In Nouns^x, Conversations^x, Grammar^x

I have always heard in conversation - that must be him / her on the phone. Of course we say:He is on the phone now. Grammatically, "that must be him" it is not strictly correct, since the case of a pronoun after "be" is nominative. However, in this case (must be ***), we...

This is an example of a grammar issue that is made difficult because frequent usage of the "a lot" construction in informal conversation makes it tricky to say what is correct based on how it "sounds." Whether the nouns are countable/uncountable or singular/plural is beside...

. Hello Mathew, and welcome to English Forums. The 2 pronunciations of 'the ' are not grammar rules, but physical effects of the smooth flow of sounds between words-- they are more like laws of physics. Native speakers (lucky us!) do not have to affirm pronunciations-- we just talk...

I know that this repeats much of what was said above by others, but with complex topics sometimes just reading the same information with many different phrasings helps a little. I bought it at Target. Here Target refers to the entire company, regardless of which particular store the purchase...

English really needs another pronoun for cases like this! Traditionally, if the gender was unknown, the masculine pronoun would be used. In a grammar book from 50 years ago, your examples would most certainly use "his." Today this would still be considered grammatically correct, but...

Hi Avangi, If I understood correctly your comments, the "not ... nor" structure makes sense only in two circumstances: (1) unintentional usage: if the speaker changes his/her mind in the middle of the sentence, or (2) intentional usage: a rhetorical device. May I infer that type (1)...

Hi, Here some extracts from conversation (about baseball) I'd like you to help me understand: "...And now that Roger Clemens, who is to pitching in this era what Bonds has been to hitting ." - could you explain in terms of grammar why gerund is used? For the same reason that we say...

«I think I have the advantage of being a native speaker!» Indeed. If you say a phrase is wrong then it's wrong and vice versa. And thanks for sharing your knowledge! «Maybe you feel a difference on the basis of whether the completing phrase is a subject or an object of the...

Kooyeen wrote: Hi, I don't think grammar in writing is different from grammar in speech at all. You can write the way you speak and speak the way you write. So... what is that QCA really doing? Nothing, I guess. Playing cards instead of working, LOL. I agree in some part,...

New2grammar wrote: I check my email every few hours. => The reason for the singular 'email' is because it is refering to email system instead of each individual email, isn't it? Would you say "He smsed me yesterday" or simply "He sms me yesterday"? This might be correct in...