New answers tagged grammaticality
-1
votes
Does the sentence "The perfect form of its eternal fair" sound correct?
The appropriateness of grammar and style depends a lot on context.
For example, "Him." isn't a sentence. There's no predicate. But in response to a question such as "Who ate the ...
- 38.2k
1
vote
With adjective uses of the to-infinitive like 'a place to live in', is the preposition 'in' necessary?
This is, as Lawler notes, a fixed phrase. But it works with other infinitives also: you can say "a place to eat" but not *"a park to eat" or *"I eat the place."
...
- 6,400
2
votes
Is using “to a less extent” rather than “to a lesser extent” grammatically wrong today?
Johnson's 1755 dictionary defines lesser as:
A barbarous corruption of less, formed by the vulgar from the habit of terminating comparatives in er; afterwards adopted by poets, and then by writers of ...
- 6,400
-1
votes
"My Mom" vs "Mom" Usage
As a Hispanic, I prefer and use "my mom" rather then "mom" it just feels right. I know grammar-wise it doesn't make sense, or is proper but if just feel right. If that makes any ...
- 1
0
votes
"Set in" vs "Set to"
"Set it in the OFF position"
The following sounds more natural to me:
"Set it to the OFF position"
The word “set” is one of the largest entries in the OED with 430 definitions: As ...
- 36k
2
votes
Is the phrase "very delighted" ever "wrong"?
According to Wikipedia:
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE), first published by Longman in 1978, is an advanced learner's dictionary, providing definitions using a restricted ...
- 5,866
0
votes
Accepted
Is the sentence grammatically correct and natural? If not, how could I correct it?
The part of speech should be kept constant
The sentence starts with an "-ing", and so we should use the same part of speech, the gerundive, for the others.
Minor improvements
No need to say ...
- 1,806
3
votes
Accepted
Use of "need" as modal auxiliary verb
Yes, it's perfectly acceptable. This use of "need" (followed by a bare infinitive) is often called a "pseudo-modal". Other pseudo-modals include "dare", "ought",...
- 5,684
0
votes
Have on + whether or not
The sentence is grammatical but decidedly awkward. It would be much better without "or not".
When a whether clause is used adverbially, it requires an or, but when a whether clause is used ...
- 19
11
votes
Accepted
Is the phrase "very delighted" ever "wrong"?
You can certainly come up with theoretical arguments against it, but "very delighted" is delightfully common. Ngram Viewer says it's more common than "very much delighted" and ...
- 6,400
2
votes
Use of "need" as modal auxiliary verb
Yes, "we need only store half" is a reasonable use of modal "need", licensed by the negativity of "only".
You are right that adding "to" changes the meaning. In ...
- 19
10
votes
Is the phrase "very delighted" ever "wrong"?
Adjectives like amazing, awful and boiling are also non-gradable. They already contain the idea of 'very' in their definitions. If we want to make extreme adjectives stronger, we have to use ...
3
votes
Is the phrase "very delighted" ever "wrong"?
The grammarians that you quote are on weak ground. There are other words that contain the notion of intensification. To give two examples, there are:
Cambridge
Intense
Extreme and forceful or (of a ...
- 27.4k
1
vote
Grammatical structure of "The one thing we know how to measure best is IQ."
There is no relative phrase in prenuclear position, so gap is related directly to the nominal “one thing”.
- 11.2k
1
vote
"Do a shop" for "go shopping"
Common in UK English; 'I'm just going out to do a shop' = the weekly groceries. But 'I'm going shopping' = clothes, gadgets, non-routine purchases etc.
In Scotland instead of 'do a shop' they might ...
0
votes
"How big of a problem" vs. "how big a problem"
"How Big of a Climate Betrayal Is the Willow Oil Project?"
Headline in the NYT today, 17 March 2023. This discussion began 11 years ago - my impression is that, in American usage at least, ...
4
votes
Accepted
Why are they grammatical, "those things a thought," those a thought"?
Your question is like asking what "man who" means in the sentence "I saw a man who worked at the shop." :)
Your sentence:
This group comprises those things a thought about which ...
- 1,176
1
vote
Have on + whether or not
whether is a conjunction that links two mutually exclusive possibilities.
Oxford Learners
whether
used to express a doubt or choice between two possibilities
He seemed undecided whether to go or stay
...
- 27.4k
3
votes
Grammatical structure of "The one thing we know how to measure best is IQ."
(1) The one thing we know how to measure best is IQ.
You were "not able to understand this sentence's grammatical structure" because one thing comes before not just how to measure best but ...
- 5,866
4
votes
Grammatical structure of "The one thing we know how to measure best is IQ."
OK, a lecture, as requested.
First, it is necessary to repeat that the sentence in the example is egregiously false; in fact, it's a damned lie, derived from another lie. "IQ" is nonsense, ...
- 104k
-3
votes
Grammatical structure of "The one thing we know how to measure best is IQ."
The one thing . . .[that] .....we . .know .how to measure best
The one thing . . .{that ......we . .know [how to measure best]}
Det quan. noun ..{rel. .. .. subj ..verb ..[adv. .. ..Inf. .. adv.]}
Det ...
- 36k
5
votes
Grammatical structure of "The one thing we know how to measure best is IQ."
In English, a relative clause usually has a gap corresponding to the noun phrase that it's modifying. To understand the structure of a relative clause, we find this gap. For example, in "the man ...
- 14.4k
1
vote
Is something like "the number of items selected with a certain property" correct?
If you mean that someone/something has selected n items, and that 0–n of those items will have a particular property, and that those items that have that particular property will be counted, then:
...
- 10.9k
0
votes
Is "out of" instead of "from" colloquial, always okay or simply wrong?
Based purely on my past experience as a foreigner in the US, the phrase "something is made out of something" seems much more common to me than "something is made from something". I ...
- 1,176
-1
votes
"When I return to Tokyo, we are going to visit the same places we visited on my birthday"
will visit the Colosseum in Rome next year. It was built during the Roman Empire and has hosted many gladiatorial games" is a correct sentence, because "was built" refers to a past ...
- 1
2
votes
Is it correct to say "long time no see and never will"?
"Long time no see" is nearly word-for-word transliterated import from Cantonese,
"好耐(very long time) 冇(no) 見(see)".
I saw a sign as I was driving south on Rainier Ave, at the part ...
- 9,531
2
votes
Accepted
Is it correct to say "long time no see and never will"?
"Long time no see" is an idiom that is itself ungrammatical; it is used only as a fixed phrase. As this article from NPR states, it is likely either a calque from Mandarin Chinese or the ...
- 6,400
1
vote
Accepted
"Don't have a second email address?" VS "Do you not have a second email address?"
As concerns the second sentence, it is not harder to read, but the connotations that can be read into it are different. Whereas the first sentence is a plain question without connotations, the second ...
- 16.4k
0
votes
Answering with "Let's!" or "Let's go!"
While it might be informal, grammatical and quite common, it’s a rather vague and sloppy way to answer a question. It wouldn’t kill you to add a word or two and say “Let’s go” or “Let’s do it”. In ...
- 1
1
vote
Is it correct to allow a parenthesized sentence to be followed by another parenthesized sentence?
According to this answer, the Chicago Manual of Style encourages avoiding back-to-back parenthesis, instead suggesting separating the clauses with a semicolon.
Additionally, when accounting for your ...
- 11
3
votes
Accepted
Is it correct to allow a parenthesized sentence to be followed by another parenthesized sentence?
As you suspect, the period should go outside the closing parenthesis in your first sentence. CMOS 14th ed. section 5.14 says:
When parentheses or brackets are used to enclose an indpendent sentence, ...
- 5,684
1
vote
"It is comfortable to sit on this chair." is not grammatical, but why are similar constructs grammatical or used... ? - 'preparatory it' complements
WRONG: It is comfortable to sit on this chair.
WRONG: It was given the impression that travel expenses would be paid.
The point that Quirk is trying to make is the difference between a dummy it and a ...
- 36k
1
vote
"It is comfortable to sit on this chair." is not grammatical, but why are similar constructs grammatical or used... ? - 'preparatory it' complements
I for one see a problem with (1):
(1) It is comfortable to sit on this chair.
As @alphabet has noted, the only plausible way to parse (1) would be to treat to sit on this chair as an extraposed ...
- 5,866
4
votes
Accepted
"It is comfortable to sit on this chair." is not grammatical, but why are similar constructs grammatical or used... ? - 'preparatory it' complements
It is comfortable to sit on this chair.
This is a very bad example, since on the obvious reading it is perfectly correct.
Here is what I suspect he may be trying to say, without having read the book. ...
- 6,400
1
vote
Why is this sentence from The Great Gatsby grammatical?
This must be rain falling from the sky. (Said while the rain is falling.)
This must be rain fallen from the sky. (Said after it has fallen.)
The word "come" in the quoted sentence is ...
- 2,356
2
votes
Is the line in bold grammatically correct?
Try reducing the sentence progressively:
sovereign-debt, or gilt,
in this part, gilt is in apposition with sovereign-debt, as an alternative or explanation. So we may simplify the sentence to:
Even ...
- 27.4k
0
votes
Is it correct to say "he led me through a path"?
Is it correct to say, "he led me through a path in the forest"?
This is perfectly normal and a good use of English:
To the fluent reader, this suggests that the path is narrow (probably ...
- 36k
1
vote
Is it correct to say "he led me through a path"?
According to Google‘s English Dictionary (provided by OxfordLanguages) we have the following definition:
Through: moving in one side and out of the other side of (an opening, channel, or location).
...
- 239
3
votes
Is “Wally the walrus to get ‘floating boat’ to stop him sinking boats” grammatically correct? How should this be used then?
This is a case of "headlinese" (see Wikipedia), the abbreviated style of writing commonly found in the titles of news articles. In headlinese, "is/are going to" is often shortened ...
- 6,400
1
vote
When you're using "here" in a sentence to specify a person, where do the commas go, if any?
Commas in this context are used to provide optional additional information about the subject, clarifying or further introducing the subject. Without commas, that additional information is considered ...
- 634
26
votes
Why is this sentence from The Great Gatsby grammatical?
It's an example of a reduced relative clause
A reduced relative clause is a relative clause that is not marked by an explicit relative pronoun or complementizer such as who, which or that. An example ...
- 88k
11
votes
Why is this sentence from The Great Gatsby grammatical?
The sentence uses ellipsis to convey meaning in an economical way. Although formal grammar might require "that has come over" or "that came over", the meaning is unambiguous and ...
- 27.4k
Top 50 recent answers are included