In English grammar^x, Verbs^x

Miriam, Many thanks for your thoughtful expansion of Pem's analysis. I'll first address the specific questions you've raised, then re-state more thoroughly the case which the Cambridge book is making for the gerund's redefinition. Consider the following two sentences: 1. I can't stand your...

Dave, First of all, and even when everyone is surely aware of this, I must insist that even when I believe my knowledge of the English grammar is good, I'm not a grammarian or a linguist. It would be completely absurd for me to try and analyse a language that is not even my own in depth when I...

Hi Miriam, Actually "had better" is NOT a modal verb. Some authors call it a "modal idiom" (The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield), or a idiomatic modal. There are many English Grammar websites that talk about "had better" as a Modal Verb. For...

Susan, I understand the frustration you are feeling. Your language, Chinese, is what linguists call an "isolating language". All information, such as the time an action occurred, is conveyed by the choice and order of words in a sentence. There are no verb tenses. There are no plurals. In fact,...

Good evening to all of you!, I'am Shamsul from Malaysia. I have a question about English Grammar. I have tried to find the answer in an English Grammar book but still i can't get the answer. I'am so very confused about FORM of grammar below : MATTERS ARISING DATA INPUTTING As I know...

It does help a lot if you have a good grammar book, one that really gives you all the rules but with plenty of interesting examples and illustrations. I'm not an English teacher so I don't know the title of such a book for English studies; maybe one of the other readers does. If you are...

Mirapence, your help is just priceless!!! I'm really sorry for having given you so much labour; I defiinitely overdid. I am, however, very thankful for your explanation. After this "injection of knowledge" you gave me, I decided go on phrases and hope to get through them with your help. I...

The reason why there are so many forms is that 'be' has somehow avoided to be affected by certain changes that has occurred to English grammar over the centuries. If you look at Old English, you will find that all verbs were inflected according to person in a more complicated way than in modern...

I have a different opinion! I say English is very simple language!! English grammar is fairly simple. Nouns in many other languages have grammatical gender and accordingly some verbs and adjectives undergo changes. eg. most of the Indian languages. This complexity is absent in English.Thus, the...

Wow troy - this is a compex question, and I cant quite see what practical diff it makes for you to know this! maybe if you tried to think in terms of the meaning of the utterance, rather than seeking a universal rule, it might be easier? English grammar is notoriously slipperly in this...