Search results for 'tag:Possessives tag:Verbs' matching tags 'Possessives' and 'Verbs'

Re: appreciate + Ving

Clive — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:35:06 GMT

Hi,
can anyone help explain the grammatical point for the following sentence?

I appreciate your making the effort to come.

Why does it use "appreciate"+"your (possessive)"+"making (gerund)" + effort (noun)"? What grammatical point is it? Are there other similar examples?

The grammar structure is someone appreciates a noun form (ie something/somebody). eg
Tom appreciates the gift.
Tom appreciates Mary's gift.

A gerund is a noun form of a verb, thus we can say
Tom appreciates Mary's giving him a gift.
I appreciate your making the effort to come.

Note that, in everyday casual English, we often omit the possessive form and simply say
Tom appreciates Mary giving him a gift.
I appreciate you making the effort to come.

Do you have any more questions about this?
Best wishes, Clive

pronoun help

grasshopperzzz — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:28:52 GMT

Which is correct and why?:
A. I made a mistake. I want to avoid its happening again.
B. I made mistakes. I want to avoid their happening again.
C. I made a mistake. I want to avoid it happening again.
D. I made mistakes. I want to avoid them happening again.

My co-worker believes the possessive pronoun is correct as in A and B, and I believe C and D are correct. Also, are the words "happening again" modifiers of the verb, "avoid"? What are they called?

Re: participle as a subject

Cool Breeze — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:54:02 GMT

Anonymous
You wrote:

To hear is an infinitive, in other words, a verb, not a noun or a pronoun.

Is an infinitive really a verb? Does that mean a gerund is a verb too? I know an infintive like the one you used and a gerund act as a noun.

Please read my reply to CalifJim. Terminology varies. I know - at least I think I know - that in America the gerund is considered a noun. Europe views it differently; it is neither a noun nor a verb, it is a cross between them. All nouns can have an adjectival attribute, gerunds cannot: Correct speaking English is easy. Wrong! A noun cannot have an object, a gerund can: Speaking English is easy.

It's of course fine with me if people consider the gerund a noun, I'm just not used to the idea of a noun taking an object and thus prefer the European view. This is actually quite similar to Europeans' calling words like "my" possessive pronouns, isn't it?

Where I come from infinitives are called verbs, so I call them that. Anyone is free to call them different names if they please.

Re: participle as a subject

Cool Breeze — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:38:04 GMT

CalifJim
Your question opens up a good many sticky points in the terminology. Do we (Can we) talk about certain structures by naming them without regard to their function in context? Or not? Probably not. Is love a noun or a verb? Only context will tell.

Hmm... this seems to be another case of varying terminology. I have no objection to calling a participle an adjective, I'm just not used to that. Nor am I used to many other grammatical terms used here, like "a noun phrase". Don't get me wrong! I certainly don't mean there's anything wrong with it or that it is worse or better than the terms I am used to. I just had never heard it before I hit these forums. I can guess at the meaning of such expressions, of course.

The terminology must sometimes be confusing to learners whose native languages are so different from English that they don't even have verbs, let alone participles or gerunds! I can't start using terms I am not familiar with and thus I use the terms I learned to use in school ages ago. Hopefully I'll still be of use and assistance to some learners, at least to those who come from European countries. I'm sure I sometimes just confuse native speakers of English.

That tradition is centuries old in Europe. It is probably based on early grammarians' work and analysis of Latin. For example, "my" and its equivalents in all the grammar books that I have read and that deal with Finnish, Swedish, German, English and Latin grammar is invariably called a pronoun. In America, I think it's a called a possessive adjective? Perhaps in Britain too. Of course it isn't used instead of a noun and thus the name is misleading, but grammarians just call it a possessive pronoun anyway. It is a matter of what has been more or less consciously agreed upon. I have seen the term "dependent possessive pronoun" used to refer to "my", and the term "independent possessive pronoun" has been applied to words like "mine" because they don't need a noun after them. Therefore they are "independent". If I began to use such terms here, I'm sure I would confuse people even more!

Yes, context will tell, and I think it is plain to see in all cases. In Finnish, there are no such problems - if that is a problem at all. A noun cannot be mistaken for a verb. Nouns and verbs are always different words.

Cheers, CB

Re: live /lives?

Avangi — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:56:26 GMT

The important plural in your sentences is "those." People often misuse "their" as a singular, and "who" may be either singular or plural.

If you wanted to express the same thought in the singular, you might use the singular "whoever" in place of the plural "those." "I feel sorry for whoever lacks faith in his life."

this gets messy because of the gender issue. People (me, for instance) don't like to use "his or her," so they replace these singular pronouns with the plural "their," and say, "I feel sorry for whoever lacks faith in their life." This is a real mess. Note that "whoever lacks" has a singular subject and a singular verb.

If a man were leading two lives, the possessive pronoun (his) would still have to be singular: "I feel sorry for the man who lacks faith in his lives," just like, "I feel sorry for the man who lacks strength in his legs." "Legs" is plural, but "his" must be singular because "man" is singular.

Best wishes, - A.

Edit. About the ambiguity, my question is, where exactly is the faith lacking? Do YOU lack faith, or does you LIFE lack faith? For example, you'd say that YOU lack courage, or your LIFE lacks excitement. But "faith" can work either way. "I don't have enough faith in the way my life will turn out." "My life doesn't seem to have enough faith in it." (faith, as an ingredient in my life)

Make any sense??

Re: Grammar rules - check for correctness - a kind teacher please :)

Angle1 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:30:38 GMT

Here are some examples

The main point is to explain the correct answer
The sentences are little-bit childisch ;they are some modified sentences. I am afraid that my explanations seems to be a little childisch, too. So please help me how to turn it into the right explanation.

Mary was real angry because Jack didnÂ´t show up

Real >> really - we use an adverb to determine the adjective

Fewer of the passangers is sick today

Fewer >> One - the verb is refers to singular, so we need to use singular pronoun

I asked my brother whom was on the phone

Whom >> who â Whom i sused in object case and with pronouns â we need a subject for the verb in the second clause

Jorge doesnÂ´t have no bullets in his rifle

No >> any - we should avoid double negation in written English. We could use either has + no or negation + any

I am just a little confused whether or not to go on exam.

Whether to be or not to be â I know how it should be, but I cannot explain it :/

Having be a dancer myself, I have excellent posture

Having be >> beeing â but how to explain it ???

I never did like these kind of exercises

These >> that â but could it be also this if I were pointing at it?

Kind is singular, so we need a singular demostrative pronoun

You telling the truth is ..

You >> your â telling is a gerund, gerunds are used like nouns. We need a possessive pronoun

The bakery depends on meal beeing delivered without delay

Meal >> mealÂ´s â beeing is a gerund, and meal refers to this gerund. We need to use a genitive form with âÂ´sâ

Re: Paragraph

Grammar Geek — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:07:06 GMT

Heaven knows it does not need more adjectives.

~~moving hand of my desktop screen~~, The mouse, quietly lies over the/a black sponge pad, next to the keyboard [Please tell me why I canât write like this].

[Suggested sentence] The mouse lies quietly on a black sponge pad next to the keyboard.

This image of the "moving hand" doesn't make sense. Mouse needs an article and it needs a verb.Don't seperate a subject from its verb. Sponge pad also needs and article.

Two audio speakers stand at both side [suggested word is either, could u explain it]

Two speakers at both sides means four speakers in all. A speaker stands at each side means two speakers, ONE on each side.

My light-brown table ~~placed~~ on the opposite side opposite side of the bed from what? of the bed,Don't seperate the subject from its verb lifts wrong word- supports, or holds my intelligent computer system. A heavy white monitor, with a gray protected shield, lies on top of the table. Just below there is a soft [can I add here the word sound? yes - what did you have in mind?], easy-to-press keyboard, with several square keys grouped together ~~on it~~ keyboards usually have keys. Is there something unique about these keys? . The moving hand of my desktop screen, mouse, quietly lied over black sponge pad, next to the keyboard [Please tell me why I canât write like this]. [Suggested sentence] The mouse lies quietly on a black sponge pad next to the keyboard. Two a audio speakers ~~stands at either side of~~ flank try this word instead the monitor like guards. Down on the shelf stands the nerve centre, the CPU with its' its is the possessive; it's is the contracted form of it is; its' doesn't exist complicated integrated systems. In front of the table, I see a small, round [can i use word "fragile" instead of round? You can use the word fragile, but it's not a similar word -- what is the missing noun? A round and/or fragile WHAT?], again, dont' sepearte the subject from teh verb lying on my bright carpet.

Re: verb agreement

Goodman — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:33:15 GMT

#1 GG's version is a valid point. But if we look at it from a slightly different angle, it also makes sense:
A - "what did you hear?"
B- "I hear her screaming.." (as in possessive, not a present participle). 1 and 2 are grammatically correct, not # 3 though.

Re: Adjective

Huevos — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:45:19 GMT

The word laugh is either a noun or a verb, never an adjective or adverb. If it follows a possessive pronoun (which could be substituted with the definite article) it must be a noun.

Cute572
Tearfully, i hung up the phone.

Words with the "ly" suffix are adverbial.

Re: Has or Have

Goodman — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:53:54 GMT

I have two cars -in this context, "have" is a verb which means to be in possession of .
I have known John for 10 years. -"have" is a a modal word which helped the verb "known" to form present perfect tense.

She has a good job- being possessive of
She has done a good job. - she accomplished something well.