Search results for 'tag:Paragraphs tag:English grammar' matching tags 'Paragraphs' and 'English grammar'

Re: whats wrong with this paragraph???

bernice.farrugia — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:43:31 GMT

(1) We only played one ... and it was four years ago. - You need to use the PAST SIMPLE here because you're talking about something which happened 4 years ago.

(2) ...between his wife and the girls' coach... - you need the apostrophe after 'girls' because it's a possessive

(3) ...he packed his and his wife's bags... - same thing 's for possessive

Bernice

Re: please help for checking any grammer mistakes.Thanks

bernice.farrugia — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:17:39 GMT

Below is the real-life story ofmy classmate, Susan who used to be my best friend. She always used to hand in her homework on time. Everyone thought she was a good student but unfortunately this stopped being a fact 2 years ago.

One day, I saw Susan walking with her friends on the opposite side of the street, so I walked up to her. One of her friends took out a packet of cigarettes and asked us whether we wanted. I told him I didnât smoke. Then he gave a cigarette to Susan and told her to try smoking. Susan didnât refuse at that time, instead she asked him if he had a light. I was really shocked. She started smoking due to peer pressure and in no time she became addicted to it. Susanâs health took a turn for the worse when she started smoking. On one occasion we ran together during a P.E. lesson and I discovered that she ran slower than she used to in the past. Furthermore, she got sick with influenza easier. I also observed that she was looking tired all the time and that she couldnât concentrate on what the teachers said during the lessons. As a result of this she produced work of a much lower leven and therefore, teachers did not trust her as much as they used to do before. Her classmates kept their distance to avoid passive smoking. Her parents and I encouraged her to stop smoking, but she didnât take any notice of our advice. The father of the guy who gave Susan her first cigarette quit smoking last month because of some serious disease, and consequently the guy himself quit too. He told Susan not to smoke anymore, and she thought about it seriously. A few days later there was a talk about the damage caused by smoking at school, and Susan discovered that she was in danger. So she decided to quit smoking.

Dear Sweet_love take a look at the following corrections above and keep in mind that when writing an essay you need to have some sort of structure - the most basic form being INTRODUCTION; BODY; CONCLUSION. This means that you need to have at least 3 paragraphs in your essay.

Hope you find this information useful

Bernice

Re: ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND WRITING HELP

Robert1 — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:23:55 GMT

Hi Thanks for your advise and I need someone to correct my sentences and paragraph. This way I can improve my writing skill.

Please help me.

Please correct the following sentence.

I registered ofr the class on Sept 20 & 25, subsequently I cancelled the Sept 20 and attended the course on Sept 25.

Thanks.

Re: ...you use to improve your already very good English?...

Feebs11 — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:45:01 GMT

Jackson6612 wrote:
Please make corrections/edits to the following paragraph:

Thanks for the information. Well, thank you for considering me an advanced learner. May I know what other books, books ~~for~~ on/about English usage and English grammar etc., you use to improve your already very good English?

...you use to improve your already very good English?...

Jackson6612 — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:51:10 GMT

Please make corrections/edits to the following paragraph:

Thanks for the information. Well, thank you for considering me an advanced learner. May I know what other books, books for English usage and English grammar etc., you use to improve your already very good English?

Re: Could anonimity be useful?

Anonymous — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:45:34 GMT

Hi, everybody!

Maybe I should have started with "well," but I can ensure you that I'm the original poster, while this guy

Anonymous wrote:

Well, I have a half-finished game of noughts and crosses tattooed on my forehead. If you do too, then I guess...

is not (but I found his/her post amusing! )

First, I'd like to thank those who have really answered my question. The topic was not "Guess who I am" but to what extent anomimity in answering questions can be useful both to the questioner (will s/he tend to rely less on the answer?) and to the community (could it avoid useless quarrels?).

Pucca wrote:

And going back to the topic..an anonimous post would be helpful if you want to ask something but you don't want others to see who is asking so.

Let me disagree with you. If the community can se who is asking a certain question, the answer will probably be better tailored to specific needs and interests. For instance, if Kooyeen (by the way, sorry for misspelling your nick! ) posts a question about present perfect, he will probably receive more answers related to AmE than I would, because everybody knows that "he's learning American English"!

My point was exactly the opposite: while anonimity is NEVER useful in asking, it could be in answering.

Kooyeen wrote:
Ok, point no.1: my English is not good at all, I'm learning and I ask questions, but I also try to answer to other posts. I do it mainly because I think it helps me try to express myself. Plus, answering questions, I can share what I know, and in that way if I have learned something wrong, I can easily get corrected. And trying to answer questions I often end up asking, instead.

This is a very good point.

Kooyeen wrote:
Point no.3: as I already said in some thread, I always and only rely on native speakers. I don't even trust proficient members or advanced learners. Only natives. This doesn't mean I don't want their opinions or that I think their English is not good. I just think that in every thread, in order to be considered "resolved", there have to be some native's replies. This comes from the way I see grammar, that in my opinion should only be "descriptive".

I completely agree. I've studied English grammar extensively, and although I still make too many mistakes, I'm not concerned about them. Whenever I have a doubt on grammar and vocabulary, I always search by myself.

What I really, really lack is the feeling for what would be the natural way to express a complex idea, and this is whay I prefer receiving answers from natives. I don't want to resemble one of those dusty, ancient grammar books you can find in a library!

Pucca wrote:
I have another suggestion about that person! I clicked on "not readed", and saw a name which was pretty similar, I started to read his posts and..Bingo! I thnk it's him! He posted a paragraph and Philip didn't find any mistakes..so, in conclusion, that Anon wasn't you either MrP!

Sorry, but I think you're barking up the wrong tree!

Re: Having trouble grasping the proper use of tenses

DiG — Sun, 13 May 2007 12:12:43 GMT

<- O.P.

Ah, thank you very much Clive. Your answer does clear things up somewhat. With that new light shed on the subject, I think the other problems I was having are less grammatical errors, and more just an issue with my naive logic attacking my... questionable skill with English grammar. Hehe.

In case you are interested, one of the other problems I was having: Lets say I substituted "Now" for "This" or "Then" for "That" in the original sample; thus, "Now it was Brenda's turn to laugh," and "Then it was Brenda's turn to laugh." Using "Now" with "was" throws up red flags for me, but I think I understand now that its not necessarily a grammatical error, just my misunderstanding.

I really appreciate your help on this matter and everyone's help in general. I have spent a few hours now just browsing through others' questions and answers. This really is an amazing resource. I have learned so much already. Hopefully at some point I can contribute something too. Thanks again.

P.S. Do you happen to know, when writing in English (fiction), is it acceptable to bounce between tenses for different sentences? paragraphs? chapters?

all the general forms of English tenses >> pleas help me.

Voltaire101 — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 11:05:10 GMT

hello all

I will put (write) here all the general forms of the English grammar tenses as I know (understand ) it, I want you to chek it and correct me. Sometimes there is no form (just a speace), I want you to write the general form of the kind of the tense that is detected.

I'm so sorry If my grammar or idea not clear for you in the last paragraph; I hope the idea is received.

In English grammar there are 12 tenses consists of (present,past and future)
each on of them consists of 4 parts
1- simple.
2- continuous.
3- perfect.
4- perfect continuous.

add to that 4 parts of the future :

1- future simple in the past or present conditional.
2- continuous future in the past or present continuous conditional.
3- perfect future in the past or past conditional.
4- perfect continuous in the past or past continuous conditonal.
.........

I will put the general forms , pleas check it.

these are the shorten words that I used in the forms:

this color is for He, She, It.

this color is for I, You, We, They.

without any clor for all pronouns : He, She, It, I, You, We, They.

v~s = verb end by ''s'' like "He writes to them".

v~ing = verb end by "ing" like "He is writting to them".

v(P.P) = verp in past participle.

v(base) = verb in base case.

------------------------------------------------------------

1- Present simple:
Affirmative
subject + v(~s/base) + object. (active voice)
object + (is/are) + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject + (does/do) + not + v(base) + object. (active voice)
object + (is/are) + not + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Interrogative
(does/do) + subject + v(base) + object ? (active voice)
(is/are) + object + v(P.P) + by subject ? (passive voice)

2- Present continuous:
Affirmative
subject + (is/are) + v~ing + object. (active voice)
object + (is/are) + being + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject (is/are) + not + v~ing + object. (active voice)
object + (is/are) + not + being + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice

Interrogative
(is/are) + subject + v~ing + object ? (active voice)
(is/are)+ object being + v(P.P) + by subject ? (passive voice)

3- Present perfect:
Affirmative
subject + (has/have) + v(P.P) + object. (active voice)
object + (has/have) + been + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject + (has/have) + not + v(P.P) + object. (active voice)
object + (has/have) + not + been + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Interrogative
(has/have) + subject + v(P.P) + object ? (active voice)
(has/have) + object + been + v(P.P) + by subject ? (passive voice)

4- Present perfect continuous:
Affirmative
subject + (has/have) + been + v~ing + object. (active voice)
### ..............I don't konw, pleas write it ................### . (passive voice)

Negative
subject + (has/have) + not + been + v~ing + object. (active voice)
### .............I don't konw, pleas write it ................### . (passive voice)

Interrogative
(has/have) + subject + been + v~ing + object ? (active voice)
### .............I don't konw, pleas write it ...............### ? (passive voice)

5- Past simple:
Affirmative
subject + v(p) + object. (active voice)
object + (was/were) + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject + did + not + v(base) + object. (active vice)
object + (was/were) + not + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Interrogative
did + subject + v(base) + object ? (active voice)
(was/were) + object + v(P.P) + by subject ? (passive voice)

6- Past continuous:
Affrmative
subject (was/were) + v~ing +object. (active voice)
object + (was/were) + being + v(P.P) +by subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject + (was/were) + not + v~ing + object. (active voice)
object + (was/were) + not + being + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Interrogative
(was/were) + subject +v~ing + object ? (active voice)
(was/were) + object + being + v(P.P) by subject ? (passive voice)

7- Past perfect:
Affirmative
subject + had + v(P.P) + object. (active voice)
object + had + been + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject + had + not + v(P.P) + object. (active voice)
object + had + not + been + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Interrogative
had + subject + v(P.P) + object ? (active voice)
had + object + been + v(P.P) ? (passive voice)

8- Past perfect cotinuous:
Affirmative
subject + had + been + v~ing +object. (active voice)
### .............I don't konw, pleas write it ...............### ? (passive voice)

Negative
suject + had + not + been + v~ing + object. (active voice)
### .............I don't konw, pleas write it ...............### ? (passive voice)

Interrogative
had + subject + been + v~ing + object. (active voice)
### .............I don't konw, pleas write it ...............### ? (passive voice)

9- Future simple:
Affirmative
subject + will + v(base) + object. (active voice)
object + will + be + v(P.P) + by + subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject + will + not + v(base) + object. (active voice)
object +will + not + be + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Interrogative
will + suject + v(base) + object ? (active voice)
will + object + be + v(P.P) + by subject ? (passive voice)

10- Future continuous:
Affirmative
subjec + will + be + v~ing + object. (active voice)
object + will + be + being + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject + will + not + be + v~ing + object. (active voice)
object + will + not + be + being + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Interrogative
will + subject + be + v~ing + object ?(active voice)
will + object + be + being + v(P.P) + by subject ? (passive voice)

11- Future perfect:
Affirmative
subject + will + have + v(P.P) + object. (active voice)
object + will + be + have + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject + will + not + have + v(P.P) + object. (active voice)
object + will + not + be + have + v(P.P) + by suject. (passive voice)

Interrogative
will + sbject + have + v(P.P) + object ? (active voice)
will + object + be+ have + v(P.P) + by subject ? (passive voice)

12- Future perfect continuous
Affirmative
subject + will + have + been + v~ing + object. (active voice)
object + will + have + been + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Negative
subject + will + not + have + been + v~ing + object. (active voice)
object + will + not + have + been + v(P.P) + by subject. (passive voice)

Interrogative
will + subject + have + been + v~ing + object ? (active voice)
will + object + have + been + v(P.P) + by subject ? (passive voice)

------------------------------------------------------------------

The four other kinds of future ; I do't know about its certain forms pleas write me the certain forms about its affirmative, negative and interrogative ... pleas

don't forget the acive voice and passive voice of its forms,

Re: paragraph

pieanne — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 15:43:00 GMT

May I butt in, GG?

"That" is / should be used in a defining relative clause - the kind of clause you can't do without if you want to keep the meaning of your sentence. "This is the paragraph that interested him most"

I tend to use "which" in undefining relative clauses - those you can do without. "The paragraph, which interested him a lot, was about English grammar

Re: Essential books for the English language?

Marius Hancu — Wed, 24 May 2006 02:10:03 GMT

Swan, Practical English Usage
Garner, Modern American Usage
Green, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, 2nd edition

In terms of grammars, I still find
Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar (out of print)
the best, especially in terms of examples from the literature.
Get at least vol. IV (dealing with the verb) -- copy it at a university library.

It's much better in terms of page layout than George Curme's grammar, which is also quite good, but difficult for me to read because of unending blocks/ paragraphs.

BTW, Spears ^^ is outstanding.

For AmE, get an online subscription to:
http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com