By British English, Verbs

Hi, Pieanne, The first two are easy. The same ideas presented for the affirmative forms I've got a book. / I have a book. apply to the negative forms I haven't got a book. / I don't have a book. The third is even easier. In British English, but not in American, "have" used as a...

First off, thanks to all for the replies, and especially CalifJim for quite eloquently giving word to the difference that I understood, but couldn't articulate. Secondly, wow, more interesting insights into British English. But with that last, what about the expression, "Come off it"? Does...

In British English (I cannot speak for American English) it is acceptable to treat collective nouns as plural. English grammar sometimes looks to the sense, rather than the form. Collective nouns may be felt by English speakers to be plural for the simple reason that they consist of more than one...

Goldmund wrote: Speaker B says "I just found this website." *He found the website recently. In British English you may also say «I have just found this website». "I’ve not looked at it much yet." *He expects to look at it again, therefore he uses the present perfect. The present...

If we call school, work, prison, and hospital 'places of incarceration', can we make a rule that says 'if the verb relates directly to the incarcerated party, we may drop the article'? e.g. I visited him in hospital. I went to the hospital to visit him. I met her at school. I met her at...

Dear Tutors, In my English grammar book it says the verb “remember” is a nonprogressive verb. Then why should I say “But now, I'm remembering that when I was at school, the teachers wanted us to use the British English” instead of saying “But now, I remember that when I was at school, the...

Philip wrote: Mister Micawber wrote:Have you the ball? Has she the ball? These are the standard in British English. And the only remaining full verb (beside "to be") that resists the "do-paraphrasing". American English gave up this structure and it's assumed that British English will follow...

Mister Micawber wrote:When the operator do is used in a question, it is the verb that changes, not the main verb (have) or the pronoun referent:Do you have the ball? (referring to you)Does he have the ball? (referring to him) Have is peculiar in that it does not always require the...

First of all, the verb phrase "was/were hurt" refers to none of the officers. Shooting is a subject of the first clause, so don't worry about it. None of the officers should be followed by a singular verb in a formal style in British English, i.e. ...but none of the officers was hurt. However,...

Hi Tallulah, welcome to the Forums, I'll try to answer your question according to my own opinion, I'm sure MM will give you a better answer later. Learnt belongs to irregular verbs in British English, though I'd like to add that they were not considered irregular maybe 4 hundred years ago. Just...