February 2021

Gustavo, thank you so much! You've helped a lot!Read More...

Hi, Jiho—What are you quoting? Cite your sources. In the first sentence, "such blames" doesn't work, since "blame" is an uncountable noun. In the second sentence, "That's" should be "It's." The second sentence is intended as a truncated cleft sentence: " It's the people who don't use their real names [who post such blames on the Internet] ."Read More...

Thanks. Makes sense.Read More...

Hi, Ahmed towab—By using the singular ("is"), the speaker is representing playing games and drawing as if he conceived of them as one activity. I conceive of them as two separate activities and would therefore have used the plural.Read More...

Hi, Navi, Grammatically speaking, I think only (2) works, because it's the only one where the subject is shared by both verbs. I think the active voice would sound better: 2a. They killed him to keep him quiet. I think only (6) and (8) work for the same reason I mentioned above.Read More...

Hi, Jim, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. Yes, I would use "after," too. I think of the alphabet as a horizontal string of letters that is organized sequentially from left to right, even though it is possible to imagine it in other ways. Letters that are farther to the right from other letters come after them.Read More...

Hi, Azz—I like our new member Jack's suggestions. (Welcome to the Grammar Exchange, Jack.) Another thing you could do, as you know, to rescue the sentences from unnaturalness is to use "without" instead of "with not": a1. It was a small store without many choices. b1. I went there without much money. c1. Without much time left, I decided to run.Read More...

Hi, Subhajit—What is it that you would like your sentence to say? You would use "has organized" if the organizing had already taken place, "is organizing" if the organizing were presently taking place, and "will"/"is going to organize" if the organizing had not yet taken place.Read More...

Hi, Jack, Under 5.114 The 'zero genitive' on pages 320/321 of A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language by Quirk et al , we can read: Therefore, the correct genitive of Thomas /tom∂s/ is Thomas's /tom∂siz/.Read More...

Hello, Lizzi, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. Please visit our Guidelines page, to which there is a link in the toolbar at the top. "help me pls" is not a suitable title, and you should provide one or more examples to help us understand your question.Read More...

Sorry, I will do my best to describe what I mean and show examples but it's hard to describe what I am trying to say. I am trying to find out if the term political can be applied to social groups that aren't formal organizations, like governments, to describe power struggles between group members. Here is one example: The political war between the group of cast aways on the show, Survivor, caused Earl to be voted off the island. (When I say political I don't mean voting for a specific...Read More...

Hello, Subhajit—I see that you are shopping around for answers. Your alter ego has already asked about both sets of sentences elsewhere. In both (1) through (3) and (4) through (6), all three sentences CAN be used to mean the same thing; it does not matter in which of the three positions you place the PP "in India." Syntactically, the PP can attach (deep-structurally) in different places in (1), (3), (4), and (6); and this CAN make a different to meaning IF you want to use the sentences so...Read More...

Thank you, David. Everything is clear now. AppleRead More...

Hello, BOBO, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. Please visit our Guidelines page to learn how to ask a question properly here. There are no errors in "He likes sharing snacks with classmates during recess."Read More...

Hi, Mrchuffie, The past tense of "let" is "let." However, your question is not clear. Could you provide an example for us to understand your doubt?Read More...

Hello, Joseosorio, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. I agree with you that the comma before "but" above is not required, but only optional.Read More...

Hi, Emad Ragheb, "Downtown" can be an adverb: - I work downtown . or an adjective: - I work in downtown Buenos Aires. The only preposition among the ones above that can precede an adverb is "near." Just as we can say: - My office is near here . ("here" is an adverb) we can say: - My office is near downtown.Read More...

"Do you want to come out on Friday night?" can be used either in reference to the interlocutor's coming out of whatever building in which he is located or in reference to his admitting to others that he is homosexual (viz., the idiom "coming out"). "Do you want to come over on Friday night?" would be used in reference to the interlocutor's coming over to wherever the speaker is located.Read More...

@Gustavo, Co-Moderator thank you so much. You're awesome.Read More...

Thanks a millionRead More...

It should be lowercase, since "growled" is part of a larger sentence. Compare: The attacker growled, "Any last words?"Read More...

Hello, Ahmed Imam Attia—Both choices are possible, but only "don't have to" is likely to be used. It means that, because of the holiday, they are not obligated to go to school. With "mustn't," the sentence would only be used by someone who was afraid that students might go to school despite the fact that it is closed.Read More...

Hello, Jiho—"These" does not work in the blank. Your student could say: "And these facts create an unfair situation." "That" would also work; however, the reference would be to "children's resistance is limited" (i.e., to the fact that children's resistance is limited), and I suspect that your student, who has made other grammatical errors in the passage, intends to say something else.Read More...

Thanks, Gustavo. That makes perfect sense.Read More...

Hi, Treasure, No, this is Not acceptable.Read More...