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Whether we should teach rules or not has been a controversy in TEFL. The idea of "patterns" that Amy pointed to is one alternative suggested in this regard. However, some people do like being provided with a set of rules, and rules can benefit them in many cases, but the same rules might be counterproductive if overgeneralizations are made or if people think too highly of them. I myself like rules, but I always use them with some caution. By the way, rules differ in their levels of strength;...Read More...

Yes, Joanne, 'Yes, there is' seems woefully inadequate an answer for the question. If someone asks whether or not there is a phone in the room, that person wants a phone to use , maybe for something urgent; s/he is not taking an inventory or playing 20 questions. So for that reason, the person who answers is really responding to a request. The logical response then is to offer the use of the phone. Indicating the location of the phone implies that the person should go to the phone, wherever...Read More...

Thank you Amy. Are these OK: a. The size of the wheel you requested is bigger than is available in the market at the time being. b. The wheel you requested is bigger than is available. c. The wheel you need is bigger than is the one they want to sell you. (This one has an inversion in it. I saw something like it on the net.... That doesn't mean it is correct of-course...)Read More...

I think you're right, Okaasan. I just overlooked bicycle .Read More...

Yes, strictly speaking you have to use are , and, as I've come to learn on GE, that's what students should write on exams. But if you're into informal spoken language, then There's very common, even when the subject is plural. Cambridge English Usage says that there's is becoming a fixed phrase akin to French c'est at the beginning of a sentence. I know that I've read in some book (and sorry, most of my books are at the office now and I'm not) that when the subject is a compound of two...Read More...

Hello, Lakesuperior: I did a quick search in the New York Times for examples of 'of neither's ' and 'of neither one's.' Nothing came up. The corpus includes everything in the paper since 1851, and the phrases are not there.Read More...

'In the fall' means 'every fall.' Time phrases like these can be used for past, present, and future referencing. The ancient Romans harvested wine in the fall, and planted grapes in the spring. For the past 300 years, students have been entering Harvard University every fall with great expectations and even greater trepidation. The tour company will be taking tourists to see the beautiful leaves in the fall this year, next year, and as far as they know, for many years into the future. They...Read More...

I agree that the past perfect is unnecessary in this sentence, but, generally speaking, "after" is very often used with the past perfect, especially if we want to emphasize which action happened first or if the time distance between the two actions is great. An example from Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary: Several years after they'd split up they met again by chance in Paris.Read More...

Yes, both are correct.Read More...

(a) Walking is good for health. "Healthy" is an adjective. You need a noun (e.g., "health") after the preposition for . You could use "healthy" this way: Walking is a healthy kind of exercise. (b) Walking is a kind of exercise which is good for health.Read More...

And: It is just like the conditionals type III: Even if a casual observer had seen him, s/he would have noticed his strange behavior.Read More...

I tend to see it the way Okaasan does: The past perfect continuous is the best choice, but the past perfect simple is also possible. Your explanation makes complete sense to me, Rachel, but I somehow think "had planned" could also be interpreted as "had already planned" (as you pointed to), so that would be OK. Aside from that, I feel "had planned" conveys a sense of progression (though different from "had been planning"). When we say "I had planned sth," it could mean that sth was in my...Read More...

'Far past' -- that's a good description, Mehrdad. Sometimes I have used the phrase 'more past than the past' to try to explain the past perfect to my students.Read More...

I too think they are correct, but I'm afraid I might not have correctly guessed the meanings you had in mind if I had not read your paraphrases immediately (especially about the first sentence). So I think they need improvement, as Okaasan has suggested, for example.Read More...

The word order in (2) is correct, but the conjunctions/adverbs bother me. In (1), the inverted word order is wrong. We use an inverted order when there is ellipsis that can easily be completed, as in these examples: (i)I ate cake and so did John. (I ate cake and John ate cake.) (ii) I told Bob to eat up his dinner, and so he did. (iii) I told Bob to eat up his dinner, and he did so. Sentences (ii) and (iii) are from Quirk et al. They note that "the only change of meaning brought about by the...Read More...

It is not natural here to say It is correct. I don't think any native speaker would say that sentence. That points clearly to the previous assertion ("This must be your lovely wife"), but it does not. I don't know why. Perhaps it also has something to do with the fact that it is almost never a stressed word.Read More...

Yes, Mehrdad is right. I'd like to note that with sentences 1) and 2), you can also omit the 'as' after 'consider.' the meaning is the same without 'as': Jeff is considered the most promising young man in our office. We consider Jeff a great leader.Read More...

Hello, Elihud: It's names . The names of all the other students = All the other students' names.Read More...

Thanks for such comprehensive and thoughtful comments. Reza AhmadianRead More...

All your sentences are correct from the grammatical point of view, but I prefer (2) and (4). I think the sentences without "included" are not nice. You also need to improve the punctuation in either of the following ways: Many people were accused, but, strangely enough, John was not included in the accusation. OR Many people were accused, but strangely enough, John was not included in the accusation.Read More...

In this sentence, 'could' is the past of 'can.' It means were able to . So, the sentence means: I'm glad that you were able / could make it. Since 'were able to / could make it' means that you had the ability and the time in your schedule to arrive at the event, 'can make it' wouldn't make sense here. It can, though, refer to a future event: We're having a party next Saturday night. I hope that you can make it.Read More...

Thank you.Read More...

Hi Lisu, I agree with you. The word 'those' refers to 'cities'. X doesn't differ from Y. In this case, X=that, and 'that' refers directly to the word 'cities'. The first part of the sentence basically talks about 'our cities', and then the sentence goes on to say that the cities to the south of us differ from our cities. It would not make much sense to say that 'most of us don't differ from cities'.Read More...

Hi Lisu, My understanding would be this: - The brand names ( of the products ) in the supermarkets are all familiar.Read More...

"Thanks in advance" is correct (without "d").Read More...