25
votes
Grammar of titles - wh-clause vs. question
Why we listen to music is a noun phrase.
Why do we listen to music? is a well-formed question.
Either could work as the title of an article, say, or a blog post. Titles are not required to be well-...
- 119k
18
votes
Accepted
Why is "I'll be", wrong as a short answer?
Heh, I think you answered your own question in your own question. It's wrong precisely because it's a response with an auxiliary verb, and therefore, we do not repeat the other verb in the short ...
- 3,760
17
votes
It seems the main clause is absent in this complex sentence. Why is it correct?
The main clause is the one headed by the verb "is", so the bracketing is:
(What surprises me) is (that they are fond of snakes and lizards).
Both the subject and its complement are content ...
- 195k
14
votes
Grammar of titles - wh-clause vs. question
Why We Listen To Music=The Reason We Listen to Music
versus:
Why Do We Listen To Music? = A question.
Titles of written texts (books or articles) can be quite complicated. In the examples above, ...
- 40.5k
12
votes
"He asked me to use my bathroom."
He asked me to use my bathroom.
That is poor wording, because as you said, it sounds like he's asking you to do it yourself. In context, we would probably know what you meant, but we wouldn't say it ...
- 22.9k
11
votes
Grammar of titles - wh-clause vs. question
I don't think the answers sufficiently cover "What's the difference between "Why We Listen to Music" and "Why Do We Listen to Music"?". It's possible that it should simply be a separate question, but ...
- 1,881
10
votes
Accepted
Is "how you do you" grammatical?
Yes and no: it is meaningful, but you have to interpret it in a very specific way.
The context is about the difference between
-something you know (for example, a password)
-something you have (for ...
- 40.8k
9
votes
Subordinate clause not equivalent to main clause
Options 1 and 2 are both correct. Both state that the teacher received a degree in the past and so is eligible to teach currently. Option 3 is incorrect because it is plural and "teacher" is singular. ...
- 7,668
8
votes
Is "how you do you" grammatical?
I agree with the first part of stangdon's answer:
The context is about the difference between
something you know (for example, a password)
something you have (for example, a key)
...
J.R.♦
- 109k
8
votes
Accepted
It seems the main clause is absent in this complex sentence. Why is it correct?
[What surprises me] is that they are fond of snakes and lizards.
The main clause is the whole sentence in a 'fused' relative construction.
The subject "what surprises me", is not a clause ...
- 15.4k
7
votes
Accepted
what is the meaning of this sentence and what is the verbs?
Sentences can consist of multiple clauses and thus contain multiple verbs.
And is a coordinator (also called a coordinating conjunction). One of the functions of that is as a subordinator (also ...
- 22.9k
7
votes
Subordinate clause not equivalent to main clause
@Ringo gives a good explanation of the correct answer to the test question, so I won't repeat that.
I think the question is flawed because, (a) there appear to be two right answers. Choices 1 and 2 ...
- 60.8k
6
votes
What is the subject in the introductory clause "After studying for 1 year. . ."?
When the subject + verb of a subordinate clause like that is replaced with an -ing form, the subject of the subordinate clause is usually the same as a the subject of the main clause. So,
After I ...
- 1,537
6
votes
What does verb+ing form in this sentence?
The leaders of the world, meeting at the UN in New York, agreed a new set of Global Goals for the development of the world to 2030.
The phrase meeting at the UN in New York is a verb phrase which ...
5
votes
Accepted
Using "that" for nested subordinate clauses
It's perfectly good, and reasonably natural.
You could omit either or both of the thats.
Omitting the first one is quite natural.
Normally, omitting the second would also be natural; but in this ...
- 73.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Choice of tense following "I wish it was true that..."
We use past tense forms to talk about wishes, even if the consequences are in the present, so the second sentence is better. Strictly speaking, you should use were rather than was, although in ...
- 58.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Weird that-clause from GRE
I had to parse that monster of a sentence a few times before I understood it.
Presumably there should have been a comma after “notice”. The results of Nylenna’s study were not anomalous because they ...
- 1,848
5
votes
Marking the functions of a sentence: 'She may like it'
She may [ like it ].
Traditionally "may like" has been taken as a constituent (and commonly called 'the verb’). There was a lot of argument about this in the 70s, and many have come round to the view ...
- 15.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Are they two subordinate clauses?
If you’ve [made a change [that you feel [would [benefit the community
…]]]]
I’ve bracketed the subordinate clauses. There are four in all.
The understood subject of "made" is "you", and of "would" ...
- 15.4k
5
votes
I pray every day / I hope... + ... doesn't / will not
Those all sound completely natural to me, a native speaker. "Pray" sounds more emphatic than "hope", and does not / will not are interchangeable here.
- 718
5
votes
"He asked me to use my bathroom."
The first sentence would certainly be understood in context, but it could be improved by leaving out "me." The verb "ask" can be intransitive: "I asked to use the bathroom.&...
- 8,975
5
votes
Some Questions About Sentence Clauses
[1] Andrew decided [to buy a sundae instead of a double-scoop cone].
[2] Peter and Elaine could not decide [if they wanted to elope or have a
big wedding].
[3] The beach is a lot of fun, [yet the ...
- 15.4k
5
votes
'I was eating when he came home' vs 'He came home when I was eating'
In English, the first word/words of the sentence usually have more emphasis than later words. People pay the most attention to the beginning of each sentence and less to the end. This is because ...
- 917
4
votes
Is it possible to write a complex sentence without a dependent clause and without conjunctions?
These are not (as you observe) "complex sentences" in the sense in which the term was traditionally taught; they are merely "complicated" in various ways.
But the term "complex sentence", however you ...
- 174k
4
votes
Accepted
Confusion regarding Simple, Complex and Compound sentences
The traditional definitions of simple, compound and complex sentences:
A simple sentence has a single independent clause and no dependent (subordinate) clauses.
A compound sentence has two or more ...
- 174k
4
votes
Accepted
Can a sentence be the subject?
The painter selects which color to use.
Which color to use is selected by the painter.
The chef decides how to cook the food.
How to cook the food is decided by the chef.
The traffic cop decides ...
- 119k
4
votes
Accepted
Please don't forget to ring me when you get home
Why is this correct?
You ask why the first example is "correct", and why the second is "incorrect", and there are several things to consider in the question.
In maths, we can say with certainty that ...
4
votes
Accepted
"to first receive" or "to receive first"
Adverbial first is like many other common terms (just, only, etc.) in that we can often be a bit loose as regards exact positioning relative to the specific word (noun or verb) it applies to. Who's ...
- 67.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Is the sentence 'What I need is to do/doing the things I like.' grammatically correct?
In the pattern
What I need is... + {some needed action} [rather than some needed thing]
the complement will be an infinitive clause necessarily headed by "to", and the verb will express the idea of ...
- 119k
4
votes
Accepted
Marking the functions of a sentence: 'She may like it'
A CaGEL analysis would be like this:
She [C] may [P] like it [C]
Or to make it clearer:
She [C]
may [P]
like it [C]
Of course, the last Complement, like it, is itself a clause with its own ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible