In Noun phrases^x, Constructions^x, Verbs^x

Goodman, your sentences are active voice. Their construction is: subject + linking verb (to be), + a noun phrase (predicate nominative) . The passive voice, on the other hand, is formed thus: subject + verb to be + past participle of the lexical verb .

When looking up tricky constructions or words, one can often go to the dictionary to view its proper usage. For example, www.dictionary.com shows this definition and usage note for nor: 1. (used in negative phrases, esp. after neither, to introduce the second member in a series, or any subsequent...

I think it would be useful for students to understand how these constructions relate to simpler sentence patterns, but I haven't found a rationale for classifying them. As I said, other substitutions imply that my last examples are predicate adjectives, e.g. "He seems to be the...

Thanks everyone. Now I understand that in the "There be" construction, the BE and other verbs that take the place of BE are the main verbs, and the nouns following them agree with them. Originally I thought "going to do" can be followed by either plural nouns or singular nouns because "do"...

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 ...

When an adverb is used to modify the whole sentence, as in " Fortunately , we’re all okay," it’s used absolutely. Fortunately modifies the whole sentence. It's equivalent to say " It’s fortunate that we’re all okay ." ++++++ The question to ask is what does the infinitive modify? Does it...

"33.6 Though the relative and interrogative pronouns and adverbs beginning with wh are identical in form, it is possible in most cases to tell whether a clause is relative or interrogative. What is relative in 'I insist on paying what it has cost,' but interrogative in 'I insist on knowing...

Peaceblinkfriend wrote: I am sorry but I don't really understand what you meant by 'Sometimes this type of construction is necessary as no verb exists but if one does I would use it' . Could you explain it, please? For example, in the following sentence, " When I was doing mitochondrial...

Thanks for your replies! I can see this is an area of debate. Well, now I understand that appositives aren't necessarily nouns or noun phrases. The adjective appositive seems to make sense, but I think the so-called "adverb appositive" is an incorrect term. After all, an appositive renames or...

"I've come across the term "adjective appositive" and "adverb appositive" a few times, and I'm just wondering if this is widely-used. Is it an incorrect description of a construction that should be called something else? I'm asking this because I always see appositives defined as nouns (or noun...