July 2021

Thank you, Gustavo. Thanks a ton😃Read More...

Hello, Joeymango, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. This word-formation mechanism is known as "compounding" (i.e. the formation of compounds). In Appendix I to their "University Grammar of English," Quirk and Greenbaum refer to the following cases where a word can be followed by V-ing to form a compound word: I.35 Verb and object compounds air-conditioning, brainwashing, dressmaking, story-telling I.36 Verb and adverbial compounds daydreaming, sun-bathing, sleepwalking, handwriting Your...Read More...

Thanks!Read More...

Thanks for the feedback David. I hadn't heard of parallelism until my posts were answered here. I do see what you mean now though.Read More...

Hi David, Oops! Sorry about that! I will be sure to follow the guidelines next time. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions anyways. for 2. I did think about using the dashes, though I went back to the commas as I thought it conveyed a bit more of a relaxed manner of speech, which I liked. I was writing this late at night listening to a lot of ambient music so a fair amount of that subtler tone is in the writing. For 4. I think I will go with your second bullet as that is...Read More...

It is a quit impressive explaination. Thank you so much!!Read More...

Hi, Azz—I dislike all four of your examples and think that they would be much improved if you deleted the (redundant) sentence-ending infinitival in each. Alternatively, the second sentence of each example could be changed to this: "His should be in school(,) getting an education."Read More...

No, Moon Le, that doesn't work well. "Did" doesn't just stand for "spent"; it includes the idea "about 450,000 pounds on computers." It is senseless and ludicrous to say that 450,000 pounds was 50,000 pounds more than people in France spent 450,000 pounds on computers. Deleting "did" wouldn't solve anything. Rather, it would create the problem of indicating that 450,000 pounds was 50,000 more than the population of France. "Than the U.S." should be to "than in the US" or "than there were in...Read More...

Yes, Sarah, that's right. Again, be careful with "do"-support. Your mistake with it this time is that you didn't use the base form of the verb ("realize") after "did."Read More...

Hello, Dillon Teano, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. Please read our Guidelines . According to Guideline 6, you should at least provide an example sentence where the word or phrase in question is used. Also, "English" is not a good title to start any thread here. You could have used "more of" as a title.Read More...

Thank you so much for your help.Read More...

Thank you for the help. Actually, I am trying to figure out where this sentence comes from. What is the original form of ' Rich as he may be' ?Read More...

Millions of thanx, David:-)Read More...

As I once told you, David, you must be the only moderator in GE's history who can be willing to take the trouble to go to a library to dispel a member's doubt, even if you couldn't this time due to force majeure reasons. That's a great test. When I first saw this question, first thing that came to mind was the possibility to use indefinite articles with either seasons or days of the week: a windy Tuesday, an unusually hot summer I think we can only use the definite article with the days of...Read More...

AnstonRoy, David's explanation is indeed superb. Nobody could have done it better. It's a grammatical pleasure to see how each sentence leads to the following.Read More...

Yes, Language Learner, those sentences are fine, provided there is conditional meaning in play (even without an overt "if"-clause). If, however, the "could" sentences are supposed to be softened versions of "You can/may do so however you like," then you cannot use the past tense in the "however" clause.Read More...

Yes, AnstonRoy, that sentence is grammatically correct. The use of the present-perfect progressive in the relative clause suggests that it is possible that the songs will continue to evolve even though Emma has now released them.Read More...

Hi, Sarah—Please remember that you need to represent quotations as quotations by using quotation marks, and give the source of the quotation ( here ). The author should have used "a" or "the" before "breaking point." The "which"-clause is a nonrestrictive relative clause modifying (or commenting on) the noun phrase "some of the country's local authorities." The main clause condences to "The trend risks [doing something]" where "doing something" is "stretching to a breaking point social...Read More...

Hi Gustavo, This is a great explanation! I have been waiting for this clarification and thank you so much!Read More...

Hi David, Your reply is so useful. Thank you so much! Yes, agree it should be " going to be held". There, I went through a confusion. Sorry about that and for the other mistakes.Read More...

The link you provided does not seem to work. This is the complete text: - The results of the election shall be proclaimed by the Mayor, and the Proclamation shall be published one time in a newspaper having a general circulation in the City, which Proclamation shall advise that the results as proclaimed shall be conclusive unless attacked in the courts within thirty days after the date of publication. "As proclaimed" has some manner-related connotation there, being similar to "thus...Read More...

Yes I am. Thank you sir.Read More...

With simple tenses in the "before"-clause, there is the implication that the event described in that clause happened or will happen, as may be demonstrated by the unnaturalness of supposing otherwise: (4a) ?* Before he arrived, we left. Later on, we found out that he didn't arrive at all. With perfect tenses in the "before"-clause, however, there is not that implication. The sentence is compatible with a state of affairs in which the situation described in the "before" clause never came to...Read More...

Hello, SilverLining, and welcome to the Grammar Exchange. This is wrong, because the subject of "resulted" would be "these proteins," which is not correct. This would be better. The idea would be that, while using the proteins to enrich and identify specific binders, it was possible to identify a large number of interactors. Actually, I think the wording I just proposed would be more accurate: - While using these proteins to enrich and identify specific binders, it was possible to identify a...Read More...

Hi David, Thanks so much!Read More...