TrysB, That is very helpful. Thank you very much. I see that you're a writer/editor for a scientific journal. Do you mind if I direct future questions to you? I'm currently editing a 145-page Microbiology laboratory manual. I sometimes

Hi Matt, I think the and in your sentences is unnecessary because the consequences of the first part of the sentence that are expressed in the second part are linked by therefore . As in: A is true, therefore B is true. Try saying it aloud this

Where does the punctuation go in this sentence? "The oil has almost the same index of refraction as glass and therefore little light will be lost when passing from air above the specimen to the objective lens." Is it: "The oil

Hi, You can't say 'the last time I saw my sister' after a semi-colon, because it is not an independent clause, ie it can't stand alone. Clive

Greetings, Petra, both could and may have a possibility meaning, but it is better to contrast may with can , since could in this meaning is seen only as a past form of can: We can hope for a good performance tonight. Her performance was the best

Could you please take a look at this for me? 1 I'm not so close to her as to be able to ask her for money. (is the SO AS TO form only used with an non assertive clause?) 2 Can you see until what time we're open? 3 When I don't

"My father would love to have seen this." Most grammarians believe that the correct form is My father would have loved to see this . It's a conditional with an implied if clause: if he were here to see it. Nevertheless all three

Agatha, In my grammarbook it is said that every verb-phrase consisting of several verbs, the first will always be finite and the rest non-finite. - When I was a schoolboy, I once noticed that my English teacher made a mistake on the blackboard:

Debpriya, How to express the same feeling in the written words that is heard in tone of voice when speaking is one of the great challenges for a writer. It borders on poetry--the sound of the words in your mind and their cadence in the sentence

Dear friend, 1. We got a good look at the most extraordinary thing about the animal. Its foreclaws were nearly as long as my fingers. - correct; two independent clauses. We got a good look at the most extraordinary thing about