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

Re: correct preposition

Mister Micawber — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:42:51 GMT

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These are not prepositions; they are relative pronouns. There is a small gap here in English-- we do not have a non-human possessive relative pronoun. In your sentence, 'whose' is commonly used ('which' alone is not possible). For those grammarians who object, you will have to rely on the much more formal 'a book for/of which I cannot recall the title'.
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Re: which vs of which

Cool Breeze — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:33:33 GMT

Hi N2G

I'll butt in if I may. 1. He'd only left her a note on the bedside table of which she had not understood the content. There is a noun in the relative clause and that explains of in this case. I would reword the sentence: He'd only left her a note the content of which she had not understood on the bedside table. Since which has no possessive form, the of-genitive must be used unless we say: whose content.

New2grammar
Does it mean everytime two sentences are combined, an additional preposition will appear? If not, we're back to square one.Wrong conclusion.

This morning, I was awakened by a little girl knocking at the door ~~[of]~~ whom I'd never seen in my life. She told me she was my daughter while my wife was standing next to me. No need for a possessive form in this relative clause.

A dog came running toward me with a toy in its mouth, ~~[of]~~ which it had my name on it. Bad sentence, wrong comma usage. Better: A dog came running toward me. It had a toy with my name on it in its mouth.

If [of] required?

Please Check My Answers

Blondie024 — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:08:36 GMT

1. The possessive of a plural noun ending in s is formed by adding:

A. another s and an apostrophe. B. another s only. C. an apostrophe only. D. none of the above

I think the answer is C.

2. Which of the following shows the correct possessive form of a plural noun?

A. three dogs bowls B. three dog's bowls C. three dogs' bowls D. none of the above

I think the answer is C.

3. In a contraction, the apostrophe replaces:

A. missing letters. B. using an s. C. a unit of measurement. D. none of the above.

I think the answer is A.

4. Which of the following is a correct contraction of "they would"?

A. they'ld B. they'd C. they'wld D. none of the above

I think the answer is D.

5. Which of the following shows the correct possessive form of "children"?

A. childrens B. childrens' C. childrens's D. children's

I think the answer is A.

6. A preposition connects a (n):

A. subject and verb. B. object and modifiers. C. subject and predicate. D. adjective and adverb.

Re: i need help from grammar experts

Cool Breeze — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:01:07 GMT

Gramatical terminology varies from country to country and I have never heard some of the terms in your list. However, as I see it, most - if not all - of your answers are probably correct. I have never heard of "regular adjectives" but sunny certainly is an adjective. "Pronominal adjective" beats me; there's no such thing in the terminology I am familiar with. Perhaps they want their, which, as far as I understand, is called an adjective in some countries. We always call it a possessive pronoun, which isn't a very good name either because it doesn't replace a noun.

For "preposition - group of words" - I would say in front of, but it isn't in the text. And even then front is a noun, and therefore the term seems unpalatable to me. So is a co-ordinating conjunction in the text and when is a subordinating conjunction.

Beckoning is a present participle in the text, but taking, the first word, is a gerund. Your infinitives are right. Wish (May not wish) is an example of an infinitive without to, called either a plain infinitive or a bare infinitive owing to the absence of the particle to.

Markers is an appositive. The expletives are correct. The term predicate is used completely differently in Scandinavia from the Anglo-Saxon world, and my idea of what it is is the same as yours but I don't think your teacher wants that if he/she wants the English version. I won't venture a guess at all. The same goes for "complete subject", which baffles me.

I hope my comments help you. Perhaps a native speaker who knows the terms used in the Anglo-Saxon world can provide more information and better answers.

Re: Me or my?

Monalisatuan — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:51:13 GMT

Hi,

As far as I know , both possessive and accusative forms can be used after a number of adjectives followed by prepositions , e.g. be bored with , be happy about , be interested in , be keen on , be concerned about, be afraid of etc.The possessive forms ( our,your ,,,) are formal and the accusative forms (us ,you..) are informal.

I am not sure of his/him agreeing

I'm surprised at your/you not having noticed .

Best wishes

Re: please parse this sentence

Mister Micawber — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:59:45 GMT

1.-- I would guess that there are several ways to approach this; here's mine:

I - Subject

got - verb

used - predicate adjective

to - preposition

your - possessive adjective

being - gerund (object of preposition)

here - noun complement

2. Is 'used to' a prepositional verb?-- No, it is an adjectival structure; get is an informal copular verb.

3. How does 'here', which is an adverb, modify 'being', which is a gerund (noun)?-- Gerunds keep some of their verbal characteristics, including supporting objects or complements: Being a man is always difficult; Eating too many hamburgers may kill you.

4. What if 'your' was replaced with 'you', would the object of 'to' be a fused participle of you and being?-- You replaces your in casual English. I suppose that then you would be the object of the preposition and being here would be an object complement. This structure (without the possessive) is indeed sometimes called a fused participle.

Re: 13. Driving by anger, John slapped across Mary,s face.

CalifJim — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:56:54 GMT

1. You need the past participle in these sentence opening constructions with by.

Driven by anger, Disappointed by the results, Frightened by a gunshot, ...

2. The syntax you're looking for is not Verb + Prep + Possessive + Body Part.

You want Verb + Person + Prep + the + Body Part

slapped Mary across the face

touched Marty on the cheek

poked Joe in the ribs

cut Tom on the arm

You leave out the preposition and the if you use the possessive. Verb + Possessive + Body Part

slapped Mary's face

touched Marty's cheek

poked Joe's ribs

cut Tom's arm

Re: several grammar questions (2)

Avangi — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:45:23 GMT

Hela wrote:

Dear teachers,

1) How would you qualify this time of genitive, please? Which "title" would you give it? Is it some sort of "human activities"? but I don't really like this.

love's spirit, science's influence, my life's aim, duty's call . wow! I remember genitive as a Latin case 60 years ago. What do you mean by "time"? Your examples are all possessive. Joe's dog= the dog of Joe. Love's spirit=the spirit of love.   What am I missing?

2) Which tenses would you use in the following sentences and why?

a) Weather conditions have improved/improved (?) during the the last few days. Present perfect means the action has been [recently] completed. Simple past would mean it happened at some time in the past. The use of "during" means it was a continuing process. "Last few days" means it continued up to the present, at which time it was completed.(Present Perfect)

- Is it possible to say "the weather conditions" or is it definitely wrong? yes

- can we say "during the last days" = without "few"? yes, but it sometimes means the last days of the universe.

b)There has been / was (?) a real fall (?) in that town's population over/during (?) the last decade.Same tense situation as example 2.  Something happened over an extended period which just ended. "Over" and "during" both work, in my humble opinion.

c)He ~~should~~ showed/assured ??? him that he doesn't have the time / time (?) to pick up the children from/at (?) school. I say both choices are acceptable in both your red group and your black group.

Woops! where did the colors go?

- Would you please tell me if the article here is obligatory and why? Why not? the time=the time required / time=any time   Both work.

- which preposition should be used? are both possible? ANSWERED

3) âDid you do both maths exercises? The first was easier than the second.â âThat's right, the first was the easier of the two.â

- Is the "M" of math capitalized ? + should we say "math" or "maths" (with âsâ = Br. Eng ; without Â« s Â» = Am. Eng ?) Math would be capitalized if you said, "I just signed up for Math." I doubt "maths" would be used in this context in either domain, but I could be wrong.

- Would you please tell me when one should use âbothâ and âthe twoâ? Is it wrong to say âdid you do the two maths exercises...â and âthe first was the easier of bothâ ? Both choices work in the first example but only "the two" works in the second.

4) My mother left on her holiday/vacation (correct?)/ went on holiday(~~s?)~~/vacation a few weeks ago.

5) I have to pick her up at/from (?) the airport on her return / when she arrives (correct?).I think these are all okay. "From" would be questioned by some.

Many thanks,   Man, I needa break!

Hela

Re: He insisted on my/me singing a song.

Cool Breeze — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:31:40 GMT

Grammar Geek wrote:
Singing is a gerund, a noun, so it takes the possessive my.

This is rather peculiar, I think. I have encountered the same thing on these forums many times. Native speakers say: "A gerund is a noun." Do they teach it that way in American schools and universities? Grammatical terminology varies greatly from country to country but I have yet to meet a grammarian who says a noun can have an object:

I insisted on his speaking English.

Furthermore, all nouns can have an adjectival attribute; in other words, we can put an adjective before them:

He likes old books.
Merry old England fascinates me.
Little Mary wanted to go out.
Useful information was given to everybody.

So, if gerunds are full-fledged nouns, the following is correct:

Correct speaking English is easy.

Few consider it correct. A gerund is neither a noun nor a verb; it's a cross between them. It has some qualities characteristic of nouns and some that are characteristic of verbs. It resembles a verb in that it can take an object, for instance.

Therefore, "I insist on him speaking English" and "I insist on his speaking English" are equally grammatical. In the first sentence, him is used due to the influence of the preposition on, which is normal English grammar. In the second sentence his is used because speaking is a noun to an extent, even though it's not a complete noun. It has long been customary to consider possessive forms (my, his, our) of personal pronouns better than the object forms (me, him, us) as subjects of a gerund. It also used to be common to consider the basic or common form of other words better in this position:

I insist on John Smith speaking English. (Also: John Smith's)
I insist on everybody speaking English. (Rarely: everybody's)

In the past 30 or so years I have noticed a tendency in American magazines and newspapers to prefer the genitive even in cases where it sounds and looks ludicrous. I assume this can be ascribed to rising standards in education. Nevertheless, there has never been a grammatical justification to consider one of the alternatives better. The tendency to consider the possessive form the better seems to me to stem from grammatical ignorance rather than a good knowledge of it. There is no grammatical or historical justification for preferring either form.

Cheers
CB

Re: prepositions and possessive pronouns problems

Mister Micawber — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:28:53 GMT

You can leave out all the repeated words you have indicated.