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Regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic

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David, Moderator
Dear Grammar Exchange members, As we continue our grammar discussions, I want you to know that I am aware that we are all struggling in various ways as a result of the current pandemic and that my heart goes out to all of you. I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. Although we may not know each other personally, we all know that there is much more to us than the English grammar issues we discuss here. This post is devoted to the dimensions of you and your lives that I know...Read More...
Nina WD
Hi Gustavo, Thank you very much for your advise and guidance!!!! I sincerely appreciate it! ~Nina~Read More...
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To be

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Dear Sir "Ravi Shastri is just glad to be back home in Mumbi." If we remove "be" from the sentence, does it make sense? Or else why did "be" use here and what is the meaning? Source : https://www.theweek.in/theweek/sports/2021/12/04/i-leave-with-a-clear-conscience-says-ravi-shastri.htmlRead More...
Gustavo, Co-Moderator
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...
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present gerund or present perfect gerund

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"Its development starting twelve years ago, social entrepreneurship is quite new to Georgia." "Its development having started twelve years ago, social entrepreneurship is quite new to Georgia." Which of the two sentences are correct? And how would it be in the past and past perfect tenses? "Its development starting twelve years ago, social entrepreneurship was quite new to Georgia." "Its development having started twelve years ago, social entrepreneurship was quite new to Georgia." "Its...Read More...
David Toklikishvili
Thanks, Gustavo.Read More...
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Appear or appeared

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Hello, Should I use "appears" or "appeared" in the below sentence. As briefly discussed, it appears that the debit card transactions were not reflected in the XYZ's 2021 financials.Read More...
David, Moderator
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...
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count on you

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a. I depend on you to do the job. b. I count on you to do the job. c. I rely on you to do the job. d. I need you to do the job. In all cases, it is possible that the 'agent' of 'to do the job' is 'you'. I am hoping that you will do the job. But is it possible that I expect and hope to do the job myself with your help? I think this possibility is more present in the case of d. But I am not sure it is non-existent in the first three cases. Consider these sentences: a1. I depend on your help to...Read More...
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He is as honest as any student in the class.

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Dear Moderators, I am always grateful for your help. Today's question is about the English text of the subject. I referred to several grammar books, but each grammar book had a little different translation. Could you give me some advice? The followings are the translations: 1. He is not inferior in honesty to the student in the class. At the same time, he is not superior in honesty to the student in the class. 2. He is as honest as any student in the class and he is more honest than any...Read More...
mika
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...
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’were’ in if clause with ‘can’ in main clause

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Hello, everyone, “If simple observation were the only factor in determining our knowledge of reality, then nothing at all can be more certain than the fact that the Earth is stationary. For thousands of years humankind has observed the turning of the stars and (apart from the odd earthquake) has experienced the ground beneath its feet as a fixed point from which to observe all other movement. ...“ *source; (first published in UK 2001 by Hodder Education)...Read More...
deepcosmos
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...
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deep

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Is it okay to say "something deep hidden,"? That incident woke his curiosity and it was then that he felt,' something deeply hidden had to be behind things. from My Life : Albert EinsteinRead More...
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with his brother

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a. Tom came here with his brother. Does that imply that Tom has only one brother? b. My sister's co-worker's wife is a mathematician. Does that imply that my sister has only one co-worker? c. My mother's cousin's husband is a dentist. Does that imply that my father has only one cousin? Many thanks.Read More...
David, Moderator
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...
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How to understand gerunds

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What is the meaning of a word that is a gerund? Is it an act, action, or something else? Can the phrase, "the act of", always be implied before a gerund?Read More...
David, Moderator
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...
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Can I use this "But instead" construction that juxtaposes against something INSIDE a previous sentence?

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Take a look at this: https://join.substack.com/p/is-there-hope-for-truth Right-wing extremism is such a huge part of what’s happening in Western democracies, which increasingly are nominal democracies, so extremism studies should be a large subfield in my discipline and should be getting lots of attention and making lots of noise. But instead political science has failed badly when it comes to studying and exposing right-wing extremism. So you can see that the "But instead" construction ties...Read More...
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Should I use "I've" or "I" here? There are shades of meaning here; "I've" seems to emphasize ongoingness.

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See here: I’ve spent the greater part of the last five years collecting and analyzing a massive amount of data on this issue. So I think that "I" would mean almost the exact same thing, but I think that "I've" puts more emphasis on the ongoingness of the spending action. The thing is that "I" would also mean that the spending action was ongoing, so is there really any difference at all? I think that I'll go with "I've", but I really want to know what (if any!) difference there is so that I...Read More...
Gustavo, Co-Moderator
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...
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Did I miss up the tenses on this, or is this good? I have a headache trying to figure out if the tenses are correct here!

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I think that the tenses are correct, but I'm not 100% sure: We have so many examples where faculty engage in critical speech, the far right targets and harasses those faculty, and then university administrations don’t defend those faculty or fight back.Read More...
ahmed_btm
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...
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have or take an exam

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Hi, everyone Choose From 10 to 12 tomorrow morning I will have/ have / will be having an English Exam. I think it's wrong to use ( have ) in this sentence. It's better to use ( will be sitting or will be taking) because of the continuity of the action at a certain period of time in future. Does ( will be having) work in this sentence.? Thanks in advance.Read More...
ahmed_btm
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...
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How do I conjugate this verb? The construction is: "The X and Y that increasingly Z American political culture."

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Is it "dominate" or "dominates"? Do I write it like this? And this message of dismissal and ridicule can’t be aimed at the bad-faith disinformation actors themselves, but instead must be aimed at the public at large in order to turn the public at large against the ignorance and actual celebration of ignorance that increasingly dominate US political culture.Read More...
Gustavo, Co-Moderator
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...
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Why does the comma have to appear in the first "Regarding" construction here but not in the second "Regarding" construction?

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Consider (1) and (2): (1) Even regarding the house, it was going really well. (2) I noticed that he was doing well, and that his friend was doing well, and that even regarding the house it was going really well. There's a comma after "Even regarding the house" in (1). But there's no comma after "even regarding the house" in (2). Could (1) lose the comma? If not, why not, given that (2) has no comma?Read More...
Gustavo, Co-Moderator
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...
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Was being considered OR was considered

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Hi team "As long as the Chairman of the selectors told him that he was not being considered for ODI captaincy now, that is perfectly fine." In the above statement why did "was not being considered" use instead "was considered"? Source : https://www.theweek.in/theweek/sports/2021/12/23/captaincy-chaos-ganguly-version-kohli-version-and-the-truth.htmlRead More...
Francis Stephen
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...
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parsing

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Victor walked over to his large mirror. Just the weather for trying out his new disguise, he thought, as the sun warmed the back of his sturdy neck. He had bought this new treasure only the previous day: an enormous mustache, so dark and bushy that it would have made any self‑respecting walrus extremely jealous. (source) Should the sentence start with a conjunction before <just the weather>? How can the noun phrase be connected with the following sentence without a conjunction?Read More...
David, Moderator
Hi, GBLSU—It's a truncated sentence: "[This is] just the weather for . . . ."Read More...
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Frankly speaking

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1 Strictly speakin g , spiders are not insects , altho ugh most people think they are. (longman) 2 Not having any money, I can't treat you to lunch today. Can I change the order of the words like this? 1 Speaking strictly, ~ 2 Having not any money, ~Read More...
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beyonds vs beyond

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Advertisements are on the radio and TV, in the newspapers and magazines, and on buses, and beyonds. Is the sentence correct? I suppose that beyond should replace beyonds. Is ‘and beyonds’ a phrase? Also, is there a difference between ‘beyond’ and ‘beyonds’ when they are used as words instead of phrases? I will appreciate any help!Read More...
Maxine
Thank you so much for your help. Now I’ve fully understood.Read More...
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Hyphen or possessive s

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What is the difference between hyphen and possessive s Choose We spent our ( two-week / two week's) holiday in a youth hostel. Thanks in advanceRead More...
Gustavo, Co-Moderator
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...
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