Search results for 'tag:Clauses tag:Interviews' matching tags 'Clauses' and 'Interviews'

Re: Suggest + "not do" - verb pattern

CalifJim — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:34:30 GMT

For suggest as give advice:

I [suggest / advise] (that) he do something. (affirmative pattern)

I [suggest / advise] (that) he not do something. (negative pattern)

But suggest also means bring to mind, and this is the meaning in your example sentences, so the grammatical structures for 'advisory' suggest don't apply. Issues of availability cannot give advice! So all you need is a that clause or a noun -- without any of those subjunctives!

Issues of availability ... suggested that members of the scientific committee might not need to be interviewed.

Issues of availability ... suggested a course of action in which members of the scientific community would not need to be interviewed.

Issues of availability ... suggested a research methodology by which interviews with members of the scientific community could be avoided.

Re: Suggest + "not do" - verb pattern

YoungCalifornian — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:33:12 GMT

Tanit
But I'm stuck with a sentence where "to do" is replaced by "not to do":

    a1) I suggest not doing X.                         (I reckon this is fine)
    a2) I suggest not to do X.                          (???)
    b1) I suggest [that] Y shouldn't do X.         (I reckon this is fine)
    b2) I suggest [that] Y [not do | don't] X.      (this sounds terribly bad!)

Your questions stem from the use of the mandative subjunctive, which arises in turn from the use of the verb "to suggest." However, you've complicated things by using the complicated predicate "to do X" in your sentences' subordinate clauses. I'm assuming that "Y" always represents a personal pronoun (or proper noun), but "X" could be either a demonstrative pronoun (or regular noun in certain cases) or a verb depending on your meaning.

a1) This construction is fine if "X" is a demonstrative pronoun, but incorrect if represents a verb.

a2) This construction is incorrect. If "X" is a demonstrative pronoun, the verb "to do" must be changed from the infinitive to the subjunctive and a personal pronoun added so that the sentence reads I suggest Y not do X. This makes the subordinate clause a content clause, which means that the word "that" could be added as you've done in example b2). The sentence will not work at all if "X" is a verb.

b1) While this construction is not grammatically incorrect, it can sound too passive when "suggest" and "should" are in close proximity. Anyway, that's assuming that "X" is once again a demonstrative pronoun. This construction will not work if "X" is a verb.

b2) It may not seem like it, but switching between "not do" or "don't" (i.e. "do not" ) dramatically changes this sentence. They cannot be used interchangably in this context. As I mentioned above, the "not do" construction works fine if "X" is a demonstrative pronoun. However, if "X" is a (subjunctive) verb then "do not" or "don't" (or does not/doesn't for singular third person pronouns) must be used.

I apologize if this sounds complicated, but it's a result of using an auxiliary verb in your example predicates. If you replace "to do X" with a simpler verb it would probably be clearer. Basically, your two options are to follow the verb "to suggest" with either a gerund or the subjunctive. Either way, the word "not" would precede the dependent verb should you choose to make it negative. Looking ahead, I've used the verb "to interview" in an example of each construction.

Gerund: I suggest (not) interviewing...
Subjunctive: I suggest (that) he (not) interview...

Here's the sentence I'm trying to write (it's for a research paper):

1. "Issues of availability, together with constraints on time and scope of the research, suggested not interviewing any member of the scientific committee."
2. "Issues of availability, together with constraints on time and scope of the research, suggested not to interview any member of the scientific committee."
3. "Issues of availability, together with constraints on time and scope of the research, suggested that no member of the scientific committee should be interviewed."

I'd go for no. 1 (no. 3 seems to carry a different meaning ... or am I wrong?), but I am not sure about that. What do you think?
I'm also trying (with little, if any, success) to work out the general pattern.

Both the first and third examples work. The first is the gerund construction, the third is the subjunctive construction. The second is incorrect. However, despite being technically correct, both the first and third examples still sound awkward. Ultimately, I think this is because it sounds strange for "issues" to suggest something directly. Typically they would suggest something to someone. For instance, I think that "Issues of availability... suggest not interviewing any member of the scientific committee to me" or "Issues of availability... suggest to me that no member of the scientific committee should be interviewed" both sound better.

Re: Can I use Past Simple with Present Perfect?

Clive — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:40:00 GMT

Hi,
During this period I worked in several companies where I've gathered a broad knowledge base in the web design field."

I see the writer as doing two things in this sentence.
1. Stating past historical information. (I worked . . )
2. Indicating that past activity has relevance to the present situation (which I assume involves a job application or interview). (I have gathered . . )

I said the original sounded normal, because it seems OK and not odd. However, I wouldn't object to the use of the Simple Past, or even the Present Perfect, in both clauses. In fact, I'd probably prefer it.

Best wishes, Clive

Please correct my letter to my new employer

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:09:30 GMT

I am drafting a letter to my new employer to clarify the clauses in the contract. Please correct if I have made any mistakes in the letter.

Thank you very much in advance.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to confirm in receipt from you an offer of employment letter, a template of reference form and a contract of employment which were sent to me on the 25^th April 2008. I am pleased to receive an offer from ABC plc one week prior the start date of the job, this allow me to make the necessary arrangement with my school and current employer.

I have reviewed the received documents and would like to enquire a few queries as follow: -

In the offer of employment letter, should my commencement date of working be on 2^nd May 2008 instead of 2^nd April 2008?
Please advise the requirement for the reference form. Am I responsible to request a reference from 2 of my previous employers and require them to return the forms directly to the ABC plc's England registered office in Surrey? I am concerned that the process might take longer than one week and as a result this might have an affect on my commencement date of employment which is stated on the contract as 2^nd May 2008.
In the contract of employment clause 1 and 2, should my commencement of employment date be on the 2^nd May 2008 instead of 25^th April 2008?
In the contract of employment clause 16.a.iii, it stated that whether during or outside office hours, I shall not be allowed to engage in other work without ABC plc's written permission. Does this clause apply to me as a part time Book Keeper? As a matter of needful, I am considering to continue working with my present job in weekends. Could you provide me an written permission to enable me to work for another job outside office hours?
Statutory or company's maternity leave scheme is not covered in the contract of employment, please advise.
Am I eligible for any other company's benefit schemes apart from the mentioned company pension scheme in the contract of employment, which I can join after three months from my commencement date of employment?
Could I have a copy of the original signed contract of employment before or on the commencement date of work?

Thank you for your time for the interviews and I would be grateful if you could advise me the above. In the meantime, should you have any queries please contact me on my mobile 0123456789.

Best regards,

HELP PLEASE!!

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:15:15 GMT

Directions: From the copy of the article below, note that
There are 9 dependent clauses or phrases numbered and bracketed.
Cut and paste these onto your response.
Label each with the abbreviation of its structure.

Submission example: (1) [this endangered forest is being ground up] Select an abbreviation from below and label it.

Use these abbreviations for the structures:
N Cl
Adj Cl
Adj Phr
Adv Cl
Adv Phr
__

Making Victoria Blush

âCanadaâs boreal forest is the largest expanse of wildlands in North America, and itâs being logged at an alarming rate. We found out
(1) [this endangered forest is being ground up] to make mail-order catalogs. Fifty-nine billion catalogs go out every year in the United States, and 95 percent are immediately thrown away!

âOne of the companies (2) [we were most concerned about] was Victoriaâs Secret
(3) [because it sends out a million catalogs every single day], more than any other business we know of.

âSo we set up a Web site, Victoriaâs Dirty Secret, and called for a day of action in front of its stores across the country.
Instead of your typical protest rally, people were wearing lingerie and angel wingsâbut holding chainsaws.

âWe ran a full-page ad in the New York Times with a woman dressed like a Victoriaâs Secret model with a chainsaw. The ad got a lot of attention and even a spot on the Today show.

(4) "[Since weâve started,] Victoriaâs Secret has begun meeting with us on a regular basisâone day weâre protesting out front, and the next weâre in the boardrooms. With corporate campaigns, you can make really big changes very fast. Victoriaâs Secret took a step in the right direction and put its discount catalogs, 24 million a year, on postconsumer recycled paper. To us, that meant two things: The company is hearing our message, and (5) [what we are asking it to do] is possible. We said, âItâs great about the 24 million, but what about the rest?â

(6) [ Being a well recognized catalog company,] Victoria's Secret is making the news even with this small step toward conservation.

(7) "[As we pressure Victoriaâs Secret,] other catalog companies are watching (8) [what it does.] We want companies
competing to be the greenest.ââinterview by Orli Cotel

Note this big savings: (9) [ If the catalog industry switched to paper with 10 percent post-consumer recycled content,] it would save
851,000 tons of wood annuallyâenough to build a six foot fence across the United States seven times.

Re: Which he isn't

Clive — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:29:10 GMT

Hi,

If Harrison isnt playing (which he isn't) I think Colts aren't gonna win.

Is which is a relative pronoun? Yes.
Which doesn't have to refer a particular thing,right? It has to refer to something, but it does not have to be a noun. eg it can be a clause.
If it has to, where does which refer? The phrase 'Harrison isn't playing'. Please note that this type of grammar in this sentence is quite lax and informal. Don't use it when you are writing a college essay or speaking in a job interview. Another example is that 'gonna' is said, bit is only spelled thus in informal writing.

Finally, can I write this with commas?Yes.

If Harrison isn't playing, which he isn't, I think the Colts aren't gonna win.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: While the applicant was having a job interview, I sat still in the next roo

Tarkowsky — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:20:55 GMT

Magic-dragon wrote:

I'd be happy if someone would answer my questions. Thanks in advance.

Are the following 2 sentences correct? If so, what's the difference?

A: While the applicant was having a job interview, I sat still in the next room.

B: While the applicant had a job interview, I sat still in the next room.

In my opinion both sentences are correct.

In A While introduces a time clause which draws attention to the duration of the activities

In B while (whereas) links two ideas that contrast with each other

Re: What grammar parts are they?

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:55:05 GMT

Yes, Mr. M. It helps a lot.

It kind of engendered some inquiries, though.

1. In your interview in the English-test.net website, you said:

From there, it didn't take much thought to realize that I could eliminate the middle man and start my own school, lucrative enough to make Japan a good place to stay.

What is this part grammatically?

2. In the nonfinite clause portion of the sentence "heart racing and gasping for air as your body's automatic nervous system tries to figure out why it isn't getting enough oxygen," would you say 'heart' is a noun and it can be replaced with any other contextually appropriate noun? Usually, I think a nonfinite clause should exihibit the pattern of "racing and gasping for air as your body's automatic nervous system tries to figure out why it isn't getting enough oxygen." (without what seems to be the noun part -- 'heart'.)

3. In the same interview, you wrote:

We were presented wtih an inside view of the workings of ETS TOEIC preparation and presentation, and offered an opportunity to try our hand at question-writing.

The word 'question-writing' is linked with a hyphen. What is the reason or rationale for this? I do feel that it is the construction is correct but hoping to get some ideas as to what is required for a noun to be formed like that. Maybe something like this?

an action star-wannabe

4. Sorry to ask so many questions but if you are willing, can you tell me what are some criteria (if there are any) for an adjective in quotation marks? How unusal the usage or use of a word or phrase or clause has to be in order to adorn itself with a pair of quotation marks?

Are these good?

I think Mr. M is an online celebrity.

I don't think Mr. M is an "off-line" celebrity.

My interview experience.

Bird Of Paradise — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:07:48 GMT

I belong to a country where English is used as a second language, so it is not my first language. A few days ago I appeared in an interview for the post of English Teacher. I want to share a few points of that interview for your worthy comments.

I use A for interviewer and B for myself.

After the formal greetings,

A: Introduce yourself.

B. Sir, I have come from Swabiâ¦..

Donât say âI have come fromâ say âI come fromâ

Then I was asked some questions in English Literature and then,

How many moods are there in English Grammar?
Sir, there are three moods in English grammar, Indicative, imperative and subjunctive.

Can we use Model auxiliary with infinite clause.
Yes sir, we can.

How? Give an example.
For example âI will goâ

What is an infinite clause?
A clause, which doesnât show tense.

No. You are wrong.

Ok, tell my in how many ways can we use a subordinate clause?
Well sir, there are different kinds of subordinate clauseâ¦

No, no. Just tell me exactly in how many ways can we use it, like with subject-verb, subject-adverb etc.
Sorry sir.(it was really confusing for me.)

A. Ok, âHe is marriedâ which part of speech is married?

B. Sir, it the past participle form of the verb marry and here it is used as an adjective.

These are some of the point of my interview. Please give some comments. Thanks.

Classifying Sentences

Tumbling — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:56:56 GMT

Will someone please check my homework. If I am doing it wrong will you please correct me and tell me what I am doing wrong before my quiz tomorrow.

Ex 1

Classifying Sentence according to structure

Underline each subordinate clause in the paragraph below. On the line before each sentence classify the sentence by writing simp for simple, comp for compound, cx for complex or cd. -cx for compound-complex

(11) CX Juan Gonzalez plays for the Texas Ranger, in the American

League.

(12) CX When he was only twenty-three years old, he hit his

one-hundredth career home run.

(13) CD. - CX He is proud of his Puerto

Rican heritage and on his Rangers cap, he wears a pin that shows a tiny

Puerto Rican flag

(14) Comp His native language is Spanish, and now he

is learning English, because many American sportswriters keep asking him

for interviews.

(15) Comp He wants to cooperate, but he often turns

down interview request.

(16) Comp He feels that his English is not yet

good enough, and he fears that he will be misunderstood or misquoted.

(17) SIMP The fans who are most important to Juan Gonzalez are

young people.

(18) CX Because he wants to help young people, he

spends a lot of time with children.

(19) SIMP He does this in the United

States and in Puerto Rio.

(20) SIMP He believes that sports stars should be good role models for their young fans.