New answers tagged sentence-construction
0
Placement of "therefore" can sometimes be a choice, for example:
I feel unwell, therefore I am going home.
I feel unwell, I am therefore going home.
However, 'therefore' can be understood to mean 'it follows that', so you must ensure it is placed between the *reason and the consequence in your statement. In your example, you seem to be making a ...
1
I try to retain majority of the original example and rephrase it.
The first part could be simplified, and get encouraged to could be omitted.
With this, one them could be omitted.
By having their faculties on television, universities win popularity. As a result, more students apply to, and more donors support, them.
1
I think it would make sense if you were contrasting the article with something else (with another source: the radio or TV). Imagine the reporter were reading you fake or stale news and you pointed to the article and said
But here, in the article, it says "a contrary statement to what you just heard"! Who to believe?!
If you are not, just use The ...
1
You cannot remove the second "them" while keeping the parallelism.
There are some other grammatical issues with the sentence. An edited version might be:
When universities' faculty members appear on television, the universities receive publicity; as a result, more students apply to them and more donors are encouraged to support them.
If you ...
1
I don't want to do any review of the books because that way, it would be considered as my own personal opinion. the only way to figure out if the book is good or bad is to read it.
For a weak interruption appearing mid-sentence, we either place a bracketing comma pair to separate it or do not place any comma at all.
With just the lone comma, as in the ...
2
It can be interpreted as including (can be understood to include) a certain kind of hostility. What kind of hostility? Hostility toward certain ethnic groups. What kind of ethnic groups? Ethnic groups such as: Chinese people in California, and Jews in medieval Europe.
3
The act of being (or feeling) sorry about something has two different connotations:
You caused the issue/situation, and are apologizing for it: you feel bad because it was your fault.
You did not cause the issue, but you still feel bad about it because you empathize with the other person and you wish they weren't sad about it.
Saying I'm sorry to hear that ...
5
"Sorry" is mostly used as an apology now. But it has a wider meaning that is more common in the related* word "sorrow". "Sorry" means "full of sorrow".
As an apology, it literally says "I am full of sorrow for doing something wrong". But it can still mean "full of sorrow" in other contexts.
If you ...
1
We must read this in its own context, and in the context of the time it was written.
Wells tells us that by 1878 it was thought that major wars between European nations had ended, and that wars were mostly small scale actions between European nations and countries outside of Europe. By "expeditionary affairs", Wells is thinking of actions like the ...
0
"Expeditionary" means relating to an expedition.
Expeditions are like 'fact-finding' missions, as opposed to offensive military missions which involve or anticipate conflict. The word "expedition" is used widely outside of the military context, for example, scientific expeditions to the polar regions.
The suggestion of your text is that ...
0
It is clear that most noticeable change that occurred in the town was the change of a huge lake.
It is clear that most noticeable change that occurred in the town was that of a huge lake.
As we are referring to a specific change, the definite article should be included. Also, the phrase that occurred seems redundant.
It is clear that [the] most noticeable ...
0
The country's ongoing widely discussed problems are hopeless.
The country's ongoing widely-discussed problems are hopeless.
It is an expensive well-designed program.
It is a well-designed expensive program.
We need a hyphen after widely to form the adjective widely-discussed.
The terms ongoing and widely-discussed are coordinate adjectives, and we should ...
1
The recent paper of Verdun et al is particularly relevant to the present work, where [rest of clause].
subject phrase: The recent paper of Verdun et al
subject: paper
This sentence's order has been reversed in order to emphasize the idea of "being particularly relevant". This technique is generally only used with the verb be.
The tree on the ...
0
Comparative adjectives:
to be as rich as I am
to be as sarcastic as he is
The comparative is formed by: as....adjective .....as
Much is not needed.
He doesn't need this explanation as much as you do. Comparative use of much.
Notice the quirky thing here:
He likes music a lot. Or: a great deal. Declarative.
He likes music much. [BUZZER, NOT IDIOMATIC, A ...
0
In some contexts, there isn't much, if any difference, when you use the infinitive form of a verb... for example, "I love to read" and "I love reading".
Other times though, the choice can reflect different timescales. "I am driving to London" could mean you are literally in the car on your way to London, or it could refer to a ...
0
Close When used as an adjective, can be used when talking about physical distances.
The grocery store is close. = The grocery store is near.
In this case "close" and "near" can be used in the same way and it is relatively easy to determine that "close means a physical distance.
As a preposition, "Close" can only be used ...
0
Yes. They would make sense. There is very little difference between "on business" and "for business". The first one (on business) suggests that your business in you home country sent you. The second one (for business) suggests that your purpose is to find business in the foreign country.
You can also say "on holiday" and &...
2
You normally don't need to define the meaning of 'close' because everybody understands that people have relationships. When defining a personal relationship, (e.g. when starting by saying 'my brother and I...'), 'close' has a usually understood meaning 'in a warm relationship'. Because of this, if we mean to discuss physical proximity we might say (e.g.) 'I ...
0
It is only problematic because "solve" and "figure out" have very similar meanings. In speech, this kind of redundancy is common and acceptable. In formal writing you would be better with "How did you solve...". It is shorter and means the same.
2
It should be:
I guess it is caused by many of the stones overlapping each other.
You don't need the "are" and you don't need the "being" and you don't need the "with".
Overlapping is a verb so you don't need the "are" or "being".
1
a. It is incomprehensible for me to treat one's wife the way Tom does.
b. For me it is incomprehensible to treat one's wife the way Tom does.
c. For me, it is incomprehensible to treat one's wife the way Tom does.
The difference between the two prepositional phrases, to me and for me, is shown below.
to me means in my opinion.
for me means the matter ...
1
The sentence is correct as it is. With "to", it would also be correct but would make a little less sense.
Short version: There are two "dares", a modal verb and one is a main verb, and they're subtly different.
Long version: "Dare" seems either has been in a state of flux or been two different verbs for a while. It's been ...
0
just released could mean anything from released seconds, minutes, hours, or perhaps even days back. More context might clarify the exact proximity in time.
The present perfect version has released says likewise: that Ferrari released the photos in the past (maybe hours back or days back or perhaps even years back.) As in the previous case, more context is ...
0
"—if separate species we be—" is a parenthetic clause. (In this case the punctuation used is not actual parentheses but em-dashes.) The subjunctive mood used (the if) is a fancy construction; the meaning of the clause is: "If indeed we actually are a separate species."
The passage might be rewritten:
Assuming "human beings" are ...
0
This is a fancy version of saying If we attempt to be species we aren't supposed to be, science will exterminate us.(for whatever reasons!)
The writer has employed the subjunctive here. In nutshell, this is one of the three moods of the English grammar and is used to express wishes, hypothetical situations (as in your example), etc.
1
Why can't I use the passive form here and say "Does he like clothes are made of cotton?
I don't understand what you mean by "passive form" in this case.
Anyway,
The reason you can't do so is because you would be mangling the clause Does he like clothes made of cotton in that case.
Basically, the full clause is which are made of cotton and its ...
2
I think you are confusing two different uses of the word "is" here. This verb can either be:
The primary verb in the sentence, expressing an attribute or state of being ("My friend is married")
An auxiliary used with another verb to form various verb tenses, such as the present progressive tense ("My friend is getting married")...
1
It does not [reflect the situation in England]. It [the tale] is an essential part of the plot, foreseen from outset, though in the event modified by the character of Saruman as developed in the story without, need I say, any allegorical significance or contemporary political reference whatsoever
=
It is part of the plot but has no reference to allegory or ...
1
You cannot omit gets because then the sentence would have no main verb.
This sentence is an example of the passive voice, specifically the get-passive. The get-passive is used with the verb to get and a past participle: get married, get called, get elected, etc. In this case, "LDAP" is getting used by someone else as a synonym.
If you omit gets, ...
1
The two sentences are not really the same and it's unlikely that a native speaker would ever use the second phrasing.
"Must we..." here does not necessarily indicate an obligation or following a rule. It is used more loosely to indicate dissatisfaction with some decision or plan.
-"I'm going to have another piece of cake."
-"Oh, must ...
1
This book I have not read could be used as a way of saying "I have not read this book" (as FumbleFingers commented). But it is not at all a common way to phrase that meaning; if that was the meaning intended it would be very awkward to say it that way, unless in a poem or song. Instead, I would hear it as setting up a contrast: "This book I ...
4
"In the event" refers to what actually happened as opposed to what was planned. "Need I say" refers to something that I shouldn't need to say. So .. The Scouring of the Shire was planned from the beginning to be part of the story, but the way Saruman's character developed in the story affected how that chapter was eventually written. I ...
4
The episode of 'The Scouring of the Shire' was part of his original plan for the story. He made some modifications to it because of the way Saruman's character developed as he was writing the book. The episode has no allegorical significance and makes no reference to the politics of the time it was written.
2
The adjectives higher and lower are more appropriate to use than faster and slower for describing acceleration, which is already a rate of increase.
Though all four adjectives are found on Ngram, lower beats slower in the last seven decades, and higher beats faster in the last six.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Lower+acceleration%2Cslower+...
1
I can’t believe, sometimes the TV program creators treat the audience like they are stupid .
Try reading the sentence aloud to yourself, and I'm sure you would hardly like it. Commas denote pauses and yours introduces an unnecessary pause— a hiccup in what otherwise should be a freely-flowing sentence. That, in my opinion, is the error in your sentence.
...
3
We can speak of both making someone do something (your 'make + pronoun + verb), meaning cause them to do it or force them to do it
and making them [adjective], meaning cause them to be in a certain condition.
"It makes me excited" is the second usage.
3
Yes, it is correct and natural and the construction of the sentence is not unusual.
3
As dan said:
"To give up" is a phrasal verb, and it could be correct in this sentence. This would be anthropomorphizing (attributing human emotions to) the rickety bed, and it would have the connotation of breaking completely.
But! "To give" is also a perfectly acceptable verb. It can mean "to break" or "to collapse," ...
1
I think Kreiri is correct in their comment. This is a typo, and the correct sentence should be
Let's see what happens if we attach it to the object dynamically:
1
Here “setting the original value as this” is a participle phrase modifying “our new function”. I'm not entirely sure this is good style, but it's something I've seen (and written) frequently in program documentation.
Here, the participle phrase describes something the function is doing during the main action of the sentence. So, while the function “invokes ...
0
I'd say, "not necessarily." But all you have to do is relocate that part of your sentence next to "plan" and make it sound more clear.
Like this:
I also can't gather the discipline to try to create a plan regarding
how to move on from this situation and work through it.
On a side note, I'd recommend using "a plan as to how..."
...
1
Perhaps try something like this: I have trouble mustering up the discipline to create and carry out a plan to help me move on from this situation.
Or, I lack the discipline I need to create a workable plan to get through (or get past) this situation.
1
Sentence 3 ("to help us send") is the most natural to my ear.
Sentence 1 ("to help us with sending") also sounds okay.
Sentence 2 ("to help us with sending of") does not sound natural to me. It should be "to help us with the sending of." But even in this form it sounds a little stilted or overly formal.
0
Assess seriousness of each case, select external service providers (e.g. surveyors) to participate in investigation and achieve expected outcomes in a cost-effective way.
My suggestion is shown below. As the passage has no independent clause, I have used small letter for the first word and deleted the full stop at the end.
[a]ssess seriousness of each ...
1
The author is deliberately providing this as an example of an ambiguous sentence.
The phrase "with a telescope" could be modifying the noun "woman", or it could be modifying the verb "to see". A woman with a telescope is a woman who has a telescope. To see something with a telescope is to see it by using the telescope. So the ...
3
Sisters reunited after ten years in checkout line at Safeway
The example has a misplaced-modifier problem and can be interpreted as in A1 below, however unbelievable it may seem.
A1. Sisters had separated and spent their life in a checkout line at Safeway for ten years. Then, they reunited.
A2. Sisters separated ten years ago and they had spent their ...
1
It is ambiguous (and is a well known example of an ambiguous sentence)
This is the point. English has ambiguous sentences that are only understandable in context. Also every other natural language has ambiguous sentences!
But when writing mathematically you need to be unambiguous. (So how can you do maths if you need to express mathematical ideas in ...
1
The question asks what Stacy is eating, not if Stacy is eating. A response would specify the kind of food that Stacy is eating. It would also use the female pronoun "she" if Stacy is female.
-3
Sisters separated for ten years were reunited in a Safeway checkout line.
There's no real ambiguity in the original headline, since one of the readings can be eliminated as nonsense.
Another possible ambiguity in the original sentence:
The sisters were reunited by chance in the checkout line.
vs.
The sisters chose to reunite with each other at Safeway.
...
0
The best way to understand it is to realize you have contracted both sentences. In other words you left out words unnecessary for the reader to understand what you are saying.
In the first sentence, the uncontracted form would be
I did the job very well.
describing how you did it.
In the second sentence it would be
I did a good job
describing what you ...
Top 50 recent answers are included
