Hi, Francis, The adjective "glad" is usually complementized by an infinitive to indicate the action or the state that makes the person glad. "To be" there indicates that the person has returned from some other place: - He is glad to have returned home. - He is glad to be back home. Without "to be," we'd use an adjective that can work better alone, for example: - He is happy back home. (We can also say: He is happy to be back Home.)Read More...

Hi, Tony—If you want present meaning, use the present tense ("appears"). If you want past meaning, use the past tense ("appeared"). Do you want to talk about a present impression of the transactions or a past impression of them?Read More...

Thanks, Gustavo.Read More...

Hi, Azz—In (a), we don't know how many brothers Tom has. In (b), we don't know how many co-workers your sister has. And in (c), we don't know how many cousins your mother has. In each case, the speaker is thinking of whomever he is thinking of and implying nothing about the existence of others.Read More...

Hi, Deng—Gerunds do not have just one meaning. You can form a gerund with most verbs in the English language, and verbs have a wide variety of meanings.Read More...

Hi, Ahmed Towab, I agree with you. 'Have' sounds wrong, particularly, the meaning of 'have an exam' doesn't work here. 'Take' and 'sit' (Br. E) work much better here.Read More...

Appreciate your valuable and prompt reply David. 😄 I am pretty happy to be part of Grammar Exchange family. You guys are doing amazing works. 🙏Read More...

Hi, GBLSU—It's a truncated sentence: "[This is] just the weather for . . . ."Read More...

Hi, Mr. Bashir, Only the first one is correct. "Two-week" is a compound adjective (notice that the plural is not used), and if you want to use the genitive, you have to use the plural: - We spent our two week s' holiday in a youth hostel.Read More...

Hello, JBM, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. We say that things have effects on/upon other things , not to other things .Read More...

Hi, Gilbert—Oh, yes, "Who went with you?" is a grammatically correct question and one that native speakers of English would not hesitate to use in a fitting context: A: We went on a bus tour of the area. B: Who went with you? A: A bunch of other tourists like us. Please note that "Who went with you?" is not equivalent in meaning to "Whom did you go with?" The former question is about who accompanied you; the latter is about whom you accompanied. The perspective is different.Read More...

Thank you for the detailed explanations.Read More...

Yes. Some prepositions can take clausal complements. "Since" is one of them.Read More...

That's an excellent revision. I think that the sentence could also be fixed to some extent if the preposition "about" were used instead of "in." In that case, "my belief about the inherent goodness of mankind" would indicate that the belief was negative: I believed that man was not inherently good, and his kind act changed my belief.Read More...

The point is that the adverbials are different in type. "Regarding the house" is a sentence modifier , and these are almost always set off by commas. Instead, "in 2004" is an adverbial of time that modifies "there was." It forms part of the predicate, while the sentence modifier modifies the whole sentence.Read More...

Hi, Andrew Van Wagner, IMHO, the tenses are OK, but I wouldn't use the first comma. I'd use a full-stop and might add an adverb like 'unfortunately'. I would also use 'them' instead of the second 'those faculty'. - We have so many examples where faculty engage in critical speech. Unfortunately, the far right targets and harasses those faculty (members), and then university administrations don’t defend them or fight back.Read More...

Thank you, David. Always very helpful. AppleRead More...

Hello, ahmed btm, thanks for sharing your opinion. I think you've a lot of knowledge about English grammar. Would tell me if you're a native or EFL person? If a native, do you speak American or British English? Meantime, I still hope to hear from Gustavo, too, when he feels free.Read More...

Oh, yes. "I've spent" means you are still collecting and analyzing data, while "I spent" means you have completed your search and analysis, that is, you are no longer spending any time on that.Read More...

And what is the context? Are you inventing a title for a textbook or class?Read More...

Hi, Andrew, I think you need a plural verb there, because "the ignorance" and "the actual celebration of ignorance" are two distinct heads—it's not just one of the two, but it's both factors that dominate the culture.Read More...

Thank you so much, Mr.Gustavo. Although my question might have been complicated, you kindly answered it and gave me some useful advice. I understood that "he is as honest as any student in his class" should be "he is neither superior nor inferior to any student in his class, and he is one of very honest students." I"As ... as" expresses equality, so we cannot say that a person is at the same time equally and more honest than somebody else, as you mention. This was why I had been confused.Read More...

Hi, Indecipherable—Unless you change how your name is printed on this forum, I shall use the nickname "Indecipherable" for you. Most English speakers here are unable to read, write, understand, or pronounce your name as it appears. I agree with Ahmed_btm that both options are possible; however, the most natural option is not listed. Most native speakers would use "could fall." We'd also omit "-aged" and use a space between the two sentences: This old tree isn't safe to sit under. It could...Read More...

Hi, Boroj Nouri, Yes, you are right. 1 means she was washing the dishes (when something happened.) Although the past progressive could work here, the past simple tense sounds much better. Using the past progressive means that there is something important happened while you were playing football yesterday, but there is no more context here to indicate this point. For a similar question about this particular point, see here: https://thegrammarexchange.inf...c/played-was-playingRead More...

Hi, Mr. Adel Hassan, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange, Both are correct. For a similar question, see David's reply here: https://thegrammarexchange.inf...opic/must-vs-have-toRead More...

Thank you for helping me so many times! Now I’ve fully understood.Read More...

Thank you so much for your help. Now I’ve fully understood.Read More...

Hi, Mr. Abd El-Hakam, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange, I completely agree with Gustavo's answer. I just would like to refer to a quote from A Comprehensive Grammar Of The English Language, page 212: "Because of its resultative meaning, the simple perfective can't be used with accomplishment verbs when the clause contains an adverbial of duration: - They have been repairing the road for months. (Not: They have repaired the road for months.) An exception to this, however, occurs where the...Read More...

Hi, Treasure—Both answers work. Ali's visit "today" can be viewed as past relative to the time of speech or as contemporaneous with it. He hasn't visited us since 2015. He hadn't visited us since 2015. Similarly, if one is hearing a song for the first time, one can say, "I've never heard this song before." Right afterwards, one can say either of these: I've never heard that song before. I'd never heard that song before.Read More...

I'll see, thanks much, Gustavo!Read More...

Thank youRead More...

Thank you so much, GustavoRead More...

Thank you, David, for your help. 💝Read More...

Thank you, Gustavo!Read More...

Hello, Navi—Very nice observation. I agree with you that "Stop the/that man whistling" is ambiguous, that it can mean either "Stop the/that whistling man" or "Stop the/that man from whistling."Read More...

Hi, Andrew— The related Wikipedia article indicates that "The" is part of the title.Read More...

Sorry about the sloppy typos in the post, by the way; I corrected them!Read More...

Thank you so much for your answer!Read More...

Hi, AndrewKim, Yes, you can say you are seeing somebody at a set time and place.Read More...

Yes, that is ungrammatical. As Ahmed told you, "remind" is followed by a noun/pronoun and a "to"-infinitive or a "that"-clause. Perhaps you are confused with the verb "mind," meaning "object to," which is followed by V-ing: - Would you mind sending me an invoice?Read More...

For some reason, native speakers will often accept the wrong verb form if it's part of a contraction. "There are 100 people in the room." = Correct English. " There is 100 people in the room." = Incorrect English. "There 's 100 people in the room." = Acceptable in informal English. "Read More...

Thank you, Gustavo! It's so clear and obvious now that I'm surprised at myself. I don't know why I only thought of communications as something within the country.Read More...

Thank you. I'm grateful.Read More...