Search results for 'tag:Conversations tag:Nouns' matching tags 'Conversations' and 'Nouns'

Re: "According to me" or "In my Point of view"

Grammar Geek — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:01:14 GMT

The explanation given above is a good one. Did you read it?

To simply express your opinion in everyday conversation, I suggest you do not use "According to me." It's fine for other pronouns and other nouns. According to Mike, according to her, according to the written procedure, but not acording to me.

You can say many other things: I believe, In my opinion, It's my expressed belief that, I contend, etc.

Re: infinitive phrase following the verb "hope"

Grammar Geek — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:12:54 GMT

A phone conversation:
A: I hope...(trails off)
B: What do you hope?
A: I hope to see you soon!

B did not say "How do you hope?" B said "What do you hope?"

It requires an object - it's not an intransitive verb in this case. So the infinitive is a noun phrase, and is the direct object of hope. It is what is hoped for.

Does that make any sense?

A: I saw him trying...
B: What did you see him trying to do?
A: I saw him desperately (how he was trying) trying to open the trunk (what he was trying to do).

Re: Are noun adjunct modifiers accepted in current English usage?

Clive — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:23:43 GMT

Hi,
I will give you an example of the puzzle : at the University of Glasgow (not Glasgow University), you have a Faculty of Physical sciences (not Physical sciences Faculty), a Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences (not Geographical and Earth Sciences Department) I don't see anything wrong with the alternatives in brackets, although obviously they have not been chosen as the official names. If someone at the University used one of the bracketed terms in everyday conversation, I don't think anyone would think that sounded odd.

but a Human Geography Research Group (not a Research Group of Human Geography)... ' Yes, ' . . Group of . . .' does sound awkward. However, '. . . Group for . . ' sounds OK and is not uncommon.

I feel really that such things are just a matter of what is common usage. Some things we say, some things we don't say.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: singular / plural

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:52:44 GMT

This is an example of a grammar issue that is made difficult because frequent usage of the "a lot" construction in informal conversation makes it tricky to say what is correct based on how it "sounds." Whether the nouns are countable/uncountable or singular/plural is beside the point; as they are part of a prepositional phrase, they are really only serving as part of a modifier. "Lot" is the noun to be concerned with.

You wouldn't say, "There were a group of children at the playground." "Group" implies many children, but the noun itself is singular. It *would* be correct to say, "There were several groups of children at the playground," however. The expression "a lot" works similarly.

Adjectives

Believer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:57:28 GMT

Hi,

1.Would you tell me if the steps I applied in writing out adjectives are correct or not?

a stone-accented conversation piece -- I don't know what a "conversation piece" is but I think it is something you sit on or use when having conversation with others.
First, I think 'conversation piece' goes together.
The "stone-accented' needed to be hyphenated since it goes together - meant to be one compound adjective (if that is the right term).
So, overall, the phrase looks to be correct.

I think you can add something like 'thoroughly stained' if you need to, making it:

a thoroughly-stained, stone-accented conversation piece

Normally, I think you wouldn't hyphenate 'thorougly stained' if used in front of a noun but this is a different case:
eg,
a thoroughly stained (conversation) piece

2. Would you use two (or possibly more?? - highly doubtful in its possibility though) adjectives that end in "-al"? How would you rewrite it?

a organizational procedural document

Thank you.

Re: PREPOSITIONS

CalifJim — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:02:35 GMT

Anonymous
I have no photo of him. Just one of his songs I know.

I have no photo of him. I only know one of his songs.

Anonymous
Should what comes after "know of" be a noun or noun equivalent but "know" need not be follow by any noun or noun eqivalent?

Yes. That's the general idea.

I don't know him, but I know of him through a mutual friend.

You can say: I know that I put the keys on the table. But not: *I know of that I put the keys on the table.

Anonymous
He visited soldiers. -- How is it differ from saying "He visited with soldiers."?

visit suggests the trip taken; visit with suggests conversation.

Anonymous
He sat at the table. ... in one of the available chairs

Yes. He sat in one of the chairs that were arranged around the table. That's exactly what He sat at the table means.

Re: article

Feebs11 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:45:48 GMT

Anonymous
Thank you.
You said:

Usually when we introduce a common noun into a conversation for the first time we use the indefinite article, then when we refer back to that item/person/etc. we use the definite.

Does it apply to what seems to be a common noun used a game instruction section like as in "... pick one person to be 'Volcano'"?? What do quotation marks around a common noun mean to you in this type of writing? I wish for the best possible answer.

"Volcano" is presumably the name or title of that player, so it is indicating that this is a name and not an exploding mountain. You would not put an article before it unless there are more than one players with the name/title (as was indicated further onin the passage above),

Re: article

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:32:51 GMT

Thank you.

You said:

Usually when we introduce a common noun into a conversation for the first time we use the infinite article, then when we refer back to that item/person/etc. we use the definite.

Does it apply to what seems to be a common noun used a game instruction section like as in "... pick one person to be 'Volcano'"?? What do quotation marks around a common noun mean to you in this type of writing? I wish for the best possible answer.

Re: article

Huevos — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:34:08 GMT

Usually when we introduce a common noun into a conversation for the first time we use the indefinite article, then when we refer back to that item/person/etc. we use the definite.

There was a man. The man was eating an apple. Although the apple appeared fresh it contained a worm. The worm infected the man with a virus. The virus was poisonous and caused the man to die.

Re: (inversion) What need had he of

Mr Wordy — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:32:57 GMT

CalifJim
Not British either, then? Or not any longer, at least?

These are my perceptions.

"I haven't a" is used in certain expressions such as "I haven't a clue" or "I haven't a care in the world" (probably this is the same in the US?), but it is not natural with arbitrary nouns. For example, almost no one these days would say "I haven't a good pen", "I haven't a car", etc. (It would almost always be "I haven't got a good pen" or "I don't have a good pen".)

"Have you" risks sounding stilted in conversation, and most people would naturally say "Have you got" or "Do you have". In writing it's more widely used, but is getting rarer I would say. For some reason, it seems to work with some nouns but not with others. The specific example you gave -- "Have you a friend?" -- is not at all natural to me, yet "Have you any reason for saying that?" seems much more natural. Possibly it works less well with concrete nouns; I'm not sure.

If you believe Google stats, restricted to ".uk":

"have you a friend": 1,150
"do you have a friend": 48,200

"have you any reason": 169
"do you have any reason": 155

"Has he a friend?" seems about as unlikely to me as "Have you a friend?". The other four sentences that you gave are all very unlikely in modern usage.