Search results for 'tag:Commas tag:English grammar' matching tags 'Commas' and 'English grammar'

wanted hide his money

Abil — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:33:54 GMT

I was reading a website on English grammar. I cameÂ across a sentence which reads:"The old man wanted hide his money, for he feared his children would steal it from him."

MyÂ quesitonÂ is,Â whyÂ thereÂ isÂ noÂ "to"Â afterÂ "wanted"?Â WouldÂ someoneÂ shedÂ someÂ lightÂ onÂ it?
..

Compound Sentences
1. Use a Comma and a Joining Word.
[Joining Words (coordinating conjunctions): For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So]

The teacher lectured for over an hour, and his students slept soundly.
The old man wanted hide his money, for he feared his children would steal it from him.
The student had a test the next day, so she studied all night long.

Pattern: Sentence, joining word sentence.
Subject + Predicate, joining word Subject + Predicate.

2. Use a Semicolon.

The teacher lectured for over an hour; his students slept soundly.
The old man wanted hide his money; he feared his children would steal it from him.
The student studied all night long; she had a test the next day.

Patterns: Sentence ; sentence.
Subject + Predicate ; Subject + Predicate.

ht***tp://w***w.mccd.edu/faculty/pirov/compound.htm

Re: Grammar book

Yoong Liat — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:40:31 GMT

Yes , ( no space needed between comma and Yes) I have to practice more , (no apace needed) I often go to the library. There are many English Grammar books ... but I don't choose what book is suitable for me. (question marks not needed)

Choose the most simple ones first.

Re: Being not interested in...

Peaceblinkfriend — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 07:24:21 GMT

Hi Calif Jim,

Do you mean something like this when you said finite clause? I am still not interested in English grammar so I decided not to burn all of those grammar books I was given.

Also, do I need to add a comma before the word 'so' in that sentence?

Thank you.

Best wishes,

PBF

when - before

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 17:08:14 GMT

In A Practical English Grammar A.J. Thomson and A.V. Martinet say that the past perfect is used after when when we wish to emphasize that the first action was completed before the second one started:

When he had shut the window we opened the door of the cage.

Is it preferred to "When he shut the window we opened the door of the cage"? Any difference in meaning?

When she had sung her song she sat down. ('When she sang her song she sat down' might give the impression that she sang seated.)

Do you agree with this?

He refused to go till he had seen all the pictures.

Before we had walked ten miles he complained of sore throat.

Here the above mentioned writers say that the action in the simple past precedes the action in the past perfect. Actually correct as it might be, this is weird, isn't it? Is this sequence (Conjunction + Past Perfect + Simple past)?

PS: Isn't it necessary to use commas when the conjunction is at the beginning of the sentence? Thanks in advance.

Re: What should I study for these types of questions?

Grammarian-bot — Sun, 06 May 2007 01:12:22 GMT

Jay_zzz0 wrote:
I believe these are GMAT sentence correction questions. I don't think they are trying to test your ability to use commas. Instead, these questions can test you on all aspects of grammar. It all depends on the question writer.

Jeff Sackmann, a GMAT tutor, said in his blog that most questions focus on the following aspects of the English grammar:
Subject/verb agreement
Modifiers
Parallelism
âEffective expressionâ
Idioms

Thanks Jay_zzz0. Actaully I got a great forum to study GMAT. It's soretop.com. Anyone who is planning to give GMAT must not miss scoretop.

ALOHA.

GB

Re: What should I study for these types of questions?

Jay_zzz0 — Sat, 05 May 2007 18:21:37 GMT

I believe these are GMAT sentence correction questions. I don't think they are trying to test your ability to use commas. Instead, these questions can test you on all aspects of grammar. It all depends on the question writer.

Jeff Sackmann, a GMAT tutor, said in his blog that most questions focus on the following aspects of the English grammar:

Subject/verb agreement
Modifiers
Parallelism
âEffective expressionâ
Idioms

Re: comma use in which clauses

CalifJim — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 01:52:43 GMT

are there 'which clauses' that do not need commas around them?

Yes.

I think the first one is bettter than the second

I do too.

it should have been 'that' instead of 'which'

No. It doesn't have to be 'that'.
Many websites have exercises on restrictive 'which'.
Google: English grammar that which restrictive

CJ

Re: "ill" prefix

Selecter — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:57:15 GMT

Marius Hancu wrote:
There's no such thing that explains everything.
You need multiple iterations in the learning process.

This being said, have a look at:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/index.html

http://www.literaturepost.com

Also, buy yourself
Swan, Practical English Usage
or
Murphy, English Grammar

Thanks, I will look at those websites.

Murphy, English Grammar in Use With Answers? It's very easy for me. Advanced grammar in use by Hewings is relatively easy too. Was it published for foreign students? I want to study something destined for native students. The punctiation and everything...

Update
I'm reading about commas now. Yummy :-) My greedy grammar brain is so hungry for new stuff! http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas_big.htm

English influence on other languages

Cool Breeze — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 21:56:36 GMT

Hi all

It would be interesting to hear from nonnative speakers of English in particular what influence English exerts on other languages nowadays. What English words and expressions are used in your language? Does English grammar or syntax have an influence on your native language? Where is this influence seen or heard? Books? Journalese? Advertising? Conversation?

Are Anglicisms frowned upon in your language or generally accepted? Of course I welcome replies from native speakers as well, anything you think worth mentioning.

English and Finnish are not related and thus the idea of English grammar exercising an influence on Finnish grammar is all but inconceivable. In advertising, some English expressions are commonly used, for example happy hour is often seen in bars and pubs and some people use it even when they speak Finnish.

CafÃ© is the word often seen outside coffee houses or cafeterias, but no one uses the word when they speak Finnish. Finnish is a highly inflected language and cafÃ© just doesn't lend itself easily to our inflection patterns, which may be the reason people never use the word in conversation.

Some yongsters have adopted the non-Finnish way to read decimals: two point five. I don't mean they say it in English, they just use the Finnish word for point, which is incorrect in Finnish. We don't have a decimal point, we have a decimal comma (2,5). Pocket calculators and computer programmes are probably chiefly to blame for this phenomenon.

There is at least one Finnish Eurosport tennis commentator who uses the English word order when he says thirty all. In Finnish the numeral should come last.

If I realise I have forgotten something important, I'll write another post later. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to your contributions.
Thank you.

CB

General English Grammar Questions

Azkoolchik — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:51:35 GMT

What's a clause? I am not understanding what an independent clause is when using a comma or semicolon? How do I know wether to use a comma or semicolon? Please give example.

<Edited: The word is grammar. Also, it would REALLY help us, as Francesca has already pointed out in another post, if you would use the subject line to give an idea of what the subject is. In this case, for example, you could have called it "Help with clauses" or something like that.