Hi, Sedo and Ahmed, I agree with your answer, Ahmed. Both the singular and the plural form are commonly used in that construction by native speakers. The strict correctness of using the plural, however, becomes obvious when one rearranges the sentence: (B1) She is one of the few women who have climbed Mount Everest . (B2) Of the few women who have climbed Mount Everest , she is one. (B3) * Of the few women who has climbed Mount Everest , she is one .Read More...

Hi, poet, May I ask about the name of this book? There are two possible answers here. Both 'have to' and 'will have to' are correct answers.Read More...

Hello, Coco, You've asked a very interesting question. I agree with DocV's answer and would like to add that everything relates here to subject and object within infinitive clauses. You might not be accustomed to thinking of infinitive constructions as clauses, but they are: they have a subject and a predicate. But the verb in infintiive clauses lacks tense. That's why they are referred to as nonfinite clauses. (1a) The coffee is too hot for me to drink. (1b) The coffee is too hot to drink.Read More...

Hello, Poet20, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange! This appears to be an exercise from a workbook or perhaps an item from a test. It is OK for members to ask questions about such items, but we encourage members to do more than simply present the exercise. Try to say why you feel uncertain of the answer, or tell us which answer you think is right. The answer to your exercise is "don't have to": " You don't have to come if you don't want to ." The other answer, "won't have to," is not...Read More...

Yes, the correct answer here is: d) so Thank you Doc V for answering this question in particular and clarifying the fabrication of this rule. Regrettably, it isn't one of Yama's colleagues who mentioned that fabricated information above. That information is mentioned in one of our outside books which thousands of pupils and hundreds of teachers trust. The puzzle is that the sentence above is written correctly in our student book page 32. It says: It is so hot outside …. . I wonder from which...Read More...

They are both grammatically correct. Personally, I prefer: 3: There are two very good restaurants by the park. Note that in (2), "they" can be omitted: 2a: There are two restaurants by the park and both are very good. You can't do that with (1). DocVRead More...

DocV, I'm honored to share you the same opinion.Read More...

David, These both work. I didn't know I could do this on the new platform. Thanks again. DocVRead More...

I agree with what Gustavo says, and I'd like to add a few thoughts of my own. 1a: I wish I could lead a healthier lifestyle. 1b: I wish I led a healthier lifestyle. As Gustavo says, (1a) is used by someone who wants to lead a healthier lifestyle, but can't; something is preventing him. The same person could say (1b) instead, but there are a number of other circumstances where (1b) might be used. For example, he may have just noticed how bad his habits are, and feels ashamed. Kes, you wrote:...Read More...

Hi, Azz, What an interesting batch of sentences. They are all certifiably bad, but none of them is certifiably ungrammatical. In the linguistic literature, they would receive question marks, not ungrammaticality asterisks. Each of your sentences contains a syntactic island violation. In (a) and (c), you are trying to relativize an element contained in embedded questions; in (b) and (d), you are trying to relativize an element that itself comes from a relative clause. Relative clauses and...Read More...

I agree with Hussein. An exception can be made if you have just finished climbing the hill, in which case it is possible to say That was the hardest thing I have ever done. But it is never wrong to use "is" in that sentence. DocVRead More...

Hey Gustavo - this is super helpful, thanks! "grammatical subject" that's what I was after.Read More...

You're right. I forgot to include the word "are". Oops! Glad you caught that! Thanks for you quick response and clear explanation!Read More...

Hi, Perriced, The expression with the verb "go" is "go to the movies " (meaning: go to the movie threater). "movies" with the zero article will be fine with other verbs, like: - She enjoys watching movies .Read More...

Hi, Navi, I think there is a couple of commas missing in (1), one to close the two appositions "the poet/critic" and "the best, that is, of ... and Ezra Pound," and another to precede the reformulatory "that is." 1') Yvor Winters , the poet/critic , said "the free verse that is really verse, the best , that is, of W.C. Williams , H. D. , Marianne Moore , Wallace Stevens , and Ezra Pound , is the antithesis of free." I find "that is for instance" redundant in (2). At least, I'd separate them,...Read More...

Hi, Yama, I suspect your book, or your teacher, expects you to use "too." However, "so" would also be possible. "too" is more negative, the result being that the speaker did not pass the exam. "so" would be a colloquial way of saying "very" or "rather."Read More...

In keeping with the same line of thought I followed here , I'd use (3) so , Yama. I'd reserve too for a context in which some negative consequence is implied, for example: - I'm too hungry to wait two hours for dinner. I'll have a sandwich.Read More...

Is there any other difference between " So " and " very " other than the one mentioned above in the quotation? I'm asking because the difference you mentioned won't help me much in answering other questions which aren't related to emtions. As always, thanks for your much appreciated help.Read More...

Ok, Yama. No problem. I thought you were complaining. The way you expressed yourself was fine. I only misinterpreted you.Read More...

Hi, Yama, "cake" is usually countable, and this sentence is no exception. The correct choice is (3): - It was such a delicious cake that we ate it all. We can also say: - The cake was so delicious that we ate it all. "cake" will be uncountable when used alone or with a partitive like "some" or "a piece of."Read More...

Ayman, Mr Swan (author of Practical English Usage ) does say that "used to" cannot be used to speak of how many times an action happened, but he doesn't say that it cannot be used to address how frequently it happened. There is nothing wrong with this sentence: I used to go on holiday once a year. For more information, please see this thread: Used to & Would DocVRead More...

Of course you don't. Answering questions to the best of our knowledge is our mission here (actually, nobody forces us to do so), so we are always happy to be of help. Just like "not only/but also" in your example (6) further above, "both/and" are correlative conjunctions, and this makes the whole structure a single (though compound) NP. "both" will be a determiner only when modifying a plural noun and meaning "the two of them": Both students are good. "with flowers and green spaces" is a...Read More...

Thanks for your help. I'm truly sorry for any unintended mistakes. I'll do my best to avoid these mistakes again. Thanks again.Read More...

Wow!Read More...

Menem, Please remember that one of the few absolute rules we have on this forum is that, when quoting from a published source, you must cite the source. This includes paraphrases. And, if the source material is available online, you are to provide a link. DocVRead More...

Barry, No, "organic cookies" and "conventional cookies" do not mean literally "organic Oreos" and "conventional Oreos". Dr Herz begins by talking about a study that examined participants' perceptions of organic Oreos, specifically, as opposed to conventional Oreos. About halfway through the passage, she appears to extrapolate, applying the perceptions of the participants to organic and conventional cookies in general, not just Oreos. To say that "organic cookies" means literally "organic...Read More...

Navi, (1) means (a). (2) means (b), and (b) sounds better. (c) is a strange thing to say. This sounds better: c': She'll do it, but not for any particular reason. Regarding (A): How is the speaker able to predict another person's future impulsive act? If the act is to be impulsive, the person herself doesn't yet know that she'll be doing it. Is the speaker clairvoyant? These two sentences mean the same thing: B: She'll stop for nothing. B': She won't stop for anything. But these two do not:...Read More...

Thanks a lot, Doc! I was talking to a friend who was telling me that "waterboarded" was in the past tense whereas "deserve" was 'doing something in the future". Didn't make much sense to me so I figured I'd make an account here and ask . Oof, yeah I don't know how that second "deserve" got in there! I did tell him afterward "deserves to be" in that sentence, but for the sake of accuracy I used how I originally said it. Yeah, Sion and, Zoe are characters from a video game that aren't fun to...Read More...

Yama, I agree that (4) is the best choice. (3) isn't incorrect, but it doesn't sound as natural as (4). DocVRead More...

Yama, "Either" tends to convey the sense of "one or the other". Here, the person answering is saying that he likes the two choices presented, not just one. Alternatively, he could have answered: 3': I'll eat either, but I'd rather have chicken. Here, "either" works because he is going to eat only one or the other of the two choices, not both. DocVRead More...

Thanks.Read More...

David, [Our] juice is the juiciest juice there is. I'm actually surprised that I haven't seen this used as an advertising slogan. For what it's worth, a Boeing 747 is 185 feet long with a cabin width of 20 feet. The biggest blue whale whose size was verified was only 98 feet long. I couldn't find any statistics about the width. DocVRead More...

Y2K, (2) is perfectly fine. It refers to one specific rumor. (1) expresses a generality. In a contextual vacuum, it requires the indefinite article: 1a: I like to know if a rumor is true or not. or better still: 1b: I like to know whether a rumor is true or not. Given proper context, though, it is possible to say (1) as it is: 1c: I'm aware that some managers in the past have asked for employees' resignations based on hearsay. I personally require more proof in such circumstances. I like to...Read More...

These are very good points, Gustavo. I should have said "than most verb forms ending in '-ed' do". We also have the word "striped", which is pronounced as one syllable when used as the past tense or participle of "to stripe", but can be one or two syllables when used as an adjective (unlike "learned", which is always two syllables when used as an adjective). DocVRead More...

Thanks.Read More...

Thanks for your help.Read More...

David, You say: The sentence "My mother believes everyone should learn English" can be followed with "Shouldn't they?," but only if the question is a separate sentence. This is an excellent point, and I'm glad you brought it up. You continue: In (3), "Shouldn't they?" is elliptical for "Shouldn't they (i.e. everyone) learn English?" The question asks whether the belief of the speaker's mother is true. I agree. I would add that the question asks whether the belief of the speaker's mother is...Read More...

Thanks for help. I really appreciate it.Read More...

I fully agree, David. You are definitely right that "often" sounds much better to express a persistent present habit.Read More...

Hi, Shouq, You seem not to understand how to use this site properly. The Grammar Exchange is for discussing questions about English grammar. It is not a site where people will help you cheat on your grammar homework, nor a site for soliciting members' personal contact information. If you do not know how to answer a grammar question from one of your homework assignments, try to understand what it is about the question that is causing you difficulty. This will give you an idea as to the...Read More...

You were not misleading, Doc. I misunderstood your meaning. Now I got it. Thank you, Doc and David!Read More...

Wow! Thank you sooo much! I didn't expect such a detailed reply! You are correct in that in the real world the distinction between the two 'meanings' is not that great and could be negligible. But actually I believe that in (a) and (c) there's a grammatical difference... or maybe it is a semantic difference.. I'm not sure what to call it... Maybe the difference doesn't really change things since the same goal can be attained by two different methods. There are two different ways of...Read More...

Hello, Emad, You might find something related to your question here: https://thegrammarexchange.inf...9#583405316545754729Read More...

Hello, Azz and Gustavo, These are interesting specimens. I share Gustavo's judgement that (a) the best sentence of the three, and I too find (b) and (c) to be worse and much worse, respectively, though I can't say that I find either of them ungrammatical. The stranding of "of" works much better, I think, if "which" or "that" is used: d1. There isn't a book here which I can't recite at least two pages of by heart. d2. There isn't a book here that I can't recite at least two pages of by heart.Read More...

Yama, Wow! Eight multiple choice questions. It sounds like you want us to do your whole lesson for you. I'm here to help, and I want to help, but I really think that the best thing here is for you to at least attempt an answer to each question, and explain why you chose it. Then one of us can go through and, essentially "grade" your answers. If you get any wrong, or if you choose a right answer but for the wrong reasons, we can then help you understand what was wrong with your thinking. And...Read More...