New answers tagged grammar
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Direct and indirect speech containing let
One way, of many.
I suggested to the chairman that we drop the matter.
The fundamental idea in reported speech is that you are reporting the meaning of what was said, and not the exact wording. &...
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"Do you want there to be?" VS "Do you want there was?"
SAMPLE
"On TV, a physicist is talking about space, planets, etc. He tells
about anything related to space in a very loving way. So, when it
comes to whether there will be a civilization in space,...
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Accepted
"Do you want there to be?" VS "Do you want there was?"
No,"Do you want there was?" and "I would love there was" are not idiomatic, though you could say "Do you wish there was?"
However, the 'current fact' is that we don't ...
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Neighbour John saw cat Whiskers near pharmacy GBN when car Mercedes was there
The rule is something like this: the simple noun must be the role it plays or the relationship it has --either in that specific context or in the world in general-- and the proper noun must be the ...
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2
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Accepted
" How much before?" VS "How earlier" VS "How much earlier?"
Except for 2 (which is ungrammatical), they all could work, I'd probably opt for "How long before?"
Or a more "natural" conversational ploy is to suggest an answer and ask for ...
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Come with or go with?
Usually "come with me", since you will not "go" away from the speaker, but stay close to them. However, it is easy to think of contexts in which "go with me" is expected,...
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Difference between "is come" and "has come"
The time has come...
is standard English, and is the version that's used today.
On the other hand,
The time is come...
sounds weird today and uses the archaic 'to be come' construction.
Here is ...
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Neighbour John saw cat Whiskers near pharmacy GBN when car Mercedes was there
A title or role can appear before proper nouns
Mayor Jones was present, along with Congressman Smith, Reverend Wilkins, and District Attorney Alice Luna.
Neighbor John and pet Whiskers were seen ...
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Why is the Present Perfect Continuous used in the sentence "You must have been drinking!"?
You must have been drinking implies that the person being addressed is obviously under the influence of alcohol, so they must have been spending some time having repeated drinks.This is why the ...
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2
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Accepted
What's the difference between before, until, and unless?
All three words would be grammatically correct, but not all grammatical sentences make sense.
Sentence (1) refers to the passage of time in a person's life, so unless is not appropriate. Until sounds ...
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-1
votes
"it is important" or "it important"
[1] I should remember it [is] important to try everything.
[2] I should remember that it is important to try everything.
Example1 needs is, which I have inserted. The two examples have the same ...
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2
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Run over someone
This is not current slang.
In modern use "run {someone} over" means to hit them with a car. Greens has no examples from the last 35 years, and the most recent examples might be the car ...
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Why is the Present Perfect Continuous used in the sentence "You must have been drinking!"?
To say that someone has had (alcoholic) drink after drink after drink, we use the perfect continuous, the continuous underscoring the idea of repetitive or ongoing behavior, and the perfect indicating ...
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Why is the Present Perfect Continuous used in the sentence "You must have been drinking!"?
'must' is a modal verb and after modal verbs infinitives are used. There are 8 types of infinitives in English: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinitive
'must have drink' doesn't match any of ...
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Accepted
Is "words in <suffix>" correct?
"in" can mean "characterized by" so it fits in your sentence. I haven't heard of any rule that prohibits the use of "in" in this sense.
Meanings of "in":
https:/...
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Is it safe to assume "in a few weeks" is in three weeks?
It has no specific meaning, and indeed the purpose for using it is because they can't, or don't want to specify an exact number of weeks.
If someone says "This will take a few weeks" it is ...
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5
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Accepted
"It'll be the first time he has met his dad." / "........ he meets his dad." / ".........he'll meet his dad."
It is common to use the present perfect to refer to something which has happened before now or which has never happened before now:
They have met.
They have never met.
They have been introduced to ...
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"It'll be the first time he has met his dad." / "........ he meets his dad." / ".........he'll meet his dad."
To add to FumbleFingers' answer, note that there are in fact two tenses operating at the same time. We can see that more clearly if we rewrite the idea and break it into two sentences:
Soon Zack will ...
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"It'll be the first time he has met his dad." / "........ he meets his dad." / ".........he'll meet his dad."
Use the first option ("Present Perfect in the Future", or "Future Perfect"; terminology varies)...
1: If you give me a cigarette it will be the first time I have smoked since I ...
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3
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Can we say 'here goes your husband' or 'there comes your husband'?
Here comes your husband draws attention to the fact that he is coming here (he's walking towards us). Here goes your husband doesn't make sense. However, there is an expression Here goes! that you ...
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1
vote
Accepted
"you" in you people, you lot: its grammatical function
In the terminology of CGEL, "we" and "you" are determinatives (rather than pronouns) in phrases like "we students" and "you students". Here they occur in ...
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"Any viable options" instead of "any viable option"
"Any" could refer to multiple options in that sentence. It can be used as any one, but here, it is used as any of a set.
E.G. "Are there any numbers greater than 17?" is valid ...
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Can we say 'here goes your husband' or 'there comes your husband'?
here comes and there goes can be used with anything that moves.
"Am I correct that "comes" means approaching the speaker and "goes" means moving away from the speaker and &...
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0
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"you" in you people, you lot: its grammatical function
"You lot" and "you people" function as vocatives. Those are the people you are addressing. They mean the same thing but "You lot" is not used in AmE.
You lot, get to work!...
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"you" in you people, you lot: its grammatical function
They are quite different.
"You lot" refers to a specific collection of people, such as those the speaker is addressing. It might be said about a group of people that work in a particular ...
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"you" in you people, you lot: its grammatical function
They can be considered identical, except…
… there is a tendency to read 'you people' as a category slur. Even though unintended, someone, somewhere, is going to read it the wrong way.
You people, all ...
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0
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Accepted
Is this a valid use of "when"?
kept falling until June conveys the meaning "stopped falling in June". The when-clause supplies additional info about the precise level it had fallen to, and doesn't alter or contradict the ...
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Which of the 2 sentences below is grammatically correct?
These two sentences are it-cleft sentences.
"That" is the most universal relative pronoun in it-cleft sentences and the sentence is correct.
You can use "when" instead of "...
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Which of the 2 sentences below is grammatically correct?
Your 1st sentence is correct because in this case that is used:—
to introduce a clause that completes or explains the meaning of a previous noun or adjective or of the pronoun it.
"that" is ...
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Is there a comma needed in this sentence, and if so, why?
According to standard grammar, a comma is required.
The word but is one of seven words that are referred to as coordinating conjunctions. We have a great guide to coordinating conjunctions, but the ...
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Does "I saw a blue car and bus" mean "blue bus" or any coloured bus?
I've read through the responses, and I see a lack of agreement of responses, so I'll speak to my experience as a native speaker with some insight into language. First, the idea that the construction ...
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About the use of 'the'
This question possibly already has an answer here: articles with noun phrases
In short, depending on the context, you can often either include or exclude the article, and both options are correct.
...
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0
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For a sentence with logical conclusion shouldn't we use past pefect?
I guess the way you are thinking is that, if you say that you saw someone (past tense) then they are no longer in your sight, and so logically you cannot say with certainty where they are (or are not) ...
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vote
Using articles in english, articles before dates
No, the article is placed correctly in the date. First let me explain why it is there, then I'll address why it shouldn't be where you suggest it could go.
Articles in dates, as in your example, are ...
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0
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Does "I saw a blue car and bus" mean "blue bus" or any coloured bus?
I'm a non-English speaker who has immersed himself in this language for over 20 years.
To me, this sentence should read as: I saw a blue car and a bus. And, with or without "a", I would ...
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4
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Does "I saw a blue car and bus" mean "blue bus" or any coloured bus?
I'm adding another answer, as all the other answers completely miss the point of this question.
OP,
Ambiguity has no connection, at all - utterly no connection - in any way - whatsoever - to grammar.
...
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2
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Accepted
How do you question yourself for your failing in the past: "Why couldn't I have done more?" VS "Why couldn't I do more?"
The Simple Past enquiry...
1: Why couldn't you do that yesterday?
...more naturally suits contexts where the speaker genuinely wants to know why you weren't able to do it then. But there's usually a ...
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0
votes
Accepted
Correct way of describing a certain trend
I recognise that there are three, not just two, notable things on the graph:
That the data was trending upwards until April (I know you said March but the data points seem to be the space between the ...
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2
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How to understand the first 'that'?
There are too many thats here, in my opinion, and the first one should go. "by referring to the preceding text" is an adverbial phrase modifying "It's fairly clear" and could be ...
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How to understand the first 'that'?
It's fairly clear [that by referring to the preceding text that it is
Wavells biographical approach that is being deprecated here].
The first "that" is a subordinator, a meaningless marker ...
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0
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pattern of I'm sorry, but
In this sentence "that" used as a function word
to introduce a subordinate clause expressing a reason or cause
Here, the sentence implies that "as the person visited the plant he has ...
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votes
"I was in London, aged 14" sounds like it's saying that London was 14…?
@EdwinAshworth's answer is good, but I thought I'd provide a short alternative.
How we express ourselves in language often includes unintentional ambiguities, even in entirely grammatically correct ...
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Can we use past continous tense two times with "while"? Or can we use past perfect continous?
While mum was taking a nap...
This subordinate clause uses a past tense. It specifies a time (or a period of time) in the past. So the independent clause should also use a past tense.
C) They have .....
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4
votes
"I was in London, aged 14" sounds like it's saying that London was 14…?
Some might say that there is an unfortunate misplaced modifier, but
I, aged 14, was in London
sounds worse.
I was in London, aged 14
is not so much ungrammatical as rather unnatural-sounding. The ...
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3
votes
Does "I saw a blue car and bus" mean "blue bus" or any coloured bus?
I'm fairly confident in saying that your example sentence:
"I saw a blue car and bus"
is not grammatically correct English, and also not something a native speaker would ever normally ...
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votes
Which of the two is correct? Which to use: was or were?
In formal English, when using the verb 'be' in an if clause for an unreal conditional sentence, we conjugate it as were, no matter what the subject is. This is true even if the subject is first-person ...
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Which of the two is correct? Which to use: was or were?
(A) He talks about his wife as if she WERE an angel descended from heaven.
Formal style.
(B) He talks about his wife as if she WAS an angel descended from heaven.
Informal style.
Both are possible.
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Is it "a second nature" or "second nature"?
I wanted to say,
Driving a car is like a second nature to me.
But Google Docs and ChatGPT both corrected my sentence to:
Driving a car is like second nature to me.
So which is correct, and why do we ...
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Is it "a second nature" or "second nature"?
I wanted to say,
Driving a car is like a second nature to me.
But Google Docs and ChatGPT both corrected my sentence to:
Driving a car is like second nature to me.
So which is correct, and why do we ...
- 750
0
votes
Is this sentence an acceptable idiom? "Is there any park near here?"
The Cambridge dictionary addresses your question here: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/any
To summarise, it is a mistake to use "weak form any" with singular ...
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