Search results for 'tag:Plurals tag:Adverbs' matching tags 'Plurals' and 'Adverbs'

Re: grammar and verb tense check please!

AlpheccaStars — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:25:37 GMT

Dear BBG - Please try to be careful when you write. If you don't think carefully about every word you write, you will not learn why you make mistakes. Think about tenses - present, past, future. Think about plurals - is this one, or more than one? If it is more than one, add an 's'. Think about possessive case - if it belongs to someone or something, add "'s" Think about the infinitive form. It does not use the past participle.

I have made suggestions to the first part of your paragraph. Try to think about grammar carefully when you correct the second part. Then post your paragraph again.

All the best,

A-Stars

babyblue_girl08

In ~~the~~ her essayâ Wreck the Hall with Antique Vasesâ, ~~written by~~ Nina Penalosa~~, she~~ states that she was ~~got~~ blamed for breaking (gerund) ~~broken~~ the vases even though she didnât do it. That accident happened when she was four years (plural)old and she never forgot (past tense)the details (plural) on that night. On ~~the~~ Christmas Eve, her cousin Cynthia and her sister Nikki were (plural) ~~was~~ playing in the hallway near to her mom's (possessive) fragile collections. But unfortunately they accidentally (adverb, not adjective )hit one of antique vases of Nina's (possessive) mom. When she heard the sound and looked into the hallway. She saw Cynthia and Nikki quickly running (gerund) ~~ran~~ to a ~~the~~ safely place and leaving (gerund -parallel with running) ~~left~~ her alone in the hallway. When the adults in the living room heard the crash from the hallway, they quickly ran into it. When they came, Nina was the only one standing there and staring (was standing and staring) ~~stared~~ at the broken pieces of glass.
All they yes are looked on her (please rewrite the first part of the sentence; "are looked" is not past tense, and it is not a proper verb form) and asked âNina, what did you do?â she said she didnât do anything. Suddenly her auntie Ashie yelled at her and asked (past tense) her to apologize to her mom.

Re: Plural Subject, Pluarl Verb, Singular Object

Ditch — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:39:27 GMT

Thank you both for shedding some light on this!

"The key word is 'most'."

I suspected as much. What if the sentence is modified by an adverb?

"Sometimes, the cats have a collar."
"Usually, the cats have a collar."
"Often, the cats have a collar."
"Typically, the cats have a collar."

To me, they all sound right.

What about, "A lot of cats have a collar"?

Obviously, it doesn't always come down to modifiers.

"The players had an objection."

But can anyone think of a construction with a plural subject and a singular object that implies individual ownership, but which doesn't involve any modifers?

Re: SUPERATIVE?

Avangi — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:37:24 GMT

Anonymous
Thank you Why one has an article and one doesn't?

The most erroneous concepts

These/They are most/very erroneous concepts.

Is the word 'most' here is not a superlative? When is it an adjective and when is it a superlative?

He is the most handsome man I have ever met.

First, let me call your attention to CB's correction. "Very" is an adverb, not an adjective, and it probably always was. "Most" is an adjective when it modifies a noun (Most people can swim.), but in the two quite different usages we've been talking about here, it's an adverb.

1. This is a most beautiful rose. ("most beautiful" = "very beautiful", singular rose, indefinite article)
     These are most beautiful roses. ("most beautiful" = "very beautiful,"  plural roses, no article)
     These are some most beautiful roses. ("most beautiful" = "very beautiful," plural roses, optional indefinite article)

2. This is the most beautiful rose in the garden. ("most beautiful" = superlative, singular rose,  definite article)
     These are two of the most beautiful roses in the garden. ("most beautiful" = superlative, plural roses, definite article)

Please note that your examples, This is a most erroneous concept, and These are most erroneous concepts are of the first type, and are not superlatives. You could say, These are some most erroneous concepts. The "some" is optional.

Best wishes, - A.

Re: less or lesser

Cool Breeze — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:21:46 GMT

New2grammar
I hope the connection speed will improve later tonight as [lesser/less] people go online.

Which is correct?

Neither is correct. People is plural, so: fewer people go online. You can have an adjective after less: It was less interesting than I thought. A noun in the singular is also possible: I have less money than you. So is an adverb: He played less carefully than expected.

Only a noun is possible after lesser and the meaning is "smaller in importance, inferior": Lesser poets have never attempted to write such poems. - It was a lesser evil.

Re: Felt like...

Avangi — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:42:54 GMT

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 date with this guy (or guys) (or girls) when she makes this statement? (like maybe at the very end of it?)

Is Neil her main squeeze? (Sorry, my eyes are getting bad.) Is Nell her main squeeze? Who the h--- is Nell? (Is Lana a guy?)

Anyway, I'm assuming "tonight" is a noun rather than an adverb. "I had to explain about tonight." Not, "Tonight, I felt like I had to explain to Nell."

It's still "tonight" when she makes the statement. It sounds like Nell is not present. If she has already explained to Nell, she must have covered a lot of ground.

But on the other hand, we don't know what it is she wants to explain. Did she feel she had to explain what happened tonight, or did she feel (in the past) that she had to explain that she was planning to go on a date without him/her??

If she's talking to the guy and they're still on the date, maybe it's, "I felt like I had to explain to Nell, but, you know what? I don't feel that way any longer." Maybe she's just telling him that she feels wierd about having felt obligated to tell Nell all her private business.

Or maybe she's warning "him" that this "date" is no secret from Nell, because she felt obligated to tell her/him.

You're asking me, "Did Lana explain to Nell about tonight?" I'll tell you. I don't know.

Re: Possible/possibility

Marius Hancu — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:28:09 GMT

According to Merriam-Webster Unabridged, possible can be a noun, adjective and adverb:

possible

Function: noun

1 a : POSSIBILITY, POTENTIALITY -- usually used in plural <all the infinite number of possibles -- Jonathan Edwards> b : all that can be done : BEST <had done my possible ... to gratify you -- Robert Southey>

2 possibles plural : necessary things (as supplies, equipment, money) <the hunters departed, each to look after his traps and possibles -- Mayne Reid>

3 : the highest attainable score for a number of rounds fired in target shooting; broadly : the highest attainable score in a competition

Re: adjective phrases

Velimir — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:09:33 GMT

Hello Anonymous,

In your sentences there is no adjective phrases.A phrase is a name used in the english grammar to label a group of words which acts as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence,which means that you need at least two words to label some part of the sentence a phrase. Words,phrases and clauses are three building blocks of speech and proper distinction between these elements is an essential step and the starting point in every analysis.
Adjective phrase consists of the head of the phrase,i.e adjective, and various pre-modifying and postmodifying elements.For example,

It is too hot for this time of the year.

In this sentence the whole phrase "too hot for this time of the year" is an adjective phrase which functions as a subject complement. We could say this same in a brief manner :

It is hot.

but we felt like we wanted:

1. to accentuate the meaning of hot by premodifying the head "hot" with the intensifying adverb "too"

2. and also to specify that we refer our assertion to some particular part of the year

Therefore,you get adjective phrases when you're trying to convey more information about what you mean or feel about the matter in question.

The first sentence you've quoted for example should be analysed like:

1. Carnivores are eaters of meat.

Carnivores - plural form of noun ,acts as the subject of the sentence

are - linking verb

Eaters of meat - noun phrase ,acts as a subject complement

The other two sentences follow the same syntactic pattern : subject -> linking verb -> subject complement

Best regards

Mistakes made by Chinese Learners

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:30:26 GMT

Hi everyone

I just wondered if anyone could help - I have to write a profile of a chinese learner of English (completely made up). In it I must put any difficulties that the learner has in learning English as an L2. I have got so far:

Intonation transfer from L1 may cause them to be perceived as rude/inconsiderate, more serious transfer may affect comprehensiveness.
No inflections in L1 - tenses difficult to learn in L2 as L1 has no true tenses and concept of time is expressed by adverbs/implicit or contextual assumptions.
Difficulty distinguishing [r] & - Does anyone know why this is as I can't find a reason?!!
Prepositions such as 'on', 'in' & 'at' have one chinese translation in many contexts, 'zai' - may be confused resulting in phrases such as 'on Taiwan' instead of 'in Taiwan'.
Use of awkward gerunds e.g. 'no noising', excessive use of verbs ending in 'ing' e.g. 'do not climbing', confusion of 'ed' & 'ing' verbs e.g. 'i am bored' vs 'i am boring' --- all of these errors occur because verbs are not conjugated in chinese, for tense or pronoun.
No equivalent word for 'the' so may be used excessively when not needed e.g. 'The China' or missed out when needed. May also be confused with 'a'/'an'.
Confusion over countable and uncountable nouns, use of 'how much?' vs 'how many?' - leads to phrases such as 'I want a soup' & 'a lot of shoe'. This is due to there not being plurals in chinese - no inflections.

Switching between 'he' & 'she' - Does anyone know why this is?

If anyone can think of anymore it would be greatly appreciated or if anyone knows the answers to my questions about gender switching and distinguishing [r] & this would also help a lot!!

Thank you in advance.

Shannon

Re: A human can't exist without food or water for long.

Clive — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:18:21 GMT

Hi,

A human can't exist without food or water for long. OK

A human can't exist without food or water long. Sounds a little bit awkward to me

A human can't exist long without food or water. OK

Do all of the above sound right? Which is most idiomatic to you?

We more often speak of a 'human being'. And I'd consider using the plural. It would be better style to place 'long' immediately after 'exist', because the two words are closely related (and it's an adverb).

Human beings can't exist long without food or water.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Questions

Cool Breeze — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:09:26 GMT

May I use the 'ING' form with any verb to create adjectives or nouns? No.

The adjective 'Telephonic' has it an adverb to be 'Telephonically'? Yes.

When I can use 'The', 'a', 'an' before nouns? An extremely broad question. A and an are usually not used before uncountable nouns and plurals; the is possible with all nouns in the right context.