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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, 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...

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...

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...

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, 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...

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...

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...

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...

Thanks againRead 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...

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...

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...

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, 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...

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...

DocV, I am American and Emglish is my first language. Most of my grammar I learned in Catholic elementary school. In high school, instruction was more about literature, vocabulary building, different types of writing, and spelling. Grammar was an elective in 11th grade and I took it. Our book was Strunk and White's Elements of Style which focuses more on usage and composition. It is a serious thing for me to add a part of speech and I'm not yet comfortable with the idea of determiners, but I...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...

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...

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...

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