss" correct?
He has been missing for 2 weeks (or "he is still missing")--> "...
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How do you say that a teacher/researcher at the university "belongs" to a certian subject?
If I want to say which subject a teacher at the university "belongs" to, how do I say this in idiomatic English? Can I use "belong to", or is there a more idiomatic way of saying ...
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Doubt while using collective nouns
We were taught at school that collective nouns can take a singular as well as plural verb depending on the use case of the sentence.
I'm really confused about this concept. I mean how do we know where ...
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Is "nestle" strictly a noun? Or is it a verb too? [closed]
I used the word "nestling" as a present continuous verb, then found it only relates to the noun of a chick in a nest. The verb only apparently occurring as "nestle," "nestles&...
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What verb should I use to refer to my studies?
When I search for the following string on Ngrams, I get no hits at all:
studied a bachelor's programme,took a bachelor's programme,attended a bachelor's programme
Nor do I get any hits for either ...
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Supplement, complement, or some other verb?
When I need to add information of some kind to something else, should I use "supplement", "complement" – or another verb entirely? I have looked up both these verbs in various ...
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What tense to use to refer to an action in a hypothetical future?
In a hypothetical conversation about an equally hypothetical future, a bride makes a series of bizarre requests to her future husband, among them this one:
Promise me you won't make any sarcastic ...
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The usage of "to look"
I just saw this headline "Researchers look a dinosaur in its remarkably preserved face" on arstechnica.
I was wondering if this sentence is correct, or is there a different use of the verb &...
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He acts as if he owns (vs owned) the place?
He acts as if he owns (vs owned) the place?
Said to describe a popular boy at a school who behaves in a too confident way. -- his peers say that.
Both versions seem to be popular. Why is that so? ...
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Is "consist" really intransitive?
I recently learned that I cannot use “be consisted of” because it is intransitive verb.
Example:
Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen. (o)
Water is consisted of hydrogen and oxygen. (x)
Water is ...
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Can verbs have more than one classification?
I'm confused because I'm unsure about the innate nature of a verb.Help, let,make etc are known or classified as CAUSITIVE verbs. So in the sentence,' I made the student do his homework ' the verb TO ...
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"Are nouns ever a closed class?", is this construction correct?
When I came across this question, the construction used for the question itself surprised me:
Are nouns ever a closed class?
Why the verb is in present tense? Does it make sense? Shouldn't be used ...
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What are the different ways to convey putting stuff into some kind of bag or cavity?
I often find myself at lack of words when trying to convey it and I have to resort to the basic ones. One verb that I often use is "stuff". Example: I stuffed some T-shirts into the bag.
I ...
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Noun replacement in the sentence with the verb "composed of"?
I was reading a book and there was a paragraph of explaining about a word composed of. There was few examples of its usage and I swap the word places in the sentences to improve my vocabulary. I want ...
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What does "get" in "gets the skin" mean?
This context comes from the movie "Midnight Run". It's a scene where one of the characters uncuffs the other.
"Thanks, 'cause it's starting to cut into my wrists. Thank you.
It gets the ...
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3
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What is the difference between take somebody to do something and take somebody to something?
Which one is correct ?
She took me to a doctor.
She took me to see a doctor.
What confuses me is the 'verb' after 'to', I have checked Google, no one uses 'take ....to do something', they just use ...
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Can you actually "make" a girlfriend or boyfriend?
I think I hear young people say this a lot but it sounds weird to my ear. I always say "dated/had" or "started to date/go out with". How acceptable and widely used is "make a ...
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I want you to stand up VS I want you to be stood up . Which one of these is correct?
I want you to stand up when you hear your name.
I want you to be stood up when you hear your name.
Which one of these is correct?
Are both these sentences correct?
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What verbform should I use with coordinated activities as a subject? [duplicate]
If the subject in a clause is singular, the verb form should be singular, and if the subject is plural, the verb form should be plural. So far, so good. But what about subjects that coordinate two ...
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2
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What does "take it to a point" mean?
This context comes from the movie "The Glass Onion" (Don't worry No-Spoilers)
LIONEL
Will you please then explain it all
to us? Detective?
BLANC
No. I can peel back the layers, I can
take it ...
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Ate vs Eaten: what is the difference? [closed]
I am learning English, and I have a question.
What is the difference between the two words Ate and Eaten? Why would I use one over the other? Or are they the same?
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Is this sentence grammatically correct? - Two verbs in a main clause
It will not be directly apparent a virus exists while it is memory resident.
This came from a description of a computer virus in the Microsoft website, but I cannot understand the structure since ...
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2
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Are you able to commit to teach, or are you able to be committed to teach?
Question: Are you able to commit to teach, or are you able to be committed to teach?
As per title, there are a lot of verbs which are action verbs vs passive verbs. They are hard to differentiate, is ...
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There is no verb "be" in sentence
I sometimes see a line in a movie or book without the verb "be" like...
Request accepted! Hang on.
Isn't it supposed to be...
XRequest is accepted! Hang on.
or
Rocket launched. And is ...
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3
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Which one is correct? "stop doing a habit?" or "stop making a habit?"
Please help me clear up my confusion..
I haven't got the foggiest idea if my following phrases are correct,
"this term is used to stop doing something, especially stop doing a bad habit."
I ...
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meaning of phrasal verb "put something out"
I see somebody, say a man, in my home and then "I put him out".
To native speaker, or whoever can speak English well,
Does the example sentence convey meaning that:
I make him go out so he'...
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How to change Conditional sentence of Present unreal into reported speech
How to change Conditional sentence of Present unreal into reported speech. I have an example :
“If the weather is fine, I will go on a picnic with my friends,” she said.
As I read the answer key, the ...
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reinforce + that-clause
I don't know if it's okay for the verb "reinforce" to take a that-clause as an object. Is it a new usage? Following learners' dictionaries, I'd have expected a noun object, such as "the ...
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1
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Mixing present and past tenses
"There is no problem about mixing present with future tenses. But in
order to shift from the present to the past you need to use a time
adverb. If you are talking in present and can/want to ...
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"Does .. have to" and "have .."?
Are there equally grammatically correct:
Does it have to be like it?
Has it to be like it?
And
Do you have a bottle of wine?
Have you a bottle of wine?
Note that I haven't used used "got"...
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Punctuating 'though' when it follows a main clause
Can someone give me the reasons why this comma cannot be skipped?
I am not sure where to go, though.
I find it natural to write this without a pause, but the word processor insists I use this comma.