November 2020

I agree with Ahmed on all counts. "That is why" should be preceded by a period, a semicolon, a colon, an em dash, or a linker, that is, something that sets it off as a separate sentence. Only "which is why" can be preceded by a comma as it introduces a sentential relative clause. I would hyphenate the compound adjectives. I also find the "the men who do it are aware of it" part defective, so the sentence as a whole should be recast: - Boxing is a high-risk, short-term career, and the men who...Read More...

Hi, Robby Zhu, No, "as anxious shoppers loaded up with toilet rolls and pasta when lockdowns were first imposed" is an adverbial clause of time indicating when those scenes (of supermarket shelves being emptied by stockpilers) were familiar. The clause in turn contains another adverbial clause indicating when shoppers purchased those goods ("when lockdowns were first imposed").Read More...

Thank you Gustavo. I really appreciate such a prompt and helpful reply to my question. I'm happy to have found this forum.Read More...

Hi, Language Learner, The constructions "in order to" + infinitive and "for" + V-ing are equivalent, and so are your sentences under (a) and (b) above. Both indicate purpose. However, in headlines "to" is usually used to introduce a future event, being similar to "due to" or "bound to," and this might be the case with this headline, the idea being that the tip will help the waitress change her life.Read More...

Hello, David. Thank you very much for explaining it, and sorry for my typo mistake!Read More...

Hi, Me_IV, Both sentences are correct. While (1) focuses on the position you have held all this time, (2) takes as a point of reference the moment when you were appointed to do that job.Read More...

Hello, Islam Mohamed, Where have you taken this from? None of the possible combinations works. You could say: - All in the musical band are wearing a hat. - Everyone in the musical band is wearing a hat. - All the members of the musical band are wearing a hat. - Each / Every member of the musical band is wearing a hat. - Both members of the musical band are wearing a hat.Read More...

Thanks much!Read More...

All three are correct, Subhajit, but you should consider using a comma before "but," a coordinating conjunction that here separates two independent clauses.Read More...

@Ashraful Haque Hello... Well, first of all, NOT every student can have the SAME capacity...I really don't know what kind of examples do you have in mind, but how about the following sayings (which I quite often use myself): “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know" (Einstein). "I know that I know nothing" (Socrates).Read More...

Hi, Subhajit—The past tense works better there, but the present perfect is possible. Specific past-time adverbials don't work with the present perfect. However, "in the past" is generic enough that it is not unacceptable.Read More...

Hi, Ben, You should provide examples. The present tense can refer to the present or the future time. - If you study (present), you will pass the exam. - If you see her (future), tell her I'm back.Read More...

Thanks Gustavo, much appreciated!Read More...

Thanks very much DavidRead More...

Hi, Diana—Is the Ph.D. student who wrote this a nonnative speaker of English? The opening coordinate structure ("the positive externalities and non-financial") does not work: we don't coordinate noun phrases with adjectives (e.g., " the apple and yellow "). Also, I'm not sure what "at their consideration" is supposed to mean. Does "their" refer to "students and institutions"? In any case, despite the fact that seeing the whole sentence gives me little idea as to what the author is trying to...Read More...

Thanks GustavoRead More...

Thanks GustavoRead More...

Thanks, Gustavo. I am thinking now about the Christmas song, the twelve days of Christmas. On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Six geese a laying .Read More...

Hello, Narayan, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. In the sentence, "John is good," "good" is both an adjective and a subject complement. Adjective is its part of speech; subject complement is its syntactic function in that sentence. Do you know what a subject(ive) complement is?Read More...

Did you write this passage, Hendrix Le? If not, where have you taken it from, and why haven't you used quotation marks to show they are not your words?Read More...

Hello, EngTeach, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. Torgeir, we only delete questions that are offensive, or that disrupt the natural course of our forum exchanges (e.g. unsolicited advertising). I had never heard about tricolon , but it seems to me that it will tend to include the anaphoric device of repeating the same word at the beginning of each phrase or clause: In grammar, we generally speak about "parallelism," which is what I notice above — according to the definition I found, this...Read More...

Thank you for your elaborate explanation, Gustavo. It really helped. AppleRead More...