In Definite articles^x, Clauses^x

Hello Sharad If "novel" in your sentence means "a work of fiction", it needs a definite article. "To publishers" also sounds a little strange; as does "a period of years". Let me adjust it a little: 1. Developing over several years, the novel was finally presented by Cyndy to various...

Esteemed teachers, Hello. I have more questions about the usage of the definite article. "When I was a child I would look at my father, the thinning hair, the collapsing teeth, and wonder why anyone would give money for a head like that." Why is the used instead of his? Is it because it is...

3-- ok 4-- ok 5-- NO. Hard to tell. 'Giotto' is spelled wrong. Probably they want 'are'. 6-- NO 7-- NO 8-- NO (there should be no finite verb in that clause at all) 9-- hint: 'apart from' is wrong 10- NO 11- all I can see is wayward commas an overly casual vocabulary 12- NO. no 'the' 13-...

it is an antecedent which determines when to use an appositive-that Yes. With the lexical item "case" used with an appositive, the deletion of the definite article "the" and the clause complementizer "that" is obligatory. "case" is always the object of the preposition "in" in these...

A student I tutor wrote the following: "I will keep myself as active as possible and challenge many things for another six months left." I told the student that she should either delete the "left" or add a relative clause like "that I still have left." I couldn't figure out though why "left"...

The woman is a TV reporter who is standing in the hotel elevator. There's nothing wrong with this sentence. "Detective: I'm looking for two suspects: one is a man; the other, a woman. Here are their photos. Have you seen them? Helpful Janitor: Sure. The man is an executive who is...

Hello MrP. So, a poet! Poetry is an area regarding which I must acknowledge my complete ignorance. Of course, I can’t write anything of this kind, and I can only read with some enjoyment some things by Borges, Manrique and Prévert. Thanks for your very useful suggestions. Here I’ve four more...

The nonfinite clause, 'reading books' is the subject. It is a single activity. 'Fun' is an uncountable emotion/experience/feeling, so it does not take the indefinite article. 'Reading books/a book is fun' is the only grammatically correct sentence.

Dear paco, The indefinite article is optional in your example. Usually it is required as in He is a loser. - Er ist ein Versager. I would have to think it over more thoroughly, but for now I would say it is only optional for occupations, professions, cronic medical illnesses and to indicate...

Hello MrP So I can only assume that either Dickens got his idiom slightly wrong, or ‘Child as he was’ had a simple complementary sense in his day. I feel your sense that children are not immune to hunger and misery is very modern one. Children of poor social classes in Dickens' times would be...