January 2020

Hello, Laura G., and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. If you follow the stylistic advice that no apostrophe should be used in the spelling of the decade itself, then there is no reason to add an apostrophe when it is functioning as an adjectival modifier. Incidentally, notice that if 1920s were to be made possessive, the spelling would be 1920s' (with the apostrphe after the s ), not 1920's . Interpreted as a possessive, the form 1920's is the possessive of 1920 .Read More...

Both choices are possible in all your questions, especially (1) and (2). You are pushing towards 'is going to' but the problem with your questions is that my knowledge of his studying hard doesn't represent clear evidence for his success. Concerning the third question, I see that if the focus is on 'anything', the better answer will be 'isn't going to'. However, 'will' works well in all your questions, as well.Read More...

Sorry for the confusion. I'll take note of your remark. Thank you for your help!Read More...

Yes, thank you. I apologize for the delay. Please allow a day or two for a response. While I like to monitor the forum fairly continuously when not asleep, my various responsibilities do not always permit me to do so. When I have to choose between the forum and things which I get paid to do—or which affect loved ones in my life, or which impact my future—the forum takes a back seat. Yes, I agree with you, Mr. Musa, that that sentence works. While I appreciate Ahmed_btm's commentary, and his...Read More...

"I wish I would" is perfectly correct in the right context -- not only in American English but in other varieties as well . Here is one context that would be fitting for "I wish I would dream of her when I fall asleep." Let's suppose that the speaker has been having a lot of bad dreams, or nightmares, so many that he can predict that he will continue to have bad dreams in the foreseeable future. His dreaming is, as Ahmed_btm indicated, out of his control. He wishes he would dream of her when...Read More...

Thanks.Read More...

Thank youRead More...

I got it! She asked shortly before, "How does the hearer acquire familiarity with the referent?" So, it's an actual occurrence of the definite article that helps the hearer, not the abstract category. But we can also say any way (= a way) in which we select articles may be based on more than one factor. I still can' t see the necessity of "the" here. I would understand your point if you implied "at any given moment".Read More...

Hi, Ahmed, Yes, you can. Grammatically speaking, when the adverb comes before the verb we always use ' wrongly' . Michael Swan (page 27) says: "'Wrong' can be used informally instead of 'wrongly' after a verb." Compare: - I wrongly believed that you wanted to help me. - You guessed wrong. Also, "wrongly" is much more formal than 'wrong', but there are certain expressions with wrong such as: ' go wrong', 'get something wrong', 'don't get me wrong' and 'get/have it all wrong'.Read More...

Hi, Ahmed Imam Attia, Unless the noun being defined is a proper name or a noun of which there is only one of the kind, we tend to use "a" to define singular count nouns.Read More...

I think both "is" and "will be" work finely. That's very clear, David. I hadn't realized that "what" reads differently from the other options.Read More...

If you suggest a solution to a problem, then "Try doing" will be the answer.Read More...

Thank you, Gustova, for your explanation. Before I created this post here, my non-native English speaking friends had posted the same question on two other English language forums. We would like to see other native English speakers' perspectives and feedback on the same inquiry. Very often, we receive a variety of responses, which at times show different opinions. On the other forums, all the members except one advised us to use "challenges" instead of "barriers", as shown in (1b). (1b) One...Read More...

'Supposing' is mostly used with counter-factual situations and when you use it, you imagine the result. The speaker here isn't imagining anything. He is giving permission but has one condition, which is that the addressee must be home at 8 o'clock.Read More...

Hello, Navi—None of the sentences works for me. I recommend this revision: 7a) I was laughing so hard I couldn't speak. 7b) I couldn't speak, I was laughing so hard.Read More...

Hi, Ansonman—I agree with your friends and with Ahmed that the sentence is better without "the" before "champion." The omission of this article often happens when there is a position that only one person fills at a time. I thought you might find the following statistics interesting. From the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): "Reagan became president": 26 "Reagan became the president": 0 "Clinton became president": 21 "Clinton became the president": 0 "Bush became president": 26...Read More...

Hi, You need "had been sitting" there as Ahmed told you because you need to express that, by the time you caught the fish, you had already been sitting in the boat for two hours (past before past). Without the "for"-adverbial, "was sitting" would be fine: - I was sitting in a boat when I caught a huge fish.Read More...

The reflexive indicates that the action affects or reverts to the subject. That's not the case with "bring sth with you." From the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English : bring somebody/something with you For some reason, Jesse had brought a tape recorder with him.Read More...

Okay, I understand. I think that's another angle, but both angles give the same result.Read More...

Hi, Trig—I don't know if this sentence is your own or one that you have found, but the verb ("found") makes me question whether the appositive was intended as an appositive. "I found the king a tall, fair man" would mean the same thing as "I found the king (to be) tall and fair." If, however, the appositive was intended as such, then the comma between "tall" and "fair" is perfectly fine, as it is in the following sentence: "She likes John, a tall, fair man." If you find the first comma...Read More...

Thank you a lotRead More...

Hi, Freeguy, I agree with your friend about the verb being fine in the singular, based on this (taken from The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style ):Read More...

Hi, Azz, (c) does not make sense to me. You need to specify where Tina is best. (e) is fine (the place or area where she is the best can be implicit in the context when the relative superlative -- with "the" -- is used). However, when "best" is used as an absolute superlative you need to specify the area where the person shows their best version.Read More...

Thank you for your clarification!Read More...