By Clauses, helping verbs

#1 John who took my pen is here. #2 John who is wearing my jacket is here. How firm a grasp would you like to obtain? (I know I shouldn't have written that, but I couldn't resist.) The thing that works for me is to take out the the subject and the "verb" and see if it still...

A finite clause has a finite verb (the normal kind of verb in past, present, future, etc, which we use to make complete sentences).A nonfinite clause has a nonfinite verb: that is, (1) just a participle (-ed, -ing) without a helping verb; (2) just an infinitive ( to + verb); or (3) no verb.

What is the word sucks in "Homework sucks"? Is it a verb or an adjective? If it is a verb, what does homework suck?This brings up an excellent point, and a wonderful opportunity to discover the beautiful syntactic structure of the English language. The question at hand is "Does an English verb...

Hi, "Before long they found the path; it was hidden in the underbrush." The key says that "was hidden" in the second clause is a helping verb and a main verb. It seems to me that "was" is a linking verb, and in this context "hidden" is an adjective describing "it." Well, I understand your...

My 6th grade text has this sentence:"Before long they found the path; it was hidden in the underbrush." The key says that "was hidden" in the second clause is a helping verb and a main verb. It seems to me that "was" is a linking verb, and in this context "hidden" is an adjective describing...

In former times, questions were built by a so called 'inversion', that means Subject and Verb of the actual sentence changed positions: Examples: You like tea. -----> Question: Like you tea? He likes tea. -----> Question: Likes he tea? This was possible as word order did not loom very large,...

The problem here is the word order: In a usual sentence (main clause or subordinate clause), the word order is Subject-Predicate-Object (O): "He told me where you are." Even in an interrogative clauses, this word order remains: "Can you(S) tell(V) me where you are?". (Can here is an auxiliary...

Hi Roy, thanks for joining us! Of course, this sentences have different meanings - but nevertheless the 2nd one is inversed. (Subject and verb change positions). Actually it's a poor example to show what I was actually referring to. Just take the examples I mentioned above: 1) "Had you a good...