By Literature, Gerunds

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...

One of the main problems is the source of English Grammar. English Grammar 'Rules' were based on the written forms of English and basically ignored any reference to Spoken forms used by Native Speakers. There was and it appears still is contempt for the spoken form of English. In fact even the...

Good luck with the fundraising Here's a couple bacteriologists, containerboards, discourageable, rebroadcasting, ribonucleosides, ribonucleotides, subdistrictingantiobscenities, bacteriologies, bacteriologist, biconditionals, containerboard, contrabandists, counterordering, crossbreeding,...

Goodman wrote:5)You had better have seen the doctor earlier. The tone and tense are rather odd. I would say “You had better” does not go with this context. If I guess correctly, do you mean to say” you should have seen the doctor earlier” ?HelloI'm interested in Goodman's discussion that "had...

Hello CJThanks for the reply. Your explanation sounded someway persuasive. But as you know well, and as far as I know, normally a WHIZ deletion can take place only when which-clause's complement is an adjectival phrase (including participles) or adverbial phrase (including prepositional phrases)....

Hi, From "yet", I suppose that Smauel Johnson would prefer the concrete, the natural, and the spontaneous in a work of literature to the abstract, the formal, and the regulated. I wouldn't say he 'prefers' it. I'd say he recognizes that it can have equal importance. But how dose "the concrete,...

Hi everyone! The book “English Grammar In Use. Intermediate Students, Cambridge University Press” tells us: The following verbs are not NORMALLY used in Continues Tenses (using the “ing” form of the verb), although you can form the gerund with them: To like, to love, to hate, to want, to need, to...

1) Do May / Might NOT (like CANNOT) express an interdiction = must not ? ex: ? CJ

We still have to stay with noun forms here, Yoko, either the (bare) infinitive or the gerund (-ing): 1.My mom is always asking me to do lots of jobs around the house, such as (mow) the lawn and (wash) the dishes after dinner. Here I think that the infinitive, as you have used, which reflects...

Dave, First of all, and even when everyone is surely aware of this, I must insist that even when I believe my knowledge of the English grammar is good, I'm not a grammarian or a linguist. It would be completely absurd for me to try and analyse a language that is not even my own in depth when I...