March 2019

From the OED ( Oxford English Dictionary ):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...

This is the book I extracted the sentence from. Thank you.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...

Thank you very much, David, Yes, that makes sense! Respectfully, NaviRead 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...

Hi, Rasha and Gustavo, I know that these two words are frequently used in our exams and I see that 'Longman dictionary of common errors' is greatly helpful in differentiating between these two words. It says: a) Award = (1) a prize, certificate, or medal that is given for doing something very well: 'The award for this year's best actor went to Harry Cohen.' (2) a sum of money that someone wins in a court of law: 'Each survivor of the disaster received an award of $20,000.' b) reward = (1)...Read More...

Hi, Ahmed, "would" is not typically used to express deduction or probability. The only case that comes to mind in which it can express deduction occurs when it is the backshifted or reported version of "will," for example: Someone was knocking on the door. It's 8 PM. T hat will be my wife , John thought. Considering the time, John thought the person at the door would be his wife. Here you can find the modal verbs used to express deduction in the present, and here are the ones that can be...Read More...

Hello, UF, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange! In business English, there is usually subject/predicate inversion in this case because the subject (the file being described) is longer than the predicate and tends to be placed at the end: - Please find attached the file I told you about. - Please find attached a file containing the specifications of the product. Alternatively, this other structure can be used (both structures are rather formulaic and are generally used as shown): - Attached...Read More...