Hi, Hussein: The normal, native expression is not "all day round"; it's " the whole day round." If you search for that phrase, you will reap a nice harvest of results. I agree with Gustavo's answer. I'd also like to mention that it is perfectly fine to use the past simple in both clauses, to omit the repeated subject from the second clause, and to use "all day." You do not have to use "all the day" instead of "all day" if the period of time is completed. "All day" is correct in both cases.Read More...

Hi, bearbear, Yes. Both of them mean misfortunes seldom come singly. I also agree with the writer 'Joe Devney' that using 'but' in 'It never rains but it pours' is a bit unusual. See his opinion here: https://www.quora.com/What-doe...ns-but-it-pours-mean BTW, you should say: I would like to know if it has the same meaning as: .........Read More...

Thanks. Brilliant reply. I just need one last thing clearing up. Can you please tell me, i read something online which puzzled me " Phrases that describe should be placed close to what they describe." Can you expand on this, is there a manner in which descrpitive phrases should be laid out. Many thanks.Read More...

Hi, Thienan, and welcome to the G.E's new platform, 'Rather than' can be used either as a conjunction or a preposition. It can be followed by 'a bare infinitive' or 'ing' . Rachel, our great late moderator, gives more detailed information about 'rather than' as a conjunction (or a "quasi-coordinator' according to Quirk) and as a preposition on the following link: https://thegrammarexchange.inf...-than-and-instead-of On 'A Practical English Grammar' (4th ed):Read More...

Hi, bear_bear, 1(c) is the only one that is wrong, because there "soon" interferes between "time" and "for lunch": the phrase is "time for lunch," and it cannot be split. The difference between 1(a) and 1(b), as well as between 2(a) and 2(b), is subtle. I prefer 1(a) and 2(b) because the end position gives too much importance to an adverb of time that does not contribute much meaning. When the adverbial provides more information, then the final position may be justified: 1(d) It was time for...Read More...

Hi, Ayman and happy Eid al-Fitr, As for me, as a non-native speaker, I always teach students what they have in their books. In fact, that has been Okaasan's advice to me. So, when our books mention something informal, I refer to it and connect my explanation with the exam. For example, our books say: I wish there was/were something I was interested in. I tell my students that both 'was' and 'were' after 'wish' here are correct, but 'were' is preferable . If they have to choose between them...Read More...

Hello again, Navi: To me, that can't mean that she talked to you as if you were a child. That is not a possible meaning. What (5) means is that she was like a child when she talked to you; that is, she talked to you in a childish manner. In informal dialectal English, you might very well hear " She talked to me like I was a child ," and that, of course, would have the "as if I were a child" meaning. As you know, one alternative to using "as if I were a child" or "like I was a child" is to...Read More...

Hello, Sadra, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange! The sentence "He screamed while being shot at" is neither wrong nor uncommon. The sentence is grammatically correct, and the grammatical structures it contains are common. What is it about the sentence that perplexes you or causes you to worry that it might be wrong? Are you familiar with reduced adverbial clauses, the progressive passive, and the prepositional passive? The sentence means the same thing as "He screamed while he was being...Read More...

Hello, Subhajit123, I find that "the" is required because we are speaking about specific villagers, those living in "this village." That noun phrase is comparable to " the inhabitants of this village." Strictly speaking, "the" is necessary as it refers to the Indian fans watching the match, but I think it can be acceptably omitted in speech. Please note that in your explanation you are mixing up the people who are chanting with the police trying to stop them. I find the first omission of the...Read More...

Swan has contradicted himself with his own example, unfortunately. The assertion that "[t]he past continuous is used to express repeated or habitual actions in the past that were temporary" is correct, and Gustavo is correct in affirming its truth. Swan's example ( At the time when it happened, I was travelling to New York a lot ) actually serves to illustrate the truth of that generalization. "A lot" in the phrase "was travelling to New York a lot " expresses that there were numerous and...Read More...

Hi, GrammarCrazed, Great to see you on the new platform, GrammarCrazed. It has been a long time since I last saw your great comments here. I'm very happy to see you here again. Hi, Heather W, I completely agree with GrammarCrazed. The plural of 'Navi' is 'Navis'. You can see the word 'Nazis' on LDOCE as the plural form of 'Nazi', which is close in its written form- and not in its meaning- to 'Navi'.Read More...

I agree with Ahmed_btm. Interestingly, "ripen" can be changed from a verb into an adjective (a participial adjective) by adding -ed: "ripened." Thus, we can speak of there being many ripe guavas on the guava tree, or of there being many ripened guavas on the guava tree. "Ripened" is commonly found in hyphenated constructions, like "sun-ripened tomatoes" and "tree-ripened guavas." In your sentence, bear_bear, "ripe" would be the usual choice, even though both words work. If the guavas on the...Read More...

Hi, bear_bear: You should have said, "Which word choice is suited to the question below?" Sentence (1) is incorrect. You can say: (1a) Was the miller boastful to the king? Sentence (2) is not incorrect, but "boast of" would be more idiomatic: (2a) What did the miller boast of to the king? (2b) Of what did the miller boast to the king? With the corrections I have made, they are correct. You could have used such sentences if you were speaking English hundreds of years ago.Read More...

That's exactly right, Hussein. In both examples, emphatic "did" (past tense of "do") would also be emphasized in the speaking of the sentence. For example: A: Peter should have parked his car near the gate of his house. B: Peter did park his car near the gate of his house. (Go and look.) Speaker B's sentence could alternatively be "He did park his car there" or, simply, "He did." The point is that B's sentence would NOT naturally be "Peter parked his car there," which gives no emphasis to...Read More...

That's true, David, so true that I always teach my students only the pattern with "to"-infinitive along with the one using the past participle, in pairs of examples like the following: - Peter got a friend to complete the task for him. (active causative meaning) - Peter got his task completed . (passive causative meaning) I agree. I just made the addition in case somebody else came across this thread (that's why I wrote it for the "general public," so to speak).Read More...

Hello, Jamest83, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange! There are two grammatical errors of the same type in that sentence. In both of the "which"-clauses (relative clauses), a singular verb is used; however, since the antecedent of "which" is plural in each case, and since "which" functions as subject in both relative clauses, a plural verb is needed. Below I have highlighted the head noun of the antecedent of "which" in each relative clause and have changed the verb of the relative clause to...Read More...

Hi, David, Thanks for your insightful explanation. By the way, the dog was conjectural. So, I am sorry for having made you feel bad at all. Next time, I will be more careful.Read More...

Thank you very much for the explanations. Replying with a quote is as fine as it was back in the day, but when a new post is started one must resort to options appearing under the"Format Dropdown Menu". And they surely are not as great as they were earlier.Read More...

(2) She is beautiful, but she isn't attractive. (3) She is attractive, but she isn't beautiful. Both of those sentences are strange, but I'd say that (3) is much stranger than (2). When the predicates are applied to human beings (holistically applied, not just with respect to certain attributes or traits of theirs), there seems to me to be an entailment relation between attractiveness and beauty which does not hold in reverse. It is asymmetrical. That is why I think that there is no...Read More...

Hi, Fujibei: Welcome to the new platform! It's nice to see you again. Please review our policy on the use of quotations and source material. You have referred to an author's views in a book without telling us which author or which book you are talking about, and you have used two article quotations without using quotation punctuation or telling us which articles they are from. Please take this as constructive criticism. My intention is not to scold you. I agree with the author that "scold"...Read More...

Hi, Subhaji: I agree with you. Both the simple past and the present perfect are possible and grammatical there, but the simple past works better. This is analogous to the use of the definite article to refer to something that has just been introduced with the indefinite article (e.g., "He bought me a doughnut, and the doughnut was very good"). The present perfect, with its indefinite paste-time reference, works well for introducing a past event. Subsequently, that event will naturally be...Read More...

DocV, Thanks a lot for your time.Read More...

Hi, Ayman, Thank you for sending us a picture of the page in question, which confirms what David has told you. According to the book, "suggest" can only be used with pattern (B), that is: - It + be + suggested + that + Subject + verb in the indicative mood (in this case "suggest" is similar to "indicate" or "hint"): It has been suggested that the party was cancelled. - It + be + suggested + that + Subject + verb in the subjunctive mood (in this case "suggest" is synonymous with "recommend"):...Read More...

Hi, Ruifeng: Sorry for the delay. The awkwardness of your sentences was a bit of a turn-off at first, and then your question slid down the page. Now that I've returned to your question, I see the source of the awkwardness. The problem is that your sentences all correctly express where or in what circumstances he (habitually) completed the test (the) quickest / most quickly , whereas you are SURELY trying to say something else, something that is expressed by sentences such as the following:...Read More...

Thanks, David.Read More...

Hi, Teata: You're new to the forum, so I will help you out with this question of yours; however, it's important for you to know that discussion topics at the Grammar Exchange should concern particular grammatical topics. They should not be requests for editing assistance. Does that make sense to you? That having been said, I recommend the following revision, on the basis of what I think whoever wrote the sentence is probably trying to say: "The main purpose of the meeting would be for each...Read More...

Yes, Hussein. Those features are not available on cell phones.Read More...

Gustavo, I agree with everything you say here. I particularly appreciate your explanation of why "from" works better than "in". Novice, you wrote "I assume A is correct". I assume that you meant that you assume that (1) is correct. Your indices are all numbers, so there is no (A). I do appreciate your using indices, though, something that was sorely missing in How to ask for help and thank somebody politely Long lists like that are difficult to address without them. Is there any chance you...Read More...

Hello, Hert009. This is the first time I see you here, so welcome to the Grammar Exchange! I guess you know the meaning of "exchange," don't you? When people exchange ideas, one expresses a view and another either agrees or disagrees. Your post containing ten questions looks very much like an exercise you are supposed to do for homework, am I right? Rather than just give you the answers (and do the homework for you), we would prefer for you to tell us which you think is the right answer to...Read More...

Thank you so much. ♥Read More...

Hello, Navi, The more movies, the better. I find all but (3) -- yes, the red sentence -- to be correct and sensible. What you've done with (1) and (2) is fascinating. The first sentence of each is identical, but the meaning is totally different. In (1), the meaning of "He doesn't watch a movie only on Fridays" is that it is not only on Fridays that he watches a movie . In (2), by contrast, the meaning of the same sentence is that it is only on Fridays that he doesn't watch a movie ! The...Read More...

Hello, Navi, Sentence (1) doesn't work, in my opinion. If it is to mean (b), the first "as" can't be omitted, though a speaker might get away with omitting it in informal speech, i.e., in conversation. It should be "wasn't as tall as." Sentence (2) means (c). Now, if you added a comma after "tall" in (1), the sentence would work: " He wasn't tall, as his brother was ." But the meaning would become (c). You would sacrifice the "wasn't as tall as" meaning altogether. ♣Read More...

Thanks David. Your answer is clear and I do understand the difference. I needed a confirmation. Thanks again.Read More...

Thank you. Perfectly well understood now.Read More...

The Other One is correct.Read More...

David, Thanks a lot for the clarification. That is great and, of course, abundantly apparent. PS: Since DocV and Gustavo don't seem to have any interest in decorations, it is time I took the opportunity myself. ♠Read More...

No need for that, sir. I don't think I should inconvenience you with that. I am immensely indebted to you for all the efforts you put in to keep this forum alive. Answering such a myriad of questions sun to sun is something to be respected for the nobility inherent to it. Sir, I thank you.Read More...

Thanks for telling me my thread before. Btw, It's not very convenient to look back the previous threads. Could you please try to "squeeze" all the previous threads in "personal activities stream" ? Just as like the old version that we can find the threads page by page. Thanks. it's my point of view. Hopefully it'll be useful in future.Read More...

Hi, Ahmad, I agree with you that (3) is incorrect unless "increase" is post-modified. But if you post-modify it with the prepositional phrase "in number," the meaning will not change drastically. Indeed, the semantics will be parallel to that of the others: (3a) Criminals are likely to increase in number in such circumstances. Or you could say: " There is likely to be an increase in the number of criminals under such circumstances ." I prefer that. I even like (4) better than (3a). My point...Read More...

Hi, Subhajit, I believe the questions of this sort, coming mostly from you, have already been answered in detail. I suggest you go over your earlier posts. You are stuck with 'a', 'any', and 'the', while you neglect other areas. I see many a problem with your post. You should read more than you currently do, and soon half your questions would be answered by the exercise. You can discard my advice, but that won't be advisable. Thanks. PS: Last year in October (give or take a week or two) , a...Read More...

Hi David: I forgot to tell you that I had to find a word that has the similar meaning to "posed" from four options. I can't show my gratitude to you because through your explanation, I seem to learn more things than what I ask about.Read More...

Hi, Novice: Please ask about specific examples where you personally find it difficult to differentiate their meaning. ♣Read More...

Re: turn on/ turn upRead More...

Hi, David. When I want to ask someone for help formally and politely (most often in this forum), I often use some structures as below: - Would/Could you do something? - Would you mind doing something? - Would you be kind to do something? When I want to express my gratitude to someone, I often use: - Thank you very much for your help/kindness/explanation - I appreciate your help - It's kind of you to help me. - Many thanks to you. But when I ask too many questions, it seems a little bit...Read More...