New answers tagged sentence-construction
1
Are you, perhaps, a computer programmer?
Your use of parenthesis looks more like a computer language. It is perfectly accurate, but not easy to read.
Parenthesis are quite common in formal writing. Legal documents make use of them to clarify and make an expression more precise. Essayists and journalists put asides and comments in parenthesis.
It is also ...
0
Two roundabouts were created on Hospital Road, one at Ring Road and one at City Road.
0
Simplify the sentence makes it easier to determine it is a definite or zero article
Capital letters are used for the names (X) - any name, not specific names that are known or previously mentioned
Capital letters are used for names (O) - any letter for any name
0
Part 1: Why option 4 is correct
I think the core of your question is 'why is option 4 the correct answer', because the clause 'examination seemingly long' looks incorrect to you, and you cannot see an error in option 3.
These are difficult sentences to parse, so I am not surprised you found them difficult.
In English, it is often possible to omit words which ...
1
As the sentence has a parallel structure, both verbs should match, either using an -ing form or with a to-infinitive, so you could say either:
People like reading ghost stories and watching scary films.
OR
People like to read ghost stories and watch scary films.
0
He might have gone, but he didn't.
He might [well] have gone.
He may have gone. (Confusingly, this can also be expressed as 'he might have gone'!)
1
Who has. Mrs. W. claims that she has 'finished up' in a better situation than the person she is talking to.
0
He might have gone = There was a possibility that he had already gone. (past tense)
He might go (and I might go) refer to a possibility either in the past or the present. We thought he might go, but he didn't. I might go out later if it stops raining. He might go doesn't really fit with '...but luckily we reached his house and found him'.
1
The second sentence sounds peculiar to me, I wouldn't expect to hear it in normal speech.
The first sentence itself sounds quite.. forced? It's correct, but I would use it in that short form if I was perhaps annoyed with somebody, or making it very clear that it's the absolute last time, especially with emphasis on the word "last."
Perhaps instead ...
0
If it is a passive voice, you would have a subject (present or implied) that applies the verb (to bore) you
Example:
He talked for an hour, I am bored (passive voice) (implies bored by his speech)
Chick flick after Chick flick, I am bored (passive voice) (implies bored by the movies)
There's nothing to do, I am bored (adjective)
I am bored (adjective), I ...
0
Where doesn't tie the whole sentence together; it's actually just part of a clause in the sentence: "where it supposedly had been deposited". Below is how I parse the whole sentence:
First off, the part before the first comma,
In what is one of Europe’s biggest accounting scandals in recent years,
is a separate clause modifying the rest of the ...
0
I was bored while watching the series.
At that time, you had that state. We have no idea when or why your boredom began, only that it overlapped your viewing of a television program. This might imply that you didn't pay much attention to the show because you were already bored.
I got bored while watching a series.
At that time, you acquired that state. ...
0
I'm asking because pushes sounds forceful to me
Not always! You can gently push the door to open it, especially the one which is already slightly open.
The officer walks down the hallway, notices that one of the doors is
ajar, gently pushes it (open), and enters.
0
While it is correct, you can improve the flow by re-arranging the words and removing "pushes" all together. Try:
The officer walks down the hallway. He notices that one of the doors
is ajar. Silently, he opens it and enters.
Since you already said that the door is ajar, there's also no reason to mention that he opens it at all.
The officer walks ...
0
I think that what you are looking for is something along the lines of: I have been told that this is what needs to be done to become a teacher.
If you actually know it, and want to include the 'thing' then: I have been told that to become a teacher <something> needs to be done.
The example you gave does not really make sense as it stands.
0
The sentence needs a verb (Ixora is often called...).
Called doesn't need to be followed by as, although it could be replaced with known as.
Colloquially has a double 'l'.
1
It means they caused injuries to them. It doesn't say how. They may have beat them, hit them with a car, stabbed them, or something else. All we know is that there are injuries, and they aren't just light bruises.
A serious injury is normally something you have to go to the hospital for. The image that is conveyed is someone getting stitches for a laceration,...
2
From a strictly grammatical viewpoint, both read and write and write and read are grammatical, and essentially equivalent in meaning. There is nothing inherently incorrect in referring to children learning to write and read.
Grammar is far from the only consideration in communication, however. In binomial pairs (i.e. groups of words of the same part of ...
1
The question, now clarified, does not lack specificity. And
Yes, place them where you have indicated
is a perfectly good answer.
Yes, place them
and
Yes, use them
are odd because they are silent on the placement of the commas, which was the focus of the question. Neither provides affirmation that the suggested placement is correct. Neither is ...
0
Generally, you only use present continuous to describe a situation where one thing happens while another is in progress, for example:
I was washing the dishes when the parcel arrived.
washing the dishes is a continuous activity, and the arrival of the parcel is something that happened while the continuous activity is in progress.
can is used to express a ...
0
No, the structure can+be+present participle is not idiomatic.
The preferred structure to indicate capability is can+present tense, as in:
I can do the work.
For instance, my mother might say: "Can you go get me some milk from the store?"
The correct response would be "I can get you the milk," not "I can be getting you the milk.&...
0
You would usually use the form with did here because the party is an event which has finished at the time of speaking. If the time specified is still current at the time of speaking you would use the form with have.
Did you see Carol at the party last week?
but
Have you seen Carol at the party? (which is still happening now)
Have you seen Carol on ...
1
Yes, that is correct. Alternatively, I could say "that's correct," because the apostrophe-s is a contraction for "is," just like "cat's" here is a contraction for "cat is." It's not formal, but it is correct.
My cat's being operated on this afternoon.
My cat is being operated on this afternoon.
You could also say &...
-1
I would omit 'both' since that word refers to 2 of something and in your version people are interacting, maintaining and building.
1
It's easier to understand if you mark out the phrases and see the roles they play in the sentence:
Variable A and B show strong correlation only at either (both upper and lower corners) or (at one corner only).
You can now clearly see that both is not related to either, but rather part of the first phrase of the pair connected by the either...or... ...
2
(To start, I don't understand what correlations at corners are, but I assume you have explained it beforehand in the document you are writing.)
Now, your first statement,
these two variables are correlated either at both corners (first group) or at the upper corner only (second group)
is understandable, but when you rephrase it as
Variable A and B show ...
2
For the same reason we do not say "a pure money" - the noun is uncountable.
"Glass" can refer to a number of things. The most likely reference in your quote is the material glass (def. 1 at OALD), in which case it is uncountable. In other cases, e.g. "a glass of milk," it refers to the container for the beverage, in which case ...
1
Glass is used as uncountable noun here. It means the material, not the thing made up of that material.
You can only use the a determiner with a countable noun so you can't use it in this context. But glass can also be a countable noun (something made of glass to drink from), in which case you can, and should, use the determiner:
This is a glass.
Although ...
0
None of them are correct.
First, it should start
It has a pernicious effect on
or
It has pernicious effects on
Effort 1 is close to being correct:
on human beings' lifestyles
or
on a human being's lifestyle
are correct though they mean different things and are both stylistic monstrosities.
Effort 2 is also close to being correct:
on human lifestyles
...
1
Your first example is grammatical and idiomatic.
The second is not idiomatic. It's not a construction that most native English speakers would be likely to use.
There are contexts where you could place completely at the end of a sentence. It really depends on the sentence, for example:
I have completely cleaned the house and tidied the garage.
This is the ...
1
The reference is to Isaac's mother, Sarah, so there is only one she. In the Bible story, Abraham and Sarah had their only child, Isaac, when they were elderly. There is a mistake in the Wiktionary entry; it should be in her old age.
2
To blow a fuse:
to burn out the fuse on an electrical circuit and lose power.
The microwave oven blew a fuse, so we had no power. You'll blow a fuse
if you use too many appliances at once.
To suddenly lose power due to an overloaded electrical circuit.
Well, we just blew a fuse—it seems that running the space heater, the coffee maker, and a blow dryer ...
1
To the OP: thanks for providing an image of the textbooks in question; it helps make things clearer. As others have pointed out, the use of the word "mark" instead of "grade" implies British English. As an American, I can't really comment on idiomatic British (even though I am familiar with it). So what follows applies to American ...
1
Following from points raised by the OP in comments here is a specifically British perspective.
Scenario 1. Young people gather outside the place of their education in the summer to receive the results of the public examinations and open the envelopes containing them. They might ask:
What did you get in French?
What grade did you get in French?
What have you ...
2
My friend and I submitted our paper to A and B journals, respectively. But unfortunately, both papers got rejected by the respective journal. Then, my friend and I resubmitted our paper to B and A journals, respectively. This time, both papers got accepted.
You could re-write this in one sentence as either:
Papers submitted by my friend and me to two ...
4
Neither your question nor answer are idiomatic in US English. More likely are
What grade did you get in English?
or
What grade do you have in English?
Notice that one is in the past tense and focuses on the past effort. The other is in the present tense and focuses on the present result. The answers then would follow suit. So a natural answer to the ...
1
I think you meant to write "field" instead of "filed".
You have a change of verb form from 1) "applied" to 2) "study".
It might be as well to use two clauses coordinated by "and", and with a different verb form. If it's introducing new material, it might even be good to expand the sentence, rather than ...
1
Who proclaimed me king?
"Myself" is used when the subject and the object are both you. Because you are asking "who" here, you don't know who the subject is. Thus, you can't use "myself".
What did I proclaim myself?
King is a title here, and so it is a "what". For comparison, King James is a "who".
Your ...
0
If you are talking about other words that frequently modify "climate," there are several:
"temperate," "polar," "arctic," "arid," "rainy," and "variable." I am sure I have neglected to list quite a few others.
1
"If you don't mind me asking, " is followed by whatever the original question was, so the correct form should be (a).
If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?
Note that there's a comma. That makes the 2 clauses separate. If you change the sentence up a bit, you can also say:
If you don't mind me asking how old you are, how old are you?
or
...
1
This doesn't quite work for me. The problem is that "real humans" are just as likely to be cruel, jealous, deceitful, mean etc.
I would use a metaphor here. "He's a real gem". Or hyperbolic language "He's one in a million", "he's a real hero". There is a more technical word "altruist". There is also the ...
0
A couple of suggestions for you:
Option 1 - simplifying the statement
"The authors multiple examples provide further evidence of the importance of considering what objects represent instead of how they look."
Option 2 - swapping out dictation and exemplify
"Throughout their study/report, the authors provide ample evidence on the importance of ...
0
We don't. It's not all just one clause. This is a complex sentence, and we have clauses inside other clauses.
“The only thing that’s 1 clear is 2 [that] you were 3 hired to stand up here and tell us lies,” one person shouted 4.”
The contracted "is" belongs to the clause "that's clear". This is a subordinate clause and a ...
0
My reading here, guided mostly by meaning and not applying grammar rules, is that #
It is tempting to conclude that it is too early to predictions
[It is tempting to] call the election a virtual toss-up.
These two sentences concur: We can't yet predict the winner.
The alternate is hard to make work
It is too early for predictions
[It is too early for] ...
1
Traditional grammar recognizes several kinds of connectors. There are three kinds of pure connectors: coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions. It also recognizes some connecting words that do more than just connect things, such as relative pronouns, relative adjectives, and relative adverbs.
Another thing that ...
0
He alleges another £1m had gone on material purchases based on
projections of Arcadia orders he was told were coming down the line.
It's a complex sentence with several subordinate (dependent) clauses, some embedded within another:
[1] (that) another £1m had gone on material purchases based on
projections of Arcadia orders he was told were coming down the ...
1
The sentence looks fine to me (as a statistician) although I might have written a model rather than the model. It is worth bearing in mind that the traditional use of the passive in scientific articles does seem slightly dated and you might prefer to rewrite it as
Therefore, we fitted the copula model to the data
-1
Repeating the same words in a sentence when not needed can be generally frowned upon. In this case, your first sentence (with one as) is correct so I would use the first sentence.
0
He alleges [that] another million pounds had gone on material purchases based on projections of Arcadia orders [that] he was told were coming down the line.
This sentence is not simple at all. We should be able to count the finite verbs to discover the number of clauses involved.
He alleges 1 another £1m had 2 gone on material purchases based on ...
2
How about
Use this tag for questions about expected behavior, the correct code of conduct for different styles of martial arts, and interpersonal communication not only among martial artists but also between them and non-martial artists.
That removes one of the instances of the phrase martial artists while maintaining the overall meaning (I hope).
Top 50 recent answers are included
