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October 2022

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Rest assured

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Please rest assured that your assignment is not due until end of this year so you have plenty of time to prepare. Why don't we say rest assure instead?Read More...
ahmed_btm
Hi, Tony, For further explanation, in this phrase, which is only used in formal writing, 'rest' works like V 'to be', which means that it is used as a stative linking verb, and here 'assured' is used as a predicate adjective. The whole expression means 'be/feel' confident that ... .Read More...
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will be done Vs. will have been done

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Are the two answers (c & d ) correct in this context? why? In two days’ time, all the arrangements for the conference .............. and we will be ready. c) will be done d) will have been doneRead More...
Former Member
Thank you Gustavo. Always a true legend! Sorry Ahmed to have been mistaken. 🙏 You were right.Read More...
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Can you say "played a leading role on"?

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See the bold: https://join.substack.com/p/what-does-canada-do In terms of the instances where Canada’s direct influence resulted in the most destabilization , you could look at Canada’s role in overthrowing Haitian democracy. Or Canada’s silent—but crucial—role in the Iraq War . Or Canada’s leading role in the NATO-led bombing of Libya —Canada played a leading role on Libya and was right at the forefront.Read More...
Andrew Van Wagner
Thanks!Read More...
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Confronting

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ahmad
Hello, everyone, 1. We found ourselves confronting a serious problem. 2. We found confronting us a serious problem. 3. We found confronting ourselves a serious problem. A. Are all these above listed sentences correct? B. In the event of being correct, what is/are the differences, if? Thanks.Read More...
ahmad
Hello, David, I think I need more on that. Is "confronting a serious problem" as a whole the object complement in 1, or is it only "confronting" which functions thus? Thanks.Read More...
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'When the sea stars removed'

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Hello, everyone, Can I change following sentence into ' a nominative absolute construction ' still using the conjunction - when for emphasizing such as in 2 below? 1. " When the sea stars were removed, the number of mussels increased greatly ." 2. " When the sea stars removed, the number of mussels increased greatly ." Though I've seen in ' Practical English Usage ' the similar examples below, I'm not sure if their patterns are the same with the original sentence; Clauses with past...Read More...
deepcosmos
Hi, David, sincerely appreciate your answer. Regretfully I should have made my original question reading as follows; Does this construction - " < It > being fine, they went hiking ." belong to 'the impersonal absolute one' beginning with '- ing ' omitting a personal pronoun such as ' I, we, you, one' as in below? - Supposing this to be true, he is certainly innocent. - Speaking confidentially, he is guilty of the offence . Now I've become to understand the construction - " < It >...Read More...
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New1 reply

Is "the" needed in these cases?

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See the bold: Bob was [the] writer, director, producer, and editor—Joe was [the] director, producer, and videographer. But the problem is that I don't know if the bolded "the" words will apply to all of the items in each sequence of 3 items...do I need 6 instances of "the"?Read More...
f6pafd
Yes, the definite article "the" applies to all those words; the redundant use of "the" sounds awkward and clumsy.Read More...
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Preposition

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Please kindly confirm if I have applied the correct preposition here: 1. "At" is used as a point of reference. Example: A postman rang your intercom so you said: Would you mind leaving the parcel at the lobby, instead of in the lobby. 2. Thank you for letting us know the change of your both residential and postal addresses. We have updated your addresses in/on our records.Read More...
TheParser
Thank you, David, for that great "at the lobby" sentence.Read More...
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who is ...

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Let's say I am looking for a certain John Harrison. I know he is in a room that is full of people. I don't know what John Harrison looks like. I enter the room and I tell someone: a. I want to know who is John Harrison. (i.e. among the people in this room who is John Brown) b. I want to know who John Harrison is. Which of the sentences (a) or (b) is correct in this context? Many thanks.Read More...
ahmed_btm
Hi, Azz, In such a situation, I would use neither. I think I may use one of the following options: a. Where is John Harrison? b. Can anybody tell me where to find John Harrison? c. "Hey! Is there a John Harrison here?" With this punctuation, I would go with 'b'. However, I can't say that 'a' is impossible in real life, especially if you lay focus on the question. - I want to know something! "Who is John Harrison?"Read More...
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Preposition into/to

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Should I use to/into? I have uploaded to/into HelloSign for you to review and digitally sign:Read More...
David, Moderator
Hello, Tony—You should use "to"; we use "to" for uploading things to Internet applications. But your sentence needs a direct object after "uploaded": "I have uploaded [something] to HelloSign for you to review and digitally sign."Read More...
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would he not like that

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Can I use a. Can I send Tom's article to my wife to read, or wouldn't he like that? instead o b. Can I send Tom's article to my wife to read, or would he not like that? ? I know (b) is correct, but I don't know why I don't like (a). If (a) can be used, does it mean exactly the same as (b)? Many thanksRead More...
David, Moderator
Hi, Azz—I think I know why you don't like (a). When "would he not like that?" is supposed to mean, as here, "would he dislike that?," the contracted version "wouldn't he like that?" cannot felicitously be used as a substitute, because such a question has the meaning " Is it not true that he would like that? "Read More...
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Singular and Plural

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What are the differences between: We are friend versus We are friendsRead More...
David, Moderator
Hello, Tony—F6pafd is right. You can say "We are friends." It means "We are friends with each other." You cannot say " We are friend ." I'm not sure what you were thinking of. There are idiomatic expressions like "Is he friend or foe?"Read More...
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"would have read"

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Hi, there! There was the sentence like the following in the textbook. Does it make a sense? "By the next weekend, he would have read all the books and was ready to start some new ones." What does "would have read" mean? Why is "was ready" used in this context? I would appreciate your response!Read More...
mika
Thank you so much!Read More...
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Why is the bold word important? Why not delete it?

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I feel like it's important but I can't explain why: 7) What do you think about my 27 January 2022 piece “Can We End Canadian Atrocities?” ? Anything that you’d add? The piece discusses Canada’s role regarding Israeli atrocities and regarding atrocities in Haiti. I think that it’s an excellent and informative piece—it does a great job providing readers with resources about Canada’s foreign policy. We interviewed Yves Engler a great deal during the docuseries. And his work has strongly...Read More...
Andrew Van Wagner
Got it! So it's good to use in my context above because it's kind of like an exclamation point regarding how this commentator whom I interviewed happened to influence the other interviewee's views.Read More...
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Uppercase on bold? Tricky one.

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And for another example, Canada could become a leader on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict . We could choose to vote in favor of UN resolutions—calling for the occupation to end or for Israel to stop building illegal settlements—that the overwhelming majority of the world supports. And we could boycott Israeli products made in the Occupied Territories .Read More...
Posted
New2 replies

’Beginning in the late nineteenth century’

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Hello, everyone, “There was nothing modern about the idea of men making women’s clothes ― we saw them doing it for centuries in the past. In the old days, however, the client was always primary and her tailor was an obscure craftsman, perhaps talented but perhaps not. She had her own ideas like any patron, there were no fashion plates, and the tailor was simply at her service, perhaps with helpful suggestions about what others were wearing. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, with the...Read More...
deepcosmos
Hi, Gustavo, appreciate yours.Read More...
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What does the word "zen" mean?

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Comedian James Gorden said after he had allegedly abused servers in a New York restaurant. ‘I feel so Zen about the whole thing. Because I think it’s so silly. I just think it’s beneath all of us’ What does he mean by the whole sentence? The word "Zen" is particularly confusing. Is is commonly used in daily conversation?Read More...
Gustavo, Co-Moderator
Please see meaning (2) of the preposition "beneath" here : The comedian said "I just think it’s beneath all of us" to mean that, given their reputation (his own and that of other people involved), the whole matter is not worthy of any consideration.Read More...
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which was what we had been doing...

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a. They suggested that we contact each other via the net once every two months, which was what we had been doing in the last three weeks. b. They suggested that once every two months we contact each other via the net, which was what we had been doing in the last three weeks. c. They suggested that we contact each other via the net once every two months. We had been doing that in the last three weeks. d. They suggested that once every two months we contact each other via the net. We had been...Read More...
Andry Davis
I agree with you, I think the option a does not work, the other options have the right to life.Read More...
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New2 replies

Is bold the wrong tense? How should I rephrase?

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First, it was “really very much consensus within the profession” that the consumer price index (CPI) was overstating the true rate of inflation—the “overwhelming majority of economists weighing in on this were saying” that the CPI “overstates inflation, one percentage point, maybe more, but one percentage point”. People’s Social Security benefits were—and are today—“increased in accordance with the rate of inflation” as the CPI measures inflation, so the idea was that Social Security had to...Read More...
David, Moderator
There should be a comma after "inflation" to set off the "as"-phrase, which is parenthetical and which could be placed at the beginning of the sentence, whose tenses are fine: "As the CPI measures inflation, people's SS benefits were and are increased in accordance with the rate of inflation, so . . . ."Read More...
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Does the bold refer to only hyperthymic people?

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The bold is confusing to me (it could be referring only to hyperthymic people...or else to anyone who has a joyous temperament including hyperthymic people): https://www.nytimes.com/2002/1...human-hard-wire.html In the course of the last year, the woman lost her husband to cancer and then her job. But she did not come to my office as a patient; she sought advice about her teenage son who was having trouble dealing with his father's death. Despite crushing loss and stress, she was not at all...Read More...
David, Moderator
In that case, I'm not going to bother trying to figure out what your question is.Read More...
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How exactly does the bold word change things semantically?

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Why do political discussions sometimes get so emotional? There are healthy political discussion where everyone’s blood pressure remains low and everyone feels like they’re working together to find the truth, but there are also unhealthy political discussions where everything deteriorates and becomes unpleasant—I think that the unhealthy political discussions occur when the participants (A) don’t share fundamental bedrock principles about how to find the truth and (B) don’t have adequate...Read More...
David, Moderator
The use of "the" in that context would indicate that you are referring to specific unhealthy political discussions already introduced in the context. But you aren't.Read More...
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