ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

MrPedantic — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 04:05:35 GMT

Number 2 would be slightly better, Blitz – the 'present perfect'.

It's because there's a current link between the telling and the calling: the past still has a relation to the present, so you use the present perfect.

But #1 is very common in ordinary spoken English.

MrP

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

blitzball_playerr — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 20:24:59 GMT

i already told him tht u r gonna call him cuz ive sent u a message (is the tense usage correct??)
or
i have already told him that u r gonna call him cuz ive sent her a message

the 1st one is correct i think

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

MrPedantic — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 00:00:23 GMT

Definitely the first: 'I wish I hadn't told you all this'.

See you
MrP

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

blitzball_playerr — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 20:40:49 GMT

i wish i hadnt told u all this
or
i wish i shudnt have told u all this

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

MrPedantic — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 22:43:31 GMT

Hey Blitz

1. 'only ur kiss is worth the whole planet for me'

Yes, that would be fine. (Cf Othello, talking about Desdemona:

'If heaven would make me such another world
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite,
I'd not have sold her for it.')

2. I'm not sure of the context here, but 'does that come' must be correct.

3. The S factor

In 'he wants'/'he means', the verb form is the 3rd person singular of the Simple Present tense.

In 'he doesn't want'/'does he mean', the structure is slightly more complicated. The 'does' is the 3rd person singular of the auxiliary verb 'to do'. The 'want'/'mean' is the 'bare infinitive' form of the verb in each case.

In other words:

a) he wants = [3rd person sing. of Simple Present of 'want']

b) does he want = [3rd person sing. of auxiliary verb 'do' + bare infinitive 'want']

So you could say that the S has moved from main verb to the auxiliary.

Does that help?

See you
MrP

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

blitzball_playerr — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 12:18:07 GMT

only ur kiss is worth the whole planet for me (is this sentence ritwe?)

does that come in smoking
or
does that comes in smoking

and hey can u explain me these kinda things like for eg ...he wants , he doesnt want ...does he mean , he means ( ya kno the "s" factor in the ending of a word tht shows the continuity)

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

MrPedantic — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 23:21:09 GMT

Hey Blitz

Well, it was a good NY apart from the 'relatives' bit. Could do without some of those.

1. 'You give your password to someone whom you just know through the net.'

'Whom' here is grammatically correct. Curiously, though, it would be more idiomatic to say '...someone who you just know through the net'.

2. 'They are my sincere feelings'/'they are my honest feelings.'

Both can be used; both are examples of 'transferred epithets'.

('Feelings' themselves can't be 'insincere' or 'dishonest', so they can't be 'sincere' or 'honest' either. 'Sincerity' and 'honesty' in fact relate to how we express our feelings, not to the feelings themselves. So the 'sincere' and 'honest' in these sentences are really self-descriptions by the speaker, and mean 'I sincerely/honestly feel this'. Therefore we call them 'transferred epithets'.)

See you
MrP

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

blitzball_playerr — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 14:20:38 GMT

u give ur password to sumone whom u just kno thru the net (is the usage of "whom" in this sentence correct???)
they r my sincere feelings
or
they are my honest feelings (wich ones appropriate)
hey lolz gess u had a gr8 time this new year huh , but i didnt have that much fun tho lolz i really miss sumone hehehe, see ya

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

MrPedantic — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 00:11:26 GMT

Fine, thanks, Blitz! – had to hang up the modem for a while. You know how it is this time of year. Relatives, strong liquor, light entertainment...

'He must have left his computer open and gone to sleep.'

That sounds fine to me.

See you
MrP

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

blitzball_playerr — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 11:56:15 GMT

hey happy new year to u too , u came online after quite sumtime is everything ok?

is this correct
he must have left his computer open and gone to sleep

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

MrPedantic — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 23:14:13 GMT

Hello Blitz, happy new year,

1) 'I am cold' vs 'I feel cold'.

It's difficult to detect a difference in usage between these two. You could say that 'I am cold' is more likely to be used when the 'cold' is obvious to other people, e.g. in cold weather; whereas 'I feel cold' is more likely to be used when other people may not be affected, e.g. when you're in bed with a fever; but I wouldn't like to put money on it.

Since your hair stands up and you shiver both when you're cold and when you're frightened, 'I am/feel cold' can be used metaphorically (e.g. in a horror story) to suggest fear, or horror. I wouldn't say it means 'I'm nervous'; but a feeling of cold might accompany nervousness; e.g. during a séance, you might feel both cold and nervous.

2) Tricky. I would say:

a) 'I'm going for dinner' = 'I'm going out to get the foodstuffs that will constitute dinner' or 'I'm going out to have my dinner'.

b) 'I'm going to dinner [with the girl who's just moved in next door]' = 'I'm going next door, where the attractive music student who's just moved in is going to make me dinner'.

c) 'I'm going to dinner' – said by worker/student downing tools and going out to get something to eat.

d) 'I'm going out for dinner' = 'I'm going out to eat in a restaurant/round a friend's house'.

That said, there are probably innumerable local variations and nuances (esp. in the US).

See you
MrP

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

blitzball_playerr — Mon, 27 Dec 2004 10:52:05 GMT

hey what does "i am cold" mean or i feel cold...does it mean im nervous??

2)going for dinner or going to dinner?

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

MrPedantic — Fri, 24 Dec 2004 00:08:14 GMT

Hey Blitz,

1) "are Amber and Joe going?" is correct.

2)
"your son is not attending college since last two months": incorrect.
"your son has not been attending college for two months now" is ok; but 'has not attended' would be better.
"your son has not been attending college for the past two months": ok; but again, 'has not attended' would be better.

3) 'Medicines' is ok when you're talking about different kinds of medicine; but if it's all the same stuff it's just 'medicine'.

For this one, I'd say: "the medicines you prescribed earlier are finished" (or 'all used up').

4) "for how long am I going to have this facility": ok.
"for how long will I be getting this facility": ok.
"for how long will i get this facility": ok, if you're talking about e.g. a special free trial on a website.

5) "I have been doing this since last two years"/"I have done this since last two years" wouldn't be right; you'd have to say "I have been doing this for the last two years"/"I have done this for the last two years".

The first version ("I have been doing") is the 'present perfect progressive tense' (our old friend the PPP), and the second version ("I have done") is the present perfect (PP). They both relate to actions in the past that have a relation to the present; but the PPP puts more emphasis on the 'doing' as a process, whereas the PP puts more emphasis on the fact that it's completed (i.e. 'doing' vs 'done').

6) "sit in the chair": fine; but probably more usual with an armchair.
"sit on the chair"; also fine; probably more usual with an ordinary hard chair.

7) This is a tricky one. "From the beginning" seems to put the emphasis on the continuity of whatever is 'from the beginning', whereas 'since the beginning' serves more as a simple time-frame:

'From the beginning of 2004, the police were looking for an excuse to pull me in.' (The looking for the excuse was continuous.)

'Since the beginning of 2004, the police have pulled me in five times.' (The important thing here is the number of times he's been pulled in. The 'since' phrase defines the period during which it all happened.)

8) 'aliens have been coming here for more than 2000yrs' - fine.

'aliens have been coming here since 2000 yrs': wrong.

Your first sentence sounds fine to me. You could also say: 'the first aliens came here more than 2000 years ago'.

9) 'None of our experts was able to answer your question/None of our experts were able to answer your question.'

Opinions vary about this one. Some people say you have to use a singular verb ('was'), as if 'no one' = 'not one'; others say you can use a plural verb. The Merriam-Webster dictionary says you can use either.

If I were giving the answer in a test, I would say 'was', because the people who say you have to use 'was' will mark 'were' as incorrect, whereas the people who say you can use 'were' will also accept 'was'.

But when I'm speaking, I say 'were'. I have a feeling 'was' is more usual in American English, though.

See you,
MrP

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

blitzball_playerr — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 11:48:59 GMT

hey MrP, how u doin everythin fine ova here..."ive got few more corrections to be done" ( is this sentence rite?)
ok so here we go
1)" is amber and joe going?"
or
"are amber and joe going?"

2)your son is not attending college since last two months"
your son has not been attending college for two months
your son has not been attending college for the past two months

3)"the medicines(is medicine a plural itself?) you prescribed eariler are over/have finished"( (are over sounds better or have finishd?))
or
" the medicines you prescirbed previously are over"

4)for how long m i going to have this facility
for how long will be getting this fecility
for how long will i get this facility

5) "FOR" "SINCE" :like the 2nd sentence above is it ok to say since wen u add the word"last" before a period of time??? like for eg "i have been doing this since last two years"
is this also rite "i have done this since last two years" ...if both these sentences aree right then WHAT DO THEY MEAN??? I MEAN THE TENCE OR ETC ETC.

6) "sit in the chair"
"sit on the chair"

7)from the begining
since the bigining

8)aliens have been coming here for more than 2000yrs
aliens have been coming here since 2000 yrs(this must be wrong) ( or is there a better sounding sentence for this)

9)None of our experts was able to answer your question
None of our experts were able to answer your question

Re: Attn MrPedantic , blitz here

MrPedantic — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 22:49:09 GMT

Hey DrB, is all well over there? No more unpleasant medical experiences, I hope.

1) Fine for dialogue.

2) Again, fine.

3) These two versions would probably be fine for dialogue in a novel, but in 'standard English' you'd say: 'so I just wanted to know if I would grow any taller'.

See you later
MrP