ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Help

Pawwi21 — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:21:17 GMT

I wrote = Simple Past Tense -We refer or call or tell others about the events happened in the past, which were short lived and quickly finished.
I have written = Present Perfect Tense -We use it to say that a finished action or event is connected with the present in some way. e.g.he has broken his leg.(His leg is broken now.)

Re: Help

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 06:59:03 GMT

WROTE

Re: Help

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 16:50:22 GMT

I wrote means you wrote something in the past and stopped already, while you have written is meaning it is just done and maybe still going to do it.

Re: Past simple or Past Perfect?

Lukki — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 21:53:05 GMT

Differences between Past simple & Past perfect (simple)

From my point of view the sentence "I have written 3 pages of my essay today." means, that I haven't finished it yet. Some work is done ("I have done something already.") and I will work on it later in the future.

And the sentence "I wrote 3 pages of my essay today." means, that my essay is done, takes 3 pages. The writting ended in the past.

We use the Present perfect when there is a connection with the present.

Really complicated to explain, maybe some examples could help.

Here they are:

1.    Study this axample situation:
       Nick is looking for his key. He can't find it. He has lost his key.
       ("He has lost his key." means that he lost it a short time ago and he still doesn't have it.)

(This example is from the book "Grammar in Use" by Raymond Murphy)

2.    Have you ever been to United States?
     No, I haven't, but I have been to the Great Britain.
       (This is very common phrase and means that you didn't take a trip to the US, but you            can chage it and take the trip in the present or close future.)

(By the way, everyone please correct my mistakes, THX. It is very hard to check my punctuation, because I'm from the Czech Republic, and here are lot of rules of writting commas and they are different from English, so I hope you will help me with that.)

Re: Apostrophes

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 04:17:38 GMT

1.It's too bad that the hospitals policy prohibits patients access to their own medical records.

2. Two sonograms were compatible with a fetus of 30 weeks gestation.

3. On x-ray examination,the femur showed a fracture in its most distal portion of approximately two weeks duration.

4. Dr. Howard's consultation was received two days before the patient's surgery was scheduled.

5. Although it's clear that the genus has been identified, the species has not.

Re: Apostrophes

Clive — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 15:37:20 GMT

Hi,

Dr. Howard's consultation . . .

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Apostrophes

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 12:35:01 GMT

1. It's too bad that the hospital's policy prohibits patients access to their own medical records.

2. Two sonograms were compatible with a fetus of 30 weeks' gestation.

3. On x-ray examination, the femur showed a fracture at its most distal portion of approximately two weeks' duration.

4. Dr. Howards' consultation was received two days before the patient's surgery was scheduled.

5. Although it's clear that the genus has been identified, the species has not.

Re: apostrophes

Teo — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 02:19:50 GMT

Believer wrote:

Two sonograms were compatiblewith a fetus of 30 weeks' gestation.

Two sonograms were compatible with a fetus of 30 week gestation.

What determines which one is right?

http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/viewtopic.php?t=39642&highlight=

Oh, the apostrophe, you should use it because the number is a measurement of time, which takes the genitive AND most grammarians go for this.
Tradition dictates you use an apostrophe and this option is the more predominant among the grammarians. As I've said before, it's better to go with what is still considered correct by the majority.

Re: apostrophes

Believer — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 23:50:33 GMT

Thank you.

Which is right?

Two sonograms were compatiblewith a fetus of 30 weeks' gestation.

Two sonograms were compatible with a fetus of 30 week gestation.

What determines which one is right?

Thank you.

Re: Apostrophes

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 21:08:35 GMT

Marilyn wrote:
Insert apostrophes as appropriate in the follwoing sentences, or none if none is need.

1. I'ts too bad that the hospitals policy prohibits patients access to their own medical records.

2. Two sonograms were compatible with a fetus of 30 weeks gestation.

3 .On x-ray examination. the femur showed a fracture in its most distal portion of approximately two weeks duration.

4. Dr. Howard's consultation was recieved two days before the pantients surgery was scheduled.

5. Although it's clear that the genus has been identified, the species has not.

Re: Apostrophes

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 21:48:51 GMT

I would say more efficiently and with more adult structure:

1: It's too bad that the hospital policy prohibits patient access to their own medical records.

2: This sentence is written poorly: you are trying to say, "The sonograms were compatible with each other, both concluding evidence of a fetus 30 weeks gestated." Sonograms were NOT compatible with a fetus, they were compatible with each other.

The rest of these sentences are structured so poorly -even worse than #2 if that apostrophe s possible- as so not to wast my time attempting their correction. Good luck.

-Aceman Jones

Re: Apostrophes

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 21:37:10 GMT

Marilyn wrote:
Insert apostrophes as appropriate in the follwoing sentences, or none if none is need.

1. It's too bad that the hospital's policy prohibits patient's access to their own medical records.

2. Two sonograms were compatible with a fetus of 30 weeks gestation.

3 .On x-ray examination. the femur showed a fracture in its most distal portion of approximately two weeks duration.

4. Dr. Howard's consultation was recieved two days before the pantient's surgery was scheduled.

5. Although it's clear that the genus has been identified, the species has not.

Re: Apostrophes

pi_arch — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 19:58:45 GMT

for labeling toilets for girls or boys in a school..... how should it be put??

Girls' Toilet?? Girls Toilet? where is the apostrophe put? and how should it be decided...
or for that matter a Director's cabin??

so according to the earlier posts it goes as singular goes as " 's " and pural goes as " s' " m i right?

Re: Apostrophes

Guest — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:00:13 GMT

'Visitor Parking Bays' (in plural)

in abbreviation, should it be:

VPBs

or

VPB's

??

Re: Apostrophes

Guest — Thu, 20 May 2004 07:37:09 GMT

Is it possible that someone explain "patients'"? I never saw that before. Plural for "patient's"?