In Grammar^x, Definite articles^x

1. The use of the indefinite article implies that more than one shop are involved. On second thought, I'm trying to envisage a conversation with "it's a little shop of my own"... Perhaps it could be used even if you have only one. People don't always go by the book (= the...

Hi,Please look at this and tell me if the indefinite article 'a' goes with the third and fourth underlined parts. Is there possible confusion? If yes, how would you resolve it in term of grammar and the sentence structure? Would you say ther article 'a' does not go with any other...

Hi,Please look at this and tell me if the indefinite article 'a' goes with the third and fourth underlined parts. Is there possible confusion? If yes, how would you resolve it in term of grammar and the sentence structure? Would you say ther article 'a' does not go with any other...

I can see no reason why the definite article should be used with youths. We know nothing about these youths and the reference is to no specific group of youths. If we use the before youths, logically it should be used with any plural noun in similar contexts: The cars were parked illegally in...

Hi CB,thanks so much for your reply(i was the one who asked about the differences between verbal nouns and gerunds). i agree that there seems to be discrepancies between one grammarians usage and another's. I certainly like your definition of gerunds, in so far as they are unable to take the...

Hi all!I've been giving English conversation lessons to a theology professor for about a year now. He's getting on in the years - a couple years from retirement - and his primary goal has been just to get his spoken English going a little stronger. His mother tongue is French but he's...

Hi, Here's another quotation of Paracelsus, in which I am troubled by the definite article before "sperma". I certainly wouldn't use it, so can somebody explain why it is needed here? "If the sperma, enclosed in a hermetically sealed glass, is buried in horse manure for...

Good advice for beginners using "existential there".You've got four combinations to disentangle here."existential there" means there exists -- such-and-such "has existence"."locative there" means in that location -- at that place.The two meanings are...

Thanks for coming by, Kooyeen."those are the kinds of books you should avoid reading" ... you know what? I could not agree with you more. You got that right. What a crap. Those books are beginning to evolve around themselves and started making up their own rules. I feel very sorry...

My brief opinion: those are the kinds of books you should avoid reading. Unfortunately, there's a lot of 'em.