Hello, Harry O'Neil, Stories are always narrated in the past tense, so you should use the Past Simple even if there are no time adverbials: - Once upon a time there was a man who had everything and still wasn't happy => This story is about a man who had everything and still wasn't happy.Read More...

Hello, jccohen, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. As far as I know, "would" cannot be used to express subjunctive. It is a modal verb that can be used to express different ideas: future from a past perspective, obstinacy or persistency in the past, express or implied conditions of a tentative nature, etc. In your sentence, an implied condition is involved: - She finds the same thrill in playing football as other girls would in dolls or sewing = She finds the same thrill in playing...Read More...

Hi, Robby zhu, In the absence of any further information (context) to the contrary, (A) and (B) do suggest that he re-entered his shop immediately after gazing at the display. Answer (C) does not suggest what you think it might. I see no justification for using the past perfect progressive there, but it works in the following example: He had been running from the authorities for years before getting caught. In that example, the past perfect progressive indicates that his running from the...Read More...

Hi, Evy, I agree with Gustavo's answer completely and would simply like to add that "whom" is also possible, in a formal register, in the sentence you used to paraphrase the meaning of the sentence you were asking about. That is, you can say, " Who are the people whom audience members should talk to if they want to tell someone about work at the paper ." "Whom" is the object of the preposition "to," as is more obvious with the preposition fronted: Who are the people to whom audience members...Read More...

Hi, Pal, "for" can introduce clauses of reason. It is a formal conjunction equivalent to "because" but, unlike "because," "for" does not usually come after a period but after a comma: - In doing so, they deserve not only our help and encouragement but also our gratitude , for their triumphs put our own struggles in perspective and inspire us to rise above our own weaknesses.Read More...

Hello, Pal, "Patrolled" is the customary spelling. "Patroled" is a variant spelling that is sometimes encountered in American English, according to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Interestingly, my computer automatically flags "patroled" as incorrect.Read More...

Hi, Fujibei: Grammatically, it can have either meaning. What is the context?Read More...

Both of them work in American English, too. On the COCA corpus there is one (1) result for "half the crew was" and one (1) result for "half the crew were," and zero (0) results for the versions with "of."Read More...

Hello, Ahmed and Ahmed, "All" would certainly be better if the reference were to all the days of the week. In the United States, however, a weekend is normally two days. So we would use "both days," unless it was understood that the "great weekend" being referred to was an extended weekend. Perhaps you have longer weekends in Egypt. We sometimes have three-day weekends -- for example, when there is a holiday. And Thanksgiving weekend is normally four days long. If Ahmed Imam Attia's sentence...Read More...

Yes, Navi, I agree with you.Read More...

Aha! Thanks a lot, Gustavo.Read More...

Hi, Ruifeng, The mechanisms for word compounding (i.e. the rules for forming compound words) are varied. With parts of the body, we always add "-ed": fair-hair ed , long-leg ged , red-hand ed , blue-eye d , and I think this might be because of the relationship of possession, which is closer if we speak of a person having a warm heart than if we speak of a train having (?) (better: showing, developing, running at) high speed. If you find examples of both types of compounding, you will see...Read More...

DAVID, MODERATOR ， thank you very much for proving me with a clear explanation.Read More...

Thank you sincerely, Gustavo.Read More...

Hi, Ahmed Imam, You would stay in only one hotel, so the right answer is: 'either'.Read More...

The same thought here, bro. Thanks 🌹Read More...

According to your interpretation of Quirk, there are not even the slightest chances for the Chinese grammarians (whose position I thought you were defending) to be right about the correctness of "being written in haste." What I understand is that "being examined" can be interpreted as solely passive (in which case it can be reduced to "examined") or as passive progressive (in which case "being" needs to remain): This could be transposed to the original sentence: - The composition written in...Read More...

Thank you prof. for your kindly help.Read More...

Hi, Ahmed Imam, Both are grammatically correct. With 'none', there are three cold drinks or more. With 'neither', there are only two cold drinks.Read More...

Hi Rasha, According to the Cambridge Dictionary*, Both the present perfect and past simple can be used for 'Recently completed events.' On the other hand, Swan** insists that recency for itself is not a reason for using present perfect (Swan, page 457). The reason should be 'connection to the present,' for example, an event with present results or new information. Anyway, I guess that both of your sentences are right since, at the moment, the speaker is confused by the listener's words...Read More...

Hi, Ruifeng, "second hand" means "used," and I don't think anyone would like to buy or consume coffee that has already been used. Are you sure the context does not include some other noun after "coffee," for example "machine"?Read More...

Hi, Ruifeng, Both seem to be correct, but (1) might be more usual. Notice that in this site both noun phrases are used even within the same section:Read More...

Hi, Ahmed Imam, Both are correct. American English follows the singular pattern. British English follows the plural pattern. See: https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/staffRead More...

Like Ahmed_btm, I prefer "each." The sentence needs improvement, though. It would be better to say that each of the classes has a different shape, or that each of them is of a different shape, or that each of them is shaped differently . It is not the case that each of the glasses is itself a different shape.Read More...

Dear Mr. Gustavo, thank you so much for your clear answer! My friends also thank you a lot! Native friends said the sentence was wrong because it's too wordy - the and the. But some people argued 'wordy' doesn't mean it's grammatically wrong. Now, thanks to you, we could defeat their argument! I realized learning a language is endless and learned a lot this time. This type of topic was not explained in grammar books. Thank you again for your in-depth knowledge and kindness!Read More...

Hi, Ahmed55, The title is misleading because, although all four words can introduce relative clauses, in the context of an embedded question those wh- words can only be interrogative adverbs/pronouns/determiners: - Why do you choose the car? - What do you choose the car for? - Which car do you choose? - How do you choose the car? As you can see above, combined with the preposition "for" only "what" is possible, and this also applies to the embedded question: - Can you tell me what you choose...Read More...

So it is incorrect to use "the least number", isn't it?Read More...

Hello, Mokas, "Lay" and "lied" are the past-tense forms of different verbs that are spelled alike. "Lied" means "told untruths." Does that help you to decide? https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lieRead More...

Hi, Trig1968, I don't think that comma is necessary, but it isn't wrong, either. Alternatively, you can say: "When I joined the softball league this spring and walked onto the hot pitch from the bustling street, I knew something important: it was the start of the season." (No capital for "It.") However, I still find some inconsistency between the action of joining the league (which actually seems to be a previous, more embracing event) and more specific and simultaneous actions like walking...Read More...

ThanksRead More...

Thank you for all your help!Read More...

Thanks a lotRead More...

Hi, Mohamed, Both are grammatically correct. See: https://thegrammarexchange.inf...3#600439683383619593Read More...

Thanks again. I always got excellent explanations from you experts!Read More...

Hi, Ahmed55, This is a good question. "somewhere" (just like "everywhere," "nowhere," and "anywhere") is a pronoun, and has the distinctive feature of combining the noun "place" with the relative adverb "where." Your sentence could be expanded to: - Let's go to some place where we can enjoy ourselves and have fun. However, when you use "somewhere" the relative "where" is included and therefore not needed: - Let's go somewhere we can enjoy ourselves and have fun. ( when would be wrong, but...Read More...

Hi, Azz, Yes, one can. Example (a) is ambiguous, though. In addition to (b), it can mean: "He had a mouth and small nose." No, one can't. The determiner phrase cannot be headed by both "a" and the zero/null article. But "a small nose" is a determiner phrase, and " a ears " is ungrammatical. Therefore, "ears" must be a separate determiner phrase headed by the null article. Example (c) is unambiguous and is equivalent in meaning to this: "He had ears and a small nose." Here are some trees...Read More...

According to what you said, In the following question, I should use "will" instead of "going to". The doctors predicted that the patient ............... live for a month. a) will b) is going to However, "going" sounds better. Normally, doctors wouldn't predict something like that out of nothing. The same applies to the original question. You're implying that using the subject "Meteorologists" is the same as using any other subject like: "Tom" , "Dick" or "Harry". That's why I respectfully...Read More...

Yama, The short answer is yes. It is also acceptable to omit the word "of" in this context. Here are some examples that sound more natural but convey the same idea: 3: The entire audience left before the end of the film. 4: Everyone left before the end of the film. DocVRead More...

Hi What are the best punctuation books, please?Read More...

Hi, Ahmed55, Please ask your question in the text of your opening post. Do not leave us to infer your question from the title of your thread, as you have done here. Here it would be natural to use the future perfect ("will have used") with the particle "up." When we have used something up, none of it is left. (a) By 2050, people will have used up all the oil in the world, and they will need other fuels. Along with the change to the phrasal verb "use up," it would be fitting to change to the...Read More...

Ok. I will try to these rules.thank youRead More...

Ahmed, I agree with both Hussein and David. I would like to point out that if we omit the word "all", both "what" and "that" make sense, but they would mean different things. 8: Tell me what you know about this boy. This conveys the same meaning as the examples David and Hussein presented, which is a request for detailed information about the boy. 9: Tell me that you know about this boy. This is merely a request that you acknowledge that you are aware that there is such a boy. DocVRead More...

Yes, with the simple past in the main clause ("When Hana came home, her sister washed the dishes"), the natural interpretation would be that Hana's sister began to wash the dishes right after Hana came home. With the past progressive ("When Hana came home, her sister was washing the dishes"), the meaning is that her sister was washing the dishes at the time at which Hana arrived back home. The arriving occurred in the midst of the washing.Read More...