By Negatives, Nouns

Re: Anton's 7-letter word

Is it a concrete noun? If yes, is it naturally occurring, or man-made? If no, does it have overall positive or negative associations?

Re: Barb's 10-letter word

Wow, the questions are getting very precise early in the game now. It is an abstract noun with negative associations. It's not a profession, but your profession can cause it!

Re: feelings for or toward

<<>>Can I switch the pronoun like this, from I to you and back to I? Perosnally,no, not if I cna avoid it.I strongly believe context is everything. If the context is unclear or incorrectly constructed, all bets are off. I would say it like this: I had so much anger and hatred...

Re: Problem with There's, there aren't + some/any

Thank you for your answer. So, If I want to say that are chairs in here, What must I use? There are chairs in here. (I think this is wrong) There are some chairs in here. (I think this is the great sentence) With gold: There's some gold in that mine. (I think this is the great...

Re: no and not

"Not" is used with a verb to make it negative, usually with the helping verb "do." "No" may answer a question, or it may be used with a noun to indicate a zero quantity. She is pretty. She is not pretty. I like her. I do not like her. You can pet the animals. ...

Re: Differences between English and your native language

Hi CB,I wouldn't know where to start! English grammar is pretty different from Italian grammar. However, there are a lot of similar words (one example: government - governo), and several similar structures and idioms. The problem is that there are also several false friends, and lots of...

Re: active

Re: adjective or part of a passive

Yes. I think I understand what you are getting at -- although for non-native speakers some of the guidelines may appear to be circular in nature. According to Palmer (The English Verb), besides the plain vanilla 'passive' with an agent introduced by by (The man was killed by his...

Re: more big

Hi JimI don't know whether LiJ actually intended to ask only whether "more big" is OK. What LiJ actually did ask about, however, was whether a sentence with the wording no+more+one-syllable adjective+than was OK. In other words, LiJ asked specifically about a negative structure...

Re: not / neither / nor

Hi Tanit, sorry for the delay. I haven't been blessed by an inspiration. It looks like Swan is speaking of the deliberate, intentional use of not/nor to emphasize the second noun. I agree that when using "or" the first noun strongly predominates and the second simply trails in...