July 2022

Hi, Gustavo and David. As always, thank you so much for the excellent answers! I totally understand your explanations. Sorry that I took forever to reply. Have been a little under the weather. Thanks again.Read More...

Thank you so much for your replay!Read More...

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it!Read More...

Hi ahmed_btm, I mean both I was tired because I stayed up to watch a film and 'I was sleepy/drowsy while watching the film. Thank you very much for your help.Read More...

Hi, Navi, The article concludes that much of the explosion in corporate profits is made possible by market consolidation: giant companies no longer subject to the pressures of inflation. I agree with Gustavo that it's not an absolute construction. Absolutes consist of non-finite clauses, but giant companies no longer subject to the pressures of inflation is a noun phrase, not a clause. It may be possible, though, to make a case for it being a supplementary (non-defining) appositive noun...Read More...

What a delightful coincidence, Gustavo—thanks so much for sharing!Read More...

A comma is always required to precede an absolute construction. It is necessary not to eliminate ambiguity (which I find to be nonexistent considering that "revenues" needs to be understood as "tax revenues") but to render the sentence correct. Without the quotes, we could even add "being" for the sake of clarity: - [...] a better way to deal with high gas prices in the US would be “a windfall tax on the fossil fuel industries that are drowning in profits,” with the revenues being...Read More...

Thanks so much! I appreciate it!Read More...

That's a good point! Thanks!Read More...

Thanks! Sorry to bother you guys about that; was just curious and thought someone on here might know all about this.Read More...

Yes, there are idiomatic phrases like "be of assistance," "be of importance," "be of help," "be of use, "be of age," "be of service," "be of the opinion," "be of interest," "be of value." However, in the examples I provided above, the adjective will tend to be more usual with "be." If a noun is used, "have" will sound more natural: - be highly experienced / have vast experience (rather than "be of vast experience") - be wealthy / have great wealth (rather than "be of great wealth") - be...Read More...

"Middle East" being a proper name that refers to a region of the world, it would be incorrect, as well as very unnecessary, to hyphenate it in such a phrase.Read More...

I find your repetition of "Chang says . . . Chang says" awkward, as well as your habitual usage of an em dash to connect independent clauses. Consider this alternative. Note that I have edited out "also," which is needlessly redundant. Chang says that "many people" will find the book disturbing, pointing out that the book challenges "historical myths and overly abstract theories" and makes you consider the morality of harming poor economies.Read More...

The part of the sentence following the verb "spotlight" is a second independent clause introduced by the conjunction "and." It can be written as a separate sentence. Your sentence would naturally be written as three sentences: So there's no reason for 2A to exist if we pay attention to "history and tradition." That's the deeper point that people should spotlight. The fights over interpretation are secondary.Read More...

I agree with Gustavo that a comma is desirable in the places highlighted above in the second and third sentences. Normally, except when the independent clauses are very short, a comma should separate two independent clauses. In each of those two sentences, what follows Gustavo's highlighted comma is the conjunction "and" followed by the second independent of the sentence. I agree with Gustavo that a comma before "and sees" (the beginning of the second predicate of the independent clause) is...Read More...

Like most magazines and newspapers in the United States, the NYT follows the hyphenation convention that "well known" should be hyphenated in attributive position (e.g., " It's a very well-known phrase . . . . " [ article ]) but not in predicative position (" The phrase is very well known ").Read More...

Just to add to Gustavo's explanation, I think that you may not be perceiving the relative clause in your example, Andrew. Let's use pronoun substitution to help you see the structure of the noun phrase. We can substitute "they" for "generations of prominent bankers, writers, engineers, and politicians." We can also substitute "which" for "that": fortunes which they then inherited The relative clause ("which they then inherited") is an adjunct, or modifier, within the overall noun phrase...Read More...

Dear Gustavo, Thank you very much for the reply. I appreciate your time and support. I apologize for my flaw. Thank you for mentioning that.Read More...

Gustavo, Would you mind writing a couple of sentences as such with WOULD to have a better understanding for me?Read More...

Hello, Ahmed btm, thanks for your reply. 1. In ' This is the school where I graduated .' I think this could be divided into; 1) This is the school. + 2) From which I graduated. = Where ( There) I graduated. I wonder if from where above could be changed into where , since I feel 2) " There I graduated." wouldn't be natural. I feel " There I graduated." might mean "I graduated at the school ." For this matter I agree with you.Read More...

Hi, Taiman, The outdate way is to use 'his' as a gender-neutral pronoun. 'He/She' is not a good option here. It is a good option only when it is used once. However, if it is repeated, the sentence looks clumsy. You can use 'they' as you did or simply change 'a teenager is' to 'teenagers are'.Read More...

Hi, Azz, No, it doesn't. Mostly, it means some of his dearest friends were the ones who went to talk to Sally's father. I think it depends on what kind of guests John had at his party. Are they good observers or do they belong to those people who live in their bubbles and care about nothing? What if one or two of his guests were blind? I think if you want to indicate to the hearer the idea that all of his guests would notice it, it is better to insert 'all' and focus on it while speaking.Read More...

Yes, the treaty is about anti-ballistic missiles; however, you are right that "anti-ballistic missile treaty" can still refer to a missile treaty that is anti-ballistic. For the reference to be unambiguously to a treaty about anti-ballistic missiles, a second hyphen is needed: "anti-ballistic-missile treaty." You can see here that the second hyphen is used in "anti-ballistic-missile proposal." As to why the second hyphen is not used in the example you found, it could be ignorance or...Read More...

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation, Gustavo, A lot of examples of expressions without "the" were hit in Google search. However, after I read your reply, I checked them again and found most of them were in the title lines!Read More...