By Constructions, Noun phrases

Hi, everyone. I'm wondering if I've understood the concept of 'grammatical subject' in the it-construction correctly and would be grateful for help. For example, in a sentence like, "It lay a dog on the bed" which clearly isn't right - would you call this an attempt...

Thanks everyone. Now I understand that in the "There be" construction, the BE and other verbs that take the place of BE are the main verbs, and the nouns following them agree with them. Originally I thought "going to do" can be followed by either plural nouns or singular nouns because "do"...

Hi, What should I do to use the noun phrases like a "goblin cake" where the noun "goblin" modifies "cake" correctly as a compound noun? What should I look for to decide how much or what is allowed in terms of the correctness of this type of compound noun? I see some unusual constructions but...

I always favored the second construction, but the first construction is also looked to be correct. Is the first one correct in that 'enhancing speaking ability' is a noun phrase? Then, what is to in the first sentence? 1. More attention will be paid to enhancing speaking ability per se...

All of your examples are gerunds if we stick to modern terminology. Forget about the terminology verbal noun. It's total garbage! It has many different definitions, depending on the author and when the grammar book was written. _____________ The modern definition is given at...

When an adverb is used to modify the whole sentence, as in "Fortunately, we’re all okay," it’s used absolutely. Fortunately modifies the whole sentence. It's equivalent to say "It’s fortunate that we’re all okay." ++++++ The question to ask is what does the infinitive modify? Does it modify...

"33.6 Though the relative and interrogative pronouns and adverbs beginning with wh are identical in form, it is possible in most cases to tell whether a clause is relative or interrogative. What is relative in 'I insist on paying what it has cost,' but interrogative in 'I insist on knowing...

Peaceblinkfriend wrote:I am sorry but I don't really understand what you meant by 'Sometimes this type of construction is necessary as no verb exists but if one does I would use it'. Could you explain it, please? For example, in the following sentence, "When I was doing mitochondrial research...

Please tell me if my reasoning regarding the following sentences is correct and/or add your explanation. 1. When parents have poor listening habits, their children usually do. -- As a common sense, it would seem better with 'do' than with 'have' but cannot explain why. Why 'do' is better? 2. I...

Hi, From my angle, the context of this sentence can take ultimately either one of the 3, however each has a different degrees of obsession. The following sentences have different construction and contexts, which dictate which one to use and each has slightly different meanings. 1) ...