By Jokes, Verbs

Umm... Thank you, Alienvoord, IK.I thought this way: "His joke fell flat" is nearly equal to "His joke appeared to be flat (=dull)" just as in "He fell ill" = "He became ill." But now I think it's possible to take it as a figurative idiom. Thank you both again.(BTW, Alienvoord, aren't you a...

Could anybody explain to me why flat is an adjective in the first sentence and direct is an adverb in the second, please. The jokes were flat. flat describes jokes. flat tells what kind of jokes they were. They were flat jokes. You may be thinking that flat describes how the jokes fell,...

Thats' right, IK, "flat" can function as both and adverb and an adjective. We can tell which one it is by its distribution. The countertop is flat. The countertop is white. We can replace it with an adjective, so it's an adjective here. He fell flat on his face. He fell clumsily. We can...

I think it is, yes. But it's also an idiom. We can't replace "flat" here with another adverb. We can say "He fell flat on his face" or "He fell clumsily" but we do not say "The joke fell clumsily."

Alienvoord wrote:As Grammar Geek says, these are adverbs. Hi Alienvoord, I have a question, 'cause I took that "flat" as an adjective. So when I read GG's post, Grammar Geek wrote:A person can fall "flat on his face" - and in that case, it's a little more literal and it would be an adverb...

Yes, "fall flat" is an idiom used to mean something was not well received. A person can fall "flat on his face" - and in that case, it's a little more literal and it would be an adverb phrase (how did he fall?). But jokes, in particular, fall flat. Flying direct would mean that you are flying a...

Hi IK Inchoateknowledge wrote:I have an idea: fall flat is an idiom like throw open in I threw open the windows.I don't think so... (I don't know.) His jokes fell flat. We are flying direct.I think this "flat" in the first sentence is an adjective, and a subject complement. (And only...

His jokes fell flat. We are flying direct. Could anybody explain to me why flat is an adjective in the first sentence and direct is an adverb in the second, please.

CalifJim wrote:In actual practice, the use of the past perfect quite frequently violates the mathematically precise timelines set out for it in grammar books! It is merely an indicator that something happened in the context of something past. Now the problem is that this past point of view...

In actual practice, the use of the past perfect quite frequently violates the mathematically precise timelines set out for it in grammar books! It is merely an indicator that something happened in the context of something past. Now the problem is that this past point of view has to be...