5
votes
Prepositions in Relative Clauses: Placement Rules and Exceptions (during which)
Some answer to these questions is found in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, 1985 edition. (user LPH's bold type in the text below; the full text extracted from CoGEL has been shortened ...
- 23.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Why is ‘dissect’ (sometimes) pronounced with the ‘long’ PRICE vowel (the diphthong /ʌɪ/) not the ‘short’ KIT vowel (the monophthong /ɪ/)?
It is difficult to determine the extent to which changes in the reported pronunciation of dissect in different editions of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary series reflect real-world changes ...
- 169k
3
votes
Is it grammatically correct to except something without it being part of the original group?
Except is used to denote exclusion from a group where something would otherwise be included. If something is not a member of the original group, you should not use "except" to exclude it.
In ...
- 15.2k
2
votes
Word order: "Split up X" or "split X up"?
"Split up" is a phrasal verb, or more specifically a particle verb (see Wikipedia). In this case the particle is the word "up."
As that Wikipedia article notes, "the particle ...
- 19.6k
1
vote
Why does “lineage” retain the "e" when the suffix "-age" is added?
According to Etymonline the Middle English word was linage ("line of descent; an ancestor"), which came from the Old French lignage.
"The word altered in spelling and pronunciation in ...
- 5,597
1
vote
Should commas *always* be followed by spaces?
Yeah, comma is often followed by a space but that isn't the case with commas used in numerals, or when followed by a closing quotation mark. Numerals follows mathematical rules not grammar rules is ...
- 503
1
vote
Is "may or may not" a correct way of negation of "may"?
'May not' is indeed the negation of 'may', but 'may' has several meanings. The two that interest us here are "is permitted"...
You may enter here if you wish
...or 'is possible'
There may be ...
- 26.5k
1
vote
What is the head verb in the sentence "The tree will be tall"?
"The tree will be tall" is no different from "The tree is tall", other than the future tense of "to be" is used instead of the the present tense. Both are normal sentences with subject and predicate.
- 27.6k
1
vote
Is there any English word starting with "gh" and "gh" is not pronounced as /ɡ/?
These aren't really "English words", but some people seem to pronounce "Gh" at the start of certain proper nouns as /dʒ/. (This variant pronunciation may be proscribed.) Both of the examples I know of ...
- 84.5k
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