By Commas, Idioms

"hearts and minds" is a very popular fixed idiom these days re discussions of strategy in Iraq, and uses plurals in that case. Darcy's example implies that the American people may have a common soul, assuming the singular was used deliberately. The plurals of all three would refer...

Hello Eimai_Anglos!Why should it be in that way? Do idioms have to go in inverted commas?Thanks in advance!

No, never. It is an idiom; you do not want to modify it. If you say that way, it sounds arkward. BTW, I suppose you want to use it to replace "put it another way" Spectacled-Girl wrote: Mister Micawber wrote:'It' is not missing; inserting 'it' creates a comma splice error. We are looking at...

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...

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...

Kooyeen wrote:Thanks for your relplies, guys.Actually, as Francesca said, it's not very common in Italy, but it can be common in certain regions, areas, situations, sometimes very common, so you can find some people who insert some "fixed" blasphemy in their sentences, like commas or common...

Thanks for your relplies, guys.Actually, as Francesca said, it's not very common in Italy, but it can be common in certain regions, areas, situations, sometimes very common, so you can find some people who insert some "fixed" blasphemy in their sentences, like commas or common interjections. I...

Vincent Teo wrote: (a) HIs garden has full of orchids. His garden is full of orchids. (Lucky man!) (b) He is very cheerful. okay He is a cheerful boy. okay (c) He is happy, because he got full A's in his results. ( should I put comma after "because"?) Yes. I don't know about "in his...

And if I may hijack our thread back for just a moment--I said: In a more formal situation, I would insert the words 'what with' after the comma, perhaps.And my friend Calif Jim said: "what with" strikes me as hillbilly talk.And since I can't reach him to punch him in the nose for implying that I...

Inchoateknowledge wrote: something is in the making is a quite frequently used idiom: if someone is an athlete, star, writer, etc. in the making, they are likely to develop into that thing This young swimmer is an athlete in the making. (Cambridge dic) "an economic catastrophe in the...