March 2019

Hi, David, Ahmed Imam Attia seems to be confused by this explanation he got on another forum: It is my understanding (and it also seems to be yours) that "would" does not work with a perfect infinitive to express a present statement about the likelihood of a past event . "will" and "may" definitely work to express that meaning. "could" and "might" would work if the probability of that past occurrence were deemed to be more remote, but I don't think "would" would be a good choice. Let's...Read More...

Interesting. I'm sure you're right, David, that these are standard grocery items, and that I have seen them, but I've never noticed them, to the best of my recollection. This is probably because I wasn't looking for them. I'm not adverse to eggs, but the idea of bottled liquid egg(s) doesn't appeal to me. The same is true of powdered egg(s), which, I understand, was standard breakfast fare when my father was in the army. DocVRead More...

Navi, For what it's worth, David left out one minor point, which is that the full infinitive (to + V) and any clause that is introduced by this construct is, in fact, treated as a noun, not a verb. Thus the noun phrase "the value of life" can be equated with the noun phrase "to improve one's condition" using a simple copulative. If the main verb requires the particle "to" to introduce the subordinate clause ("it is supposed to ...", "I meant to ...", "I intend to ..."), then "to" is properly...Read More...

Azz, (a) implies that the two of you are dating. DocVRead More...

Ahmed and Ahmed, I apologize for my prolonged absence from the forum, hence my long delay in responding to this. As a native speaker, I would never say "an electric storm". We always say "an electrical storm" instead, so (A) is the best choice among the options given. Ahmed_btm is quite right in saying that we commonly refer to these as "thunder storms" and "lightning storms". These terms, especially "thunder storm", are much more common than "electrical storm" where I live. DocVRead More...

Possibly the term you're looking for is 'test paper'. I have a test paper for the exam. It contains a few pages. ~ ~ ~ Example sentences below are from > https://eng.ichacha.net/zaoju/test%20paper.html The Entrance Test Paper will have 175 Objective Type Questions with Multiple Choice Answers. In exams, test papers are university entrance questions. ~ ~ ~ Definitions are from > https://www.thefreedictionary.com/test+paper test paper Also found in: Thesaurus , Medical , Legal ,...Read More...

Thank you David. It is deeply satisfying reading your answers.Read More...

Many, many thanks. What about this version: She's getting ready to begin a presentation and she's nervous about that. People are talking about "her" and decide that she'll be more likeable if she smiles. .... I know that here, "she would be more likeable if she smiled" is not correct. But I wonder if the above sentence sounds natural to you.Read More...

Thanks a lotRead More...

Hi, Ansonman, I agree with your friends that (2) sounds wrong. In the first place, in AmE we say: "I rode (or took) the wrong bus" (no preposition). In the second place, when the participial clause refers to a later time, it needs to refer to the subject for it not to dangle. 3) I rode/took the wrong bus, arriving at the meeting later than expected. (3) is correct because "arriving" refers to the subject "I." Instead, in (2) "taking" refers to the object "bus," and it is that that makes it...Read More...

Thank you, David. appleRead More...

Hi, Ansonman, Both sentences make sense in that context, but (2) would be better if it were phrased like this, with inversion: (2a) Never in my life have I seen such a rare seashell.Read More...

Hi, Ansonman: No, "sell very high" is not correct. You should say "sell very well."Read More...

In answer to (1), gerunds can be preceded by objective pronouns and possessive determiners. Anyway, here follow a couple of examples I found on the Internet where the gerund comes immediately after "to": - Unrest can lead to rioting . - Some folks understand what it means to pay attention to finding the right balance with respect to diversity. In reply to (2), I don't like sentence (a), since the presence of the preposition "of" renders the definite article necessary: a'. It was argued in...Read More...

Thanks a lot, Gustavo.Read More...

Thank you so much, Gustavo.Read More...

Excellent points, Ahmed. I agree with you wholeheartedly. If the action were repeatable or durative (e.g., "There has been a decrease in the number of applications since we have been here " -- in which "been here" can refer either to something indefinitely durative or to a mere visit), then the sentence would be acceptable. But the appearance of the report of the newspaper falls into neither of those categories. Regarding "was appeared" and "has been appeared," both would be totally...Read More...

Thank you Mr AhmedRead More...

Thank you. I'll read up on the concessive linker.Read More...

Thanks again, David! Speaking of "wordy", can you please recommend a books and/or website that deals with wordiness, faulty parallelism, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, misplaced/dangling modifiers and punctuation (preferably that also contain exercises on these topics).Read More...

Thanks for the explanation, David! IRead More...

Thank you, sir.Read More...

Thanks a lotRead More...

Hello, Emad and Ahmed: I agree with you, Ahmed, that both "worthwhile career" and "rewarding career" are correct. To me, they have slightly different connotations. "A worthwhile career" suggests to me that the career is of inherent value --- not just to oneself but to others -- whereas "a rewarding career" need only be beneficial to oneself, in terms of salary, time off, and perks. To make "a worthwhile career" equivalent in meaning to "a rewarding career," I would speak of the career being,...Read More...

Hi, Ahmed, Generally speaking, yes, you can. I remember reading the following example: - If the bus leaves at 6, it will have reached Alex by now. Randolph Quirk on 'Comprehensive Grammar' refers to an interesting point: "When the period in the matrix clause refers to a future situation, a modal perfective (generally will have) is used in the matrix clause: If the promotion is confirmed, you will have been promoted three times since you joined the company. As for your example above, you know...Read More...