Search results for 'tag:Jokes tag:Verbs' matching tags 'Jokes' and 'Verbs'

Re: "His hair is probably sucking up the nutrients which would otherwise be going to his brain."

Peaceblinkfriend — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:09:11 GMT

Thanks for your reply Mister Micawber.

I was just wondering since both verb forms are okay, do you reckon the '-ing' form (be going to his brain) would create a greater sense of action? Or it wouldn't make a difference.

I'm glad you found my joke funny ; ) I actually got the idea for this joke just today when something reminded my of a news report on North Koreans being advised to wear their hair in a certain way with reasons including the one in my joke. I guess it was most likely the absurdity of this justification and debasment on the individual's rights that made me able to recall it after such a long time. The internet told me this was made news around the beginning of 2005. Here is a link to a report run by the BBC on this event if you are interested.Â N Korea wages war on long hair

I have not yet thought up of an appropriate situation to share this though. It would just be too hurtful if I was not able to make it sound like a joke.Â

PBFÂ

Re: the reason

Tanit — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:46:57 GMT

Buddhist-Accountant
the answer is B " Happened"

But,I wonder why that is the answer.I think it should be use "was happened" because it is passive..

Hi,

Why do you think it should be passive? Only transitive verbs (i.e. those that need to be followed by direct objects, without any preposition) have passive forms, and "happen" is intransitive.

To put it simply (and only as a rough guideline):
    Write => transitive verb:
        Active: My friend John wrote a letter.
        Passive: A letter was written by John.
    Laugh => intransitive verb:
        Active: Yesterday, I laughed at my friend's joke.
        No passive (we cannot say "~~My friend's joke was laughed~~")

Happen => intransitive verb:
        Active: Yesterday, something weird happened to me.
        No passive (we cannot say "~~I was happened something weird~~")

Does this help?

Re: Noun number and determiner

Goodman — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:20:43 GMT

Hi KVE,
Welcome!
<<<<Variations in noun number and determiners:
. - If he is a pianist or a singer, yes, you can say. "he performed [for ] many charities [last year]". Note the brackets.
. "Perform" is a verb with broad meaning. He performed poorly on the project= He didn't show his best ability on the project.But your sentence also carries a hint that he could be involved with charity work.

She loves to pull your legs.- This is ok. This means she loves to do practical jokes on you, or kid around with you.

Re: peanut butter

CalifJim — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:09:03 GMT

Hee, hee. It was a joke!

What do you call the action ...?

I call it crude!

I call it a crude action!

www.m-w.com: crude: marked by the primitive, gross, or elemental or by uncultivated simplicity or vulgarity

PS. I don't know of a verb that covers such a specific gesture.

Re: MM's 10-letter word

Mister Micawber — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:34:26 GMT

.
pejoration -- No. What happened to pluperfect?
Is it ... an adjective? a noun? a verb? -- A noun

Would you say it's related to ... grammar? vocabulary? pronunciation?-- Pronunciation.

I'm not going to be very coy with this one, because I don't think it's in anyone's active vocabulary. I just happened to think of it because it's related to Spoonerisms... and I had to look it up to check the spelling. It is a phenomenon which produced this mouldy old joke:

A Latino named Jose went to America to see the Yankees vs. the Red Socks. When he got his ticket, it was in the nosebleed section. He did not care what section he was in. Anyway, it was game day. Everyone stood for the National Anthem. When Jose got home, he said, "Mama, they made a song in America just for me." -- "How does it go, hijo?" -- "It goes, 'Jose, can you see?'

Re: I thought a spider is/was an insect

CalifJim — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:30:44 GMT

Pter
And universal falsehood. What a phrase! This is important because we are not talking about something that is always true. As a result, we can only use the past tense in sentences starting with "I thought it was". The "was" is not the result of backshifting. It is used instead to indicate that the believe was hold true in the past but is now found to be false.

My apologies for introducing a joke! The "universal falsehood" reference is a complete joke! It doesn't matter whether what is reported is universally true or unversally false. What's important is that in the speaker's mind it is universally (or eternally, if you wish) true. In that way, in the right context, you can even have the reported speech: The scientist said that the earth is flat.

Consequently, the "was" truly IS the result of backshifting after "thought". It has nothing to do with beliefs considered true in the past but false in the present. You can banish all such logic from your mind. You came to believe some of these things because I put you off the track with my joke.

I don't know which sample sentences you are referring to, but after thought, knew, hoped, believed, and felt, you always need a past tense.

____

I didn't notice that it was not reported speech. (natural, normal)

I didn't notice that it's not reported speech. (also possible, less used)

You may find that each main clause verb has its own idiosyncracies with regard to backshifting. notice acts a little like a reporting verb. What you noticed may still be quite noticeable to your listener, and you may want to emphasize this fact. Nevertheless, keep this is mind: Backshifting is never wrong.

____

OK. I went back and found these. I think these are the samples you were referring to. The first choices shown are the ones that came to my mind first. It's not really more complicated than that. The second choice is also perfectly grammatical except as noted in the second sentence, where backshifting is required.

My professor said that spiders are (were also possible) insects! I didn't think they were (are not possible). I think he is (was also possible) wrong.

Re: Regularising the irregular

Kooyeen — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:11:04 GMT

LOL, I see MrP had trouble understanding the new standard spelling
In fact, that was a joke... It is pretty difficult to read, because no one is used to that kind of spelling. This pretty much demonstrate that not even such a change would be possible in practice. You could teach children that way, but what would adults do? It wouldn't be possible in practice, if you wanted to try. So English will remain this way... and maybe in 1000 years it won't have anything to do with the way it's written!

@Jim: Well, I was referring to English verbs... Italian verbs? Yeah, you have to learn how to conjugate them all, so it's a pain in the neck. Thank God I learned it naturally, because it seems so complex to me that I don't think I would be able to learn how to speak Italian as a foreign language.

Re: Past perfect passive

Philip — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:25:16 GMT

The verb form is correct. Some might word it, "had been given women's names" -- your structure could imply a specific woman in mind for each hurricane.
(The old joke was that this is the reason the word isn't "himmicanes" .)

Re: On to vs. onto

CalifJim — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:58:24 GMT

You've got a phrasal verb pass on here, and the particle at the end of a phrasal verb can't be combined with another word, so you can't use onto. on to is what you need.

Compare:

Pass your papers in to the teacher. (to pass in)

It took a while, but Charlie finally caught on to the joke. (to catch on)

Here's the news of the day. Pass it on to the others. (to pass on)

The teacher couldn't get the students turned on to poetry. (to turn on)

After a hectic day, they settled in to a good night's sleep. (to settle in)

Re: Which answer should you choose?

Avangi — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 03:56:25 GMT

I say the answer is a).

Due to is correctly used following verbs of being.

My laughter is due to the jokes he's been telling.

I laugh / am laughing because of the jokes he's been telling. (action verb)

[At least that's the way it was when I was in school.]