Search results for 'tag:Adverbs tag:Prepositions' matching tags 'Adverbs' and 'Prepositions'

Re: Adverb /adjective "in the garden"

Goodman — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:25:16 GMT

thactoad

The children in the garden are playing football. - Is this an adjective phrase telling us more about the children?

The children are playing football in the garden. - Is this an adverb phrase of place telling where the children are playing?

However, is the phrase in both sentences also prepositional phrases?

I'm just a little confused!!!

Many thanks

This is how I approach the phrase âin the gardenâ, or any phrase in this nature

By itself, itâs classified as âpreposition phraseâ because of the use of âinâ.
Children are playing [in the garden]. The bracketed phrase is now an adverbial phrase because it tells where the children are playing.
Itâs not an adjective phrase however because it does not contain adjective. If the phrase were â the tallest kid playing is the garden is my sonâ, then itâs an adjective phrase.

This is the extent of my understanding. Feel free to critique if I were wrong about it.

Re: in bare feet

Avangi — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 02:16:05 GMT

We walked barefoot on the beach. Here, "barefoot" is an adverb telling only how we walked.

We walked on the beach in bare feet. Here, the prepositional phrase "in bare feet" is also adverbial in function, but modifies the entire clause, "we walked on the beach." The preposition "in" shows the relation between the "mode" in which we appeared and the action we performed. The "in" is not optional.

We decided to go to the dance in costume / in full evening dress / in our work clothes / in the nude.

You should not try to perform the tango while the orchestra is playing in waltz time. Of course you don't have to use a prepositional phrase. You could say, "while the orchestra is playing a waltz."

- A.

Re: gerund or verbal noun with an article?

Crokey — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 08:30:03 GMT

hi cb, its me again!
how do you feel about possessives before a gerund? "John's singing bothered me". You are constantly told that the possessive should be used before a gerund(unless you are saying something weird and you wish to emphasise the subject of the gerund). However, "John's loud singing bothered me", well "loud" is an adjectival attribute modifying singing, and you will never get an adverb to fit in there. "the correct speaking of the english language is important", "correctly speaking english is important". So, is it fair to say that if you can modify the -ing form with an adjecitval attribute, then it is a verbal noun and not a gerund? "john's singing the national anthem bothered me" "john's loud singing OF the national anthem bothered me", I could hardly have changed the nature of the word "singing" from a gerund in the first instance, to a verbal noun in the second, merely by adding an adjective. Furthermore, if in the first case, "singing" is indeed a verbal noun, should it written as "john's singing of the national anthem" , otherwise, without the preposition "of", singing would be taking the object "the national anthem".

have a nice day!

Basic ESL Grammar

angel_tristan0409 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:58:19 GMT

A word is a âpart of speechâ only when it is used in a sentence. The function the word serves in a sentence is what makes it whatever part of speech it is.

For example, the word ârunâ can be used as more than one part of speech:â¨
Sammy hit a home run. (run is a noun, direct object of hit)â¨
You mustnât run near the swimming pool. (run is a verb, part of the verb phrase must (not) run)

Here is a simple overview of the English parts of speech and what they do. Each part of speech is linked to an DWT article that tells more about it.

NOUN - Nouns are naming words. We canât talk about anything until we have given it a name.

PRONOUN - A pronoun is a word that stands for a noun.

VERBS - The verb is the motor that runs the sentence. A verb enables us to say something about a noun.

ADJECTIVE - An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

ADVERB - An adverb adds meaning to a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

PREPOSITION - a preposition is a word that comes in front of a noun or a pronoun and shows a connection be

Re: Could of vs could have

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:51:00 GMT

of ... is a preposition and is generally placed before a noun
eg. she is part OF a group. ( a group. the noun preceded by it's preposition)

could ... is an adverb which describes the verb
eg. she COULD be part OF the group ... (COULD describes the verb TO BE)

It follows from the above that the expression:

COULD OF has no sensible grammatical meaning.... (ie. an ADVERB describing a PREPOSITION)

COULD HAVE is an adverb describing the verb (HAVE) which follows it; this has a sensible grammatical meaning.

Re: prepositions after verbs

Mister Micawber — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 13:42:01 GMT

.
I don't know what you mean by 'the preposition "up" changes common verbs to perfective verbs', but I doubt it.

Anyway, those are not prepositions; they are adverbs.

Re: word classes

Clive — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:46:59 GMT

Hi,

When she was 16-years-old a 16-year-old is a noun. 16 years old (ie no hyphens) is an adjectival phrase
she ran away (preposition) from home and moved to London, then (adverb) New York to work as (adverb) a nurse. During (preposition) her time in New York, she kept in contact with (preposition) her sister. She said âI donât know what (pronoun) Iâll do about it, but I donât see why (noun) we should just (adverb) waitâ¦ And I always (adverb) had that picture in my mind, all adverb through this time.â

German (adjective?) inventor (noun) John Smith...

She travelled far, crossing (verb present participle) several army (noun used as an adjective?) checkpoints, until she was expelled from (preposition) the country.

Some of these words are not easy to classify.
Best wishes, Clive

Re: word classes

veryconfused — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:40:03 GMT

Oh, sorry!

When she was 16-years-old (noun?), she ran away (preposition?) from home and moved to London, then (conjunction?) New York to work as (preposition?) a nurse. During (conjunction?) her time in New York, she kept in contact with (conjunction?) her sister. She said âI donât know what (?????) Iâll do about it, but I donât see why (??) we should just (adverb?) waitâ¦ And I always (adverb?) had that picture in my mind, all through this time.â

German (adjective?) inventor (adjective?) John Smith...

She travelled far, crossing (verb?) several army (adjective?) checkpoints, until she was expelled from (preposition?) the country.

Thanks!

Re: Questions about preposition

26TMNTJG2PG — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:40:56 GMT

Your posting appears all right.

The 'only' functions in the sentence as an adverb modifying the verb 'answers'.

Yes, the 'besides' is a preposition showing the relation between the two clauses with the latter being the noun clause as its object.

Re: Numbers

Liveinjapan — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:39:07 GMT

Thanks, 26.

Got it.

I think 'troop cuts' also possible.

New2, do you mean why the transitive cut needs the preposition down? I think down could be an adverb and cut down is a commonly used phrazal verb. Anyways I can't answer it properly.