New answers tagged verbs
-1
I would coin “extinctual” for an adjective describing that which causes extinction. Our fossil fuel use is extinctual.
We clearly need such a word and lacking such a word we should coin one. “Extinctify” strikes me as clumsy and is not an adjective, but a verb. “Extinctificatory” is even more clumsy.
0
Agree with Nancy
in "rules rule"
rule(s): (noun - a word to identify a thing)order, guideline, law etc
rule: (verb - a word to describe an action)order, instruct, require, command, regulate etc.
EXP: "rules rule" = orders order = guidelines instruct= law require
1
This seems like an opinion question since all the dictionaries and everyone but you and that guy who wrote that say it's an adverb. All the dictionaries and everyone do so with good reason, too.
With every other noun, we have to introduce a preposition, for example:
"He is going to church." (not "He is going church.")
"Jessica is at school." (not "...
2
Yes, they can, especially if the speaker is suggesting that it is the rules that govern and not any specific person or people, as people--politicians, kings, whoever--come and go but the rules remain, steadfastly imposing themselves on the citizenry to such effect that they normatively conform.
By the way, that's an example of an antanaclassis. An ...
-3
Home can NOT be an adverb.
Just as you quoted Rod Mitchel, he specified how the sentence
He is home.
is in reality the sentence
He is (at) home.
Hence, the conclusion, the 1st sentence is actually incorrect by modern grammar.
It is a case similar to using double negatives. Some people say
I ain't never doing that.
When they actually mean
I am ...
0
Non-finite clauses take singular agreement, so "composes" is correct. The fact that the subject has a coordination of two VPs makes no difference -- it's a single clause and as such takes a singular verb. Compare, by contrast, "Skating on the lake and swimming in the stream" are my favourite activities, where there is a coordination of two separate clauses, ...
1
This is a gerund: a participle (a form of verb) being used as a noun.
1
Baking is fun
is strictly speaking ambiguous, though verb preferred.
Noun interpretation can be forced by adjectival premodification, as in "Occasional baking is fun."
You didn't ask but likewise with, for example, "I like baking": verb preferred but noun can't be ruled out.
0
Context is everything of course so we can’t really tell if your usage was correct but the teacher’s answer seems unsatisfactory. Perhaps they were having a bad day.
Finishing up us very common in spoken English, could you show us how you intended to use it in the written form?
0
Any action, including finishing something, takes a measurable amount of time between its start and its completion. It's not possible for any action to occur instantaneously, even if its length of time isn't perceptible. There will always be some moment before and some moment after—and some amount of time in between those two moments.
Further, if you're able ...
8
It depends on how you think about grammar. If you like the adverb as a traditional part of speech, then sure, it's an adverb. If you analyze grammar and syntax based on function, then you might agree with some linguists that home is an adverbial / prepositionless prepositional phrase, or you might agree with other linguists that it is a preposition. I'll lay ...
1
The noun "home" can be an adverb/adverbial.
He went home. (adverb)
I will be home soon. (adverb)
He is at home. (prepositional phrase - adverbial)
Not only "home", many other nouns can be adverbials in function. Such nouns are called adverbial nouns. They are also known as adverbial objectives,as they hold a position normally occupied by a ...
2
In fact, Old English had multiple conjugation patterns even for weak verbs (verbs ending in a dental suffix), and it seems that the differences were relevant to the development of irregularities in the past-tense forms of some verbs. Send and end did not originally form their past tenses in the same way.
Send, bend, rend had contracted past-tense forms ...
3
The usage doesn’t seem to be confined to children,
from: Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage:
Lookit:
the colloquial AmE form lookit (first recorded in 1917), used only in the imperative, with the meaning 'Listen! or Look at (something)’:
Oh isn’t that the classiest, darlingest, little coat you ever saw! ..... Lookit the collar. - T. ...
2
US slang/casual/informal. It is so far removed from standard usage that many see it as an error.
Lookit began as a corruption of the transitive verb look at, as used
by Theodore Dreiser in his 1925 novel, "An American Tragedy": "Oh, do
look at those sleeves. ... Lookit the collar." But the intransitive
verb has a different meaning. In Philip Barry's ...
0
The example you show would be better called a dismissive wave or a dismissive wave off This citation favors the former merriam-webster
Definition of dismissive:
serving to dismiss or reject someone or something : having or showing a disdainful attitude toward someone or something regarded
as unworthy of serious attention.
As in:
He ...
-2
No, home is not always a noun.
According to thefreedictionary.com, https://www.thefreedictionary.com/home, it can be a noun, but it can also be an adjective or an adverb.
Noun: My home is 2100 square feet. ("Home" is a noun referring to the place where I live.)
Adjective: Bob repairs home appliances. ("Home" is an adjective describing the type of ...
0
WaterMolecule's answer seems to be right in attributing the difference to historical causes. There seem to be complicated reasons for the development of the two kinds of inflection for verbs ending in -t or -d.
Verbs that originate from "class I weak verbs" tend to contain the vowel E and have irregular past-tense forms ending in T or D
It seems that the ...
1
Historically, in English ca. Shakespeare, there was a past subjunctive and a present subjunctive. They were used much more often than they are now, and there was a clear connection between their uses. And the two verb forms
were indeed, at least loosely, associated with the past and the present.
Over time, English lost most of the usages of the subjunctive; ...
1
I think the key is wrong
because we can not use the present perfect with the adverbials such as last year unless the period is connected to the present moment.
we say:
1.lots of people helped us last year.
2.Lots of people have helped us since last year.
The author should have thought that present perfect was correct because the sentence ends with "...
4
Many of the words with irregular past forms are very old (derived from Old or Middle English), while most of those with regular forms have been introduced more recently. For example, "vet" is fairly new, originating from the late 19th century and surprisingly seems to be related to "veterinarian".
Irregular
let: from Old English lǣtan (Wiktionary)
bet: ...
10
There is a set of English irregular verbs that have four unusual characteristics:
they consist of only one syllable
they end in a dental stop, /d/ or /t/
they have a lax or low vowel - /ɛ ɪ æ ɔ ʊ ə ɚ/
they are not inflected for past tense or past participle
Examples are the verbs bet, let, set, as noted, but also others, like cut, spit, and cast.
There ...
0
I don't think it's a tremendous problem. Biographical accounts are usually written in past tense, but the writing is actually in the book in the present tense. Summaries of books are usually given in the present tense, too (as well as for movies).
If you settle for one tense in both clauses, the mismatch in tenses indicates a mistake in the argument. After ...
2
I'm going to change made difficult into the more obviously active verb hampered.
Smoke and flames engulfed the area and hampered rescue operations.
Here, your two active verbs can each be passivised, retaining their respective agents and patients.
The area was engulfed by smoke and flames.
Rescue operations were hampered by smoke and flames.
If you ...
0
I can think of a number off the top of my head:
cups
groups
heads
faces
numbers
plates
forks
spoons
1
In this instance, I would use the verb channel. It's often heard together with 'energy'.
Lexico gives this definition:
Direct towards a particular end or object.
‘the council is to channel public funds into training schemes’
And Collins gives the following examples:
5) If you channel your energies or emotions into something, you concentrate ...
2
… his mother was possessed of a tyrannical nature and led her peasants and also her immediate family a miserable life.
In idiomatic Present Day English, lead (past led) is not a ditransitive verb, i.e., one which takes two objects, like elected her president or gave me a lecture.
Curiously enough, this has not always been the case:
… if he behave ...
0
The sentence is correct English. In this context lead is a verb (pronounced /lɛd/), the past tense of the verb to lead. As you may work out from the context, it means
"... his mother made the lives of her peasants and also her immediate family miserable [because of her tyrannical nature]"
-1
The verb should be "sounds," because the verb's subject should contain the implied gerund "taking," as in "Taking two weeks off work sounds great."
5
I have my hair cut whenever it gets too long.
This is an admission of something you do on a regular basis.
You're saying that you regularly get your hair cut when it gets too long.
It's like saying: "I eat whenever I'm hungry."
I have had my hair cut whenever it gets too long.
This is an admission that you've gotten your hair cut in the past. It says ...
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