Search results for 'tag:Expressions tag:Before and After' matching tags 'Expressions' and 'Before and After'

Re: until beginning his investigation

CalifJim — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 03:50:21 GMT

Given the structure:
he drew compensation from the team until beginning his investigation in March 2006.

One possible paraphrase is as you have written it:
he drew compensation from the team until the beginning of his investigation in March 2006.

But a better paraphrase is:
he drew compensation from the team until he began his investigation in March 2006.

The reason is that beginning is more of a verb than a noun after until. The subject that is assumed in an until -ing structure is the subject of the main clause that goes with the until clause.

In addition to until, the expressions since, before, and after are also used in this construction.

Marilyn looked through the window before knocking on the door. (... before she knocked ...)
Since learning the bad news, Sally has been very quiet. (Since she learned ...)
After raking the leaves, Don swept the walk. (After he raked ...)

I'm just guessing, but I believe this construction is more used with before and after than with the others.

CJ

Re: wash the hands

Yankee — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 16:23:24 GMT

Vincent Teo wrote:
Can I say,
(a) We must wash our hands before and after eating. OK with 'our' instead of 'the'.
(b)We must wash the hands before or after you eat. NO -- 'the' is incorrect, and to me, neither the use of 'or' nor the use of 'you' is logical.
(c) We must wash the hands before you eat. NO
(d)We must wash hands after / before eating. NO
(e) Before you go to toilet, you must wash hands with soap and water. NO, and even with grammatical corrections, this sentence wouldn't be particularly logical to me. Please also note that we rarely use the expression 'go to the toilet' in such a context. In the US we use expressions such as 'go to the bathroom' and 'use the powder room' instead. I believe the Brits tend to be equally euphemistic.

Re: Do you have to mark it on both sides?

Believer — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:54:17 GMT

Thank you.

I think there are basically two contexts the expressions or phrases mentioned can be used -- as one to provide extra information and the one that is essential to the overall meaning.

As to the former use, if I am not mistaken, I have seen many, many cases where a single comma is placed after the expression or phrase, rather than two commas for before and after them.

Is it because we are becoming lazy? Is it proper punctuation?

... and as the time goes on,

... and as long as it is happening,

.. and however,

... and thus,

... and so,

Re: sex before marriage , I'm not sure (READ THIS)

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:27:11 GMT

Response from a Christian women who has been married to the same man for over 25 years and has a sexually active daughter.

From my own experience sex before marrage can't compare to sex after marriage. Think about all the different flavors of food. There are that many different flavors of sex. Think about all the different songs and melodies. Sex is that varried also. The sexual act with someone you totally trust, who is trying to meet your needs, who knows your body, your timming, your reactions can't be beat. Sometimes it rough and playful and sometimes it's sweet and tender. It can take years to explore the different types of music you can make together. No number of sexual acts before marriage can tell you what sex will be like after marriage. Some couples settle down to a single song other's continue to explore the variaty of music that they can make with there bodies. Even after 20 years of marriage there are times I think WOW another song of love. Because the tune of the act was so totally different then before.

I will be honest, we had sex before marriage, but one of the most important things we did during our courtship was to have a period of 6-8 weeks without sex so we could concentrate on our relationship. Also, if my man can control himself around me who he adors, loves and finds very attractive, why should I ever fear that he can't control himself around others and vice a versa. There will be times during marriage that sex will have to stop for a period. Surgury on either partner. Right before and after the birth of a baby. It would be good to know that your future partner/spouse can controll themselves before you make a marriage bond.

We are called to LOVE. Which is care and concern for the other person. Therefore if either partner is hesitant on this occasion. STOP. Control meeting the needs of the flesh. But don't harbor too much guilt over sharing an expression of love. After all we have an awesome God who forgives all our sins. Its not so much what we do as why we do it.

May God bless all the readers of this message to discern Gods will for them at this time.

The Unicorn Lady

Re: TOEIC question

CalifJim — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:34:13 GMT

The idiom is to have [amount of time] to (do something).
It means that the action described by the final infinitive must be done within the amount of time allotted.

The students had one hour to complete the exam.
We have three months to install the kitchen cabinets.
Martha and Sam have only three days to prepare for the party.

Focus on just the amount of time. The amount of time can be expressed in several additional ways with the help of prepositions like since, until, from, and to. These prepositions are used to show the temporal boundaries of amounts of time, so the amount of time is shown indirectly by mentioning the beginning and/or ending of the time period. (If only one of the two boundaries is mentioned, the other boundary normally defaults to now.)

The students have had since last Thursday to finish the homework. (The amount of time is from last Thursday until now.)
We have until March 17 to make a decision. (The amount of time is from now until March 17.)
Martha and Sam have from Wednesday to the end of the week to buy the ingredients. (The amount of time is from Wednesday to the end of the week.)

The words before and after are used differently. They specify when in time, usually with respect to a point in time as marked by some event. In this way they are similar to expressions like at 6 o'clock. They don't specify how much time either directly (as in one hour) or indirectly through time boundaries (as in until tomorrow).

after the concert says when (with respect to the time of the concert), not how much time.
before sunset says when (with respect to the time of sunset), not how much time.

Consider what is wrong here:

*We have at 6 o'clock to finish the job. (at 6 o'clock is not an amount of time.)
*We have after Tuesday to decide on a plan. (after Tuesday is not an amount of time.)

It is possible, although less usual, to combine the two sets of prepositions.

The men have had since before the end of last week to pave the road.
Sam and Yolanda have until after the 15th to send the invitations.
We will probably have until just before 7:15 to get to the box office and pick up the tickets.
Jack has from slightly after 8 until five minutes before 9 to clean the bedrooms.

I hope this helps.
CJ

Re: Some grammar

odoriko — Sun, 27 Jun 2004 18:28:10 GMT

1) The "has" is required because it shows that it's a present perfect tense, ie. Jones denied using drugs in the past and at present, is still denying it. It's a repetition and continuation of the verb (denied) from the past to the present. If you say "Jones consistently denied", it implies that he only denied it in the past and is no longer denying it.

2) The word "line-up" with a hyphen is a common noun, eg. a line-up of footballers. "Line up" without the hyphen denotes a verb, eg. please line up before the train arrives.

3) "For one" as used in that sentence means "according to her opinion". You're right when you say that it is a more forceful expression.

4) Using commas to seperate "I", "for one", and the rest of the sentence is actually correct, and a more formal way of writing. Another (often unknown) use of commas is before an "and" when 3 objects are being discussed, because it denotes that there's no special relation between what comes before and after the "and". This sounds confusing, so here's an example:

I love apples, bananas, and pears.
I love apples, bananas and pears.

The 1st sentence is correct because there's no special relation between the bananas and pears, just as there's no special relation between the apples and bananas. If you write the 2nd sentence instead, it actually means that you like either apples, or "bananas and pears" together. However, this is more on the formal side, most people won't bother with it, and teachers will probably overlook it.

Please correct me if I made any mistake.

Re: The Punctuation FAQ

corgilan — Sun, 09 May 2004 20:28:42 GMT

Thanks very much for taking the time to post this FAQ!

I am new to this forum and looking for information on the use of the en dash and em dash.

I am a graphic designer and web designer. I am currently taking a course in which the instructor provided the following information about these punctuation marks. However, there was quite a lot of discussion about them and the accuracy of the information supplied. So, I thought I would put them forward here to see if you could provide and validation or corrections.

Thanks in advance for your help.

corgilan

Hyphen (-):
In punctuation, use only for hyphenating words.
There are no spaces before or after the hyphen.

In writing mathematical expressions, use as the subtraction operand.
[Note: I do not know the spacing rules on this when used as the minus sign]

Example Uses:
This is an example of a sen-
tence that contains a hyphen.

En dash (â):
This character is the same width as the capital letter N of the font being used. Use en dash when expressing a range of values, dates, or times. Use one space before and after the en dash character.

Example Uses:
10 â 12 students
May 15, 2004 â June 23, 2004
10:00AM â 11:00AM
[Note that the AM or PM after the time is supposed to be in small caps, but this font doesn't have that readily available so I can't put it in the post that way. Does anyone know if the convention of small caps is outdated or if it supercedes using regular caps?]

Em dash(â):
This character is the same width as the capital letter M of the font being used. Use em dash within a sentence to indicate an abrupt change in thought. There are no spaces before or after the em dash character.

Example Uses:
I am typing a post to this forumâI must go take the dog out now.

I'm not sure if my example is exactly right, but I do have to take the dog out.
(The dog would also like you to know that his emoticon doesn't seem to be working.)