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Hi, Yama, Allow me to clear two points here: The way native speakers use 'will' and 'be going to' is totally different from ours. A native speaker won't bother himself thinking whether to use 'will' or 'be going to' in a real life situation. Betty Azar says: "Will and be going to mean the same when they make predictions about the future ( prediction = a statement about something the speaker thinks will be true or will occur in the future) " (a) According to the weather report, it will be...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...

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...

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

Aha! Thanks a lot, Gustavo.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...

Thank you sincerely, Gustavo.Read More...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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