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I agree with Hussein. An exception can be made if you have just finished climbing the hill, in which case it is possible to say That was the hardest thing I have ever done. But it is never wrong to use "is" in that sentence. DocVRead More...

Hi, Azz, What an interesting batch of sentences. They are all certifiably bad, but none of them is certifiably ungrammatical. In the linguistic literature, they would receive question marks, not ungrammaticality asterisks. Each of your sentences contains a syntactic island violation. In (a) and (c), you are trying to relativize an element contained in embedded questions; in (b) and (d), you are trying to relativize an element that itself comes from a relative clause. Relative clauses and...Read More...

You're right. I forgot to include the word "are". Oops! Glad you caught that! Thanks for you quick response and clear explanation!Read More...

In keeping with the same line of thought I followed here , I'd use (3) so , Yama. I'd reserve too for a context in which some negative consequence is implied, for example: - I'm too hungry to wait two hours for dinner. I'll have a sandwich.Read More...

Hi, Yama, I suspect your book, or your teacher, expects you to use "too." However, "so" would also be possible. "too" is more negative, the result being that the speaker did not pass the exam. "so" would be a colloquial way of saying "very" or "rather."Read More...

Hi, Navi, I think there is a couple of commas missing in (1), one to close the two appositions "the poet/critic" and "the best, that is, of ... and Ezra Pound," and another to precede the reformulatory "that is." 1') Yvor Winters , the poet/critic , said "the free verse that is really verse, the best , that is, of W.C. Williams , H. D. , Marianne Moore , Wallace Stevens , and Ezra Pound , is the antithesis of free." I find "that is for instance" redundant in (2). At least, I'd separate them,...Read More...

Hi, Perriced, The expression with the verb "go" is "go to the movies " (meaning: go to the movie threater). "movies" with the zero article will be fine with other verbs, like: - She enjoys watching movies .Read More...

Hi, Yama, "cake" is usually countable, and this sentence is no exception. The correct choice is (3): - It was such a delicious cake that we ate it all. We can also say: - The cake was so delicious that we ate it all. "cake" will be uncountable when used alone or with a partitive like "some" or "a piece of."Read More...

Menem, Please remember that one of the few absolute rules we have on this forum is that, when quoting from a published source, you must cite the source. This includes paraphrases. And, if the source material is available online, you are to provide a link. DocVRead More...

Thanks.Read More...

Ayman, Mr Swan (author of Practical English Usage ) does say that "used to" cannot be used to speak of how many times an action happened, but he doesn't say that it cannot be used to address how frequently it happened. There is nothing wrong with this sentence: I used to go on holiday once a year. For more information, please see this thread: Used to & Would DocVRead More...

Vera, welcome to the grammar exchange. I agree that The Durrells on Corfu sounds better. However, both are correct. The Durrells lived on the island of Corfu, which is in the regional unit of Corfu. Similarly, one can be said to live on Hawaii, meaning the island, or in Hawaii, meaning the state within the United States of which that island is a part. DocVRead More...

Barry, No, "organic cookies" and "conventional cookies" do not mean literally "organic Oreos" and "conventional Oreos". Dr Herz begins by talking about a study that examined participants' perceptions of organic Oreos, specifically, as opposed to conventional Oreos. About halfway through the passage, she appears to extrapolate, applying the perceptions of the participants to organic and conventional cookies in general, not just Oreos. To say that "organic cookies" means literally "organic...Read More...

I fully agree, David. You are definitely right that "often" sounds much better to express a persistent present habit.Read More...

Navi, (1) means (a). (2) means (b), and (b) sounds better. (c) is a strange thing to say. This sounds better: c': She'll do it, but not for any particular reason. Regarding (A): How is the speaker able to predict another person's future impulsive act? If the act is to be impulsive, the person herself doesn't yet know that she'll be doing it. Is the speaker clairvoyant? These two sentences mean the same thing: B: She'll stop for nothing. B': She won't stop for anything. But these two do not:...Read More...

Yama, "Either" tends to convey the sense of "one or the other". Here, the person answering is saying that he likes the two choices presented, not just one. Alternatively, he could have answered: 3': I'll eat either, but I'd rather have chicken. Here, "either" works because he is going to eat only one or the other of the two choices, not both. DocVRead More...

Thanks a lot, Doc! I was talking to a friend who was telling me that "waterboarded" was in the past tense whereas "deserve" was 'doing something in the future". Didn't make much sense to me so I figured I'd make an account here and ask . Oof, yeah I don't know how that second "deserve" got in there! I did tell him afterward "deserves to be" in that sentence, but for the sake of accuracy I used how I originally said it. Yeah, Sion and, Zoe are characters from a video game that aren't fun to...Read More...

David, [Our] juice is the juiciest juice there is. I'm actually surprised that I haven't seen this used as an advertising slogan. For what it's worth, a Boeing 747 is 185 feet long with a cabin width of 20 feet. The biggest blue whale whose size was verified was only 98 feet long. I couldn't find any statistics about the width. DocVRead More...

Yama, I agree that (4) is the best choice. (3) isn't incorrect, but it doesn't sound as natural as (4). DocVRead More...

Y2K, (2) is perfectly fine. It refers to one specific rumor. (1) expresses a generality. In a contextual vacuum, it requires the indefinite article: 1a: I like to know if a rumor is true or not. or better still: 1b: I like to know whether a rumor is true or not. Given proper context, though, it is possible to say (1) as it is: 1c: I'm aware that some managers in the past have asked for employees' resignations based on hearsay. I personally require more proof in such circumstances. I like to...Read More...

Thank you so much! I do appreciate itRead More...

Hello, Azz and Gustavo, These are interesting specimens. I share Gustavo's judgement that (a) the best sentence of the three, and I too find (b) and (c) to be worse and much worse, respectively, though I can't say that I find either of them ungrammatical. The stranding of "of" works much better, I think, if "which" or "that" is used: d1. There isn't a book here which I can't recite at least two pages of by heart. d2. There isn't a book here that I can't recite at least two pages of by heart.Read More...

Thanks.Read More...

Thanks for your help.Read More...