In Nouns^x, Dates^x, Adverbs^x

Hi Mad, With this scant context, it could be taken either way. It's pretty confusing. "Friends" is plural. Was she paired with one particular guy? Whom is she talking to? Her date?? "Felt" is past tense, but "is" is present tense. Is she still on the...

The only thing that can come after a preposition to form a prepositional phrase is a noun phrase, usually a noun accompanied by its preceding determiner and perhaps an adjective. A relative clause may be added. The noun itself may be a gerund. If the element after the candidate for a...

Hi, MM. Thanks. Yes, I meant it had been planned by somebody else for a specific date in the near future. Sometime soon --- that's the very phrase I wanted to know. I was thinking of such expressions as "Thanks for yesterday" where a time adverb becomes a noun meaning what happened (happens)...

CalifJim wrote: My thoughts. I don't think it matters whether the combination of verb and particle has a literal meaning or an idiomatic meaning. If it operates as a unit, and the particle is not used as a preposition, then it's a phrasal verb. I know that some definitions insist that some...

1. "Worse" is the comparative of "bad" while "worst" is the superlative. bad-worse-the worst His new movie is worse than his last. Your cooking is getting worse! (compared to before) Among his movies, the newest one is the worst. This is the worst of all! 2. I'm reproducing...

Hello MrP History of English Gerunds (quoted from OED) The most notable development of the verbal nouns in form of -ing is its use as a gerund, i.e. a substantive with certain verbal functions, particularly those of being qualified by an adverb instead of an adjective, and of governing an...

The word ‘dated’ is defined in many dictionaries (e.g., MW, Oxford, Cambridge, American Heritage) as: Main Entry: dat·ed Function: adjective 1 : provided with a date 2 : OUTMODED, OLD-FASHIONED - dat·ed·ly adverb - dat·ed·ness noun Following usage illustrates meaning #2: The...

There have been a number of recent questions concerning when to use hypens. The following is an excerpt from The Economist magazine's style guide. © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2004 Use hyphens for: 1. FRACTIONS (whether nouns or adjectives): two-thirds, four-fifths, one-sixth,...

Hi, this is my first post to the group. I’ve just pasted information from Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage. To be quite frank, I don’t really understand these definitions fully but I hope the information is useful to you. So, regarding the words 1 Than 2 that 1 Than is normally used to...

Oh, by the way, in that "It takes awhile" sentence that would translate to "It takes for a while", which is nonsense. There it should be the noun "a while" that it takes. -- Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/ I speak English well -- I learn it...