Questions tagged [grammar]
This tag is for questions about morphology and syntax, the two elements of grammar. DO NOT USE THIS TAG IF YOUR QUESTION IS ABOUT WHETHER SOMETHING SPECIFIC IS GRAMMATICAL. For such cases use the 'grammaticality' tag. Also do not use this for punctuation or spelling (orthography); those are not about grammar, and they have their own tags.
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Adjectives with "these"
I thought I was doing a simple exercise (in attachment) from an English tutorial.
But I didn’t find the expected sentences in the answers to the exercise:
These expensive pants are too big
My black ...
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0
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12
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There is a table in a/the kitchen? (if 1st sentence) [migrated]
I'm confused as to why internet shows a lot of hits like 'There is a table in 'the' kitchen?' after 'There is a table in'. Is it because the sentence(s) are assumed to be already in the middle of the ...
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'as he had lived'
In the clause 'He died as he had lived', what is the grammatical function of 'as he had lived'? I know it modifies 'died', and I know 'as' can be used.
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What is the function of the word "boats" in this sentence? [migrated]
For instance, they can learn that boats float and can practice ways to make boats move across water.
Is it a subject or an object (the bolded word)?
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Is it proper to switch from the third person singular (The Department of Environment) to the first person plural (we) in the same sentence? [duplicate]
I often have to translate sentences such as:
The Department of Environment has offices everywhere in the country, and we would love for you to join us [us as in "the whole department, and not a ...
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1
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29
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What seems more accurate "You and your kid discover their true capability" or "You and your kid discover his/her true capability"? [duplicate]
I have been asked to look at some old admission response forms that our school mails back to applying students. This letter consists of their test scores and the programs that is offered to them.
Now, ...
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30
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A/an + adj. + weather [duplicate]
We can say,
"I had a delicious breakfast"
because of the adjective, as opposed to
"I had breakfast",
where we don't use an indefinite article. As in this former case we have ...
- 235
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2
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Should you italicize names of aircraft if they are serial numbers?
In English, it's customary to italicize the names of vessels, aircraft, and spacecraft, e.g. USS Oklahoma, B-17 Ye Olde Pub, and space shuttle Discovery. Does that also apply to specific aircraft ...
user448501
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If I didn't have vs Hadn't I had. What's the difference? [migrated]
I took an English test where I had to complete sentences. After I finished the test I was told that my answer "If I didn't have..." was wrong and I should have written "Hadn't I had...&...
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What is meant by "she hasn't done well by you"? [closed]
Does "she hasn't done well by you" mean that she has not benefited from her relationship with you, or that you have not benefited from being with her?
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Is "when" considered a preposition in this sentence with extraposition and is the chunk an adjunct?
I recently discovered that if is considered a preposition in contemporary grammar. Is "when" considered a preposition as well? And in the following sentence, is the chunk introduced by when ...
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Usage of "may" instead of "might" in the past context
I came across the following sentence while reading "A Clash of Kings" book by George R. R. Martin:
Whitetree was the fourth village they had passed, and it had been the
same in all of them. ...
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0
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Grammar is it live or lives? [closed]
I wanna write this letter but a bit unsure about the grammar.
You brought joy to daddy , mommy and Jasmine lives ? Or live ?
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The crowd _____(was/were) dispersed by the police [duplicate]
Here, the people comprising the crowd are dispersing in different directions, right? So, the word 'crowd' is no longer a singular unit.
Kindly, someone confirm the answer.
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Is this right way of saying [closed]
Want to know if this sounds OK.
Here I am asking a friend if it's OK for me to come over to her place to return her book.
Hi,
Was thinking to come return your book today, would you be home?
Thanks
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Why is “to be carrying” used here?
They said she was a great girl to be carrying coats upstairs at her age.
Why “to be carrying” is used in the sentence?
What it the difference between “…girl carrying” and “…girl to be carrying”?
When ...
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"Stuff like" followed by list... "is" or "are"?
I'm feeling kind of stumped on this, even though I think I know the answer. If I had written this sentence, I would just rephrase it to avoid the issue, but I came across it and found myself wondering....
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Missing auxiliary in "What I got to do to make you care?" [closed]
Why doesn't the first line have an auxiliary to make it interrogative?
These lines are from Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, featuring Elton John:
What I got to do to make you care?
What do I do ...
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0
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How is 'hard work' considered a noun? [migrated]
An excerpt from my grammar lesson:
In a formal context, 'due' should always be treated as an adjective, and 'due to' must therefore follow or refer back to a noun, as in: his success was due to hard ...
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1
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Adverbs in the Middle Position BUT WHERE?
In the book English Grammar in Use, on page number 220. there is - If the verb is two or more words (for example, can remember / will be cancelled), the adverb usually goes after the first verb (can/...
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How common is ellipting '(that/which has) to do'? [closed]
I am wondering how often the structure 'that has to do' is reduced to just 'to do', and what style marker it carries in such a case.
Let's see:
'...and that's how you know how much to pay for your ...
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Can you please explain what article is used in [migrated]
Be careful of ___dog(a,an,the,no article)
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Meaning of "Bellairs had the address, and I was the more deceived or Carthew would have news of him."
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XIX, published 1892)
Passage 294
The conjunction of these planets seeming ominous, I drew near; but it seemed Bellairs had done ...
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0
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What is correct (English grammar): Combination of singular/plural but is it was OR were? [migrated]
Could someone please tell me what is correct:
Shareholder's ownership of ABC-Company was 1,000,000 shares which equals to 1.5% of an equity.
or
Shareholder's ownership of ABC-Company were 1,000,000 ...
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societies are facing a growing problem with obesity. this affects both children and adults. what are the reasons and how could it be tackled [closed]
Recently, our societies are suffering an enormous increase in obesity in international scale. In my country VietNam, for example, whose people are known for their skiny body types, now are diagnosed ...
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46
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Meaning of. . . "it was hardly possible but what he should suspect"
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XIX, published 1892)
Passage 290
“Well, it's the other thing that has done that,” I replied. “It's all bygone now, all dead and ...
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0
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13
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Will go and brush or Will go and will brush? [migrated]
What's the difference between these?
I will go to the bathroom and brush my teeth
I will go to the bathroom and will brush my teeth
Perhaps one of these sentences is grammatically incorrect.
Which ...
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Idiomaticity of "The dog will be sitting by the window when the door has opened and Alice enters. John would have followed her." [closed]
Does the following text make sense and sound idiomatic? (I wrote it)
The dog will be sitting by the window when the door has opened and Alice enters. John would have followed her.
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A linking verb or a part of the verb phrase?
I just came across the following sentences, and it just kept me thinking for hours and searching up grammar rules, but it was in vain. The question is about identifying verbal phrases:
The apples ...
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0
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The bicycle is a vehicle but the bicycle in this room is just a decoration
Can the definite article have two different meanings in front of identical words in one sentence? As in
The bicycle is a vehicle but the bicycle in this room is just a decoration.
Or perhaps this ...
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0
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Conditional use of “be”
Why is be required after let, for example: Let x be an even number greater than 10.
But we use is with if: for example: If x is an even number greater than 10, then…
Why don’t we say If x be an even ...
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Why is "it" used instead of "he/she" for human being in "it becomes a wise and virtuous man…"?
Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.
—Thomas Aquinas
Is the bold phrase ...
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Ellipsis in complex lists
How is this construction correct?
The drawing-room began to look empty: the baccarat was discontinued
for lack of a banker; more than one person said goodnight of his own
accord, and was suffered to ...
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0
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- Dad, John doesn't want to go to school today! / - He shall! [migrated]
How idiomatic is this dialogue?
-- Dad, John doesn't want to go to school today!
-- He shall! (whether he likes it or not, and I will make sure he does!)
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1
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John goes to the cinema with Kate and (with) Ann
What's the difference between general public's interpretations of these:
John goes to the cinema with Kate and Ann.
John goes to the cinema with Kate and with Ann.
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Can you qualify the phrase “is attributed to” by saying “is most likely attributed to?”
A co-worker frequently uses the phrase “X is most likely attributed to Y” and it feels wrong to me. I think you have to say “X is attributed to Y” and can’t qualify it with “most likely” or anything ...
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3
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There is a brand of ale in the United Kingdom called Farmers Ale, with no apostrophe on farmers. Is this correct? [duplicate]
There is a brand of ale called Farmers Ale. Should there be an apostrophe on farmers? Or is farmers acting as an adjective like "sports" cars?
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Is Wikipedia's example of parallelism incorrect?
As of this writing, Wikipedia's article about parallelism in grammar includes these examples:
Lacking parallelism:
The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the fence, and sprinted away.
Parallel:
...
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What is nucleus of head syntactic function? [closed]
He is an honest person.
Here is there any nucleus of syntactic function?
I found it in Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_relation
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Using "then" in sentence which is in response to context [closed]
For example:
Should the free market then only capture that which is beyond necessity?
I'm not sure if "then" is accomplishing anything, or if it is even correct in this sentence. Perhaps ...
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Possessive word order "English's accommodation spending on holiday reached 55% in 2012" [migrated]
Is this sentence correct to describe a chart? Sometimes I get confused between using x of x versus x's.
I want to say that the British spent 55% on accommodation on weekend holidays in 2022. Does this ...
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"Old new face" or "new old face"?
David Cameron, the previous Prime Minister that has been away from politics for many years, has just come back as the Foreign Secretary. The BBC refers to him as the "old new face".
Politics ...
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2
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Is it grammatical to say "... is both popular and has presented ...'
This particular example comes from a peer-reviewed publication with authors who seem to be native speakers:
This trend is both popular and has presented a variety of challenges
I wonder if this is ...
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2
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Barrier to entry in an industry or into an industry
I'm struggling with the correct way to use barrier to entry in the following sentence:
Technical interviews are an ever present barrier to entry in the software industry
or
Technical interviews are ...
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0
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Is "ye" in the singular used with singular or plural verb conjugations?
I was writing some dialogue for a story and I wanted a character from the past to speak in an archaic/Early Modern English way, when I stumbled across this.
In this instance, I'm using "ye" ...
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What is the term for this? [duplicate]
I keep coming across "quotes" on the internet that say things like "psychology says, if a person blah blah"
I'm wondering what the term would be when someone 'mislabels' a field of ...
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Acceptability of Grammatically Incorrect Sentences [closed]
How do people feel about grammatically incorrect sentences within literature? For example, consider the following sentence.
How sad if we pass through life and never see it with the eyes of a
child.
...
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0
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35
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What is the role of "it" in "it rains"? [duplicate]
On the CHAT site of LatinStackExchange there has been a debate on Latin impersonal verbs of the kind "pudet me" = "it shames me"/"I am ashamed". This included the role of ...
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2
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Is "Do this, please" an imperative sentence?
In a similar vein to Could you get me a glass of water, please? Is this an interrogative sentence or an imperative sentence.?, as a general rule, from a purely grammatical viewpoint, is a sentence an ...
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Collection of English sentence-level grammar rules as semi-structured "data"? [migrated]
I am looking for structured data of English grammar, however much might have been done. Specifically sentence-level grammar (as opposed to word morphology rules, though finding structured data for ...
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