Search results for 'tag:Simple present tag:Plurals' matching tags 'Simple present' and 'Plurals'

Re: grammar question?

Avangi — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:49:30 GMT

(1) (Use simple present, "don't.") The album is eternal, so to speak, and critics may continue to make comments in the present, eg., the album does have enjoyable moments.

(2) Use "joined." All the other comments here are in simple past. "Go" doesn't really have a tense here. It's the bare infinitive. They let him [to] go. The sentence is in simple past because of "let."

People sometimes use present tense for a narrative like this but at this stage you should avoid mixing tenses unless you have a good reason to do so.

(3) Yes. It's simple present tense, 3rd person singular: "it guarantees."

(4) It's your choice. The band is singular but the members are plural. When you say "whose band" it leans a little toward singular, "whose band was playing."

(5) while it was still pliable enough to be shaped.

(6) Has is correct. (I would think "influential in the prevailing sound" or "influential in creating the prevailing sound" or "has a guitar player had so great an influence on the prevailing sound" - I don't know - I'm not happy with any of them. Maybe someone else will have an idea.)

Re: anybody/nobody/someone

Avangi — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:16:44 GMT

The key is the verb "to make" in this case. It's followed by the bare infinitive - to make [to] agree to do

If instead of "make" you use "force," which is followed by the complete infinitive, you can better see how the form works.

Someone tries to force someone to agree to do something. There are three "complete" infinitives in this sentence. The only simple present verb is "tries," which follows your rule. Infinitives don't change from singular to plural.

Furthermore, the second "someone" is the direct object of "force," rather than a subject, and therefore is not required to agree with the verb.
The same thing is true of "someone" in the definition you have quoted from the dictionary.

Another example which follows your rule would be: Unless someone agrees to pay for this meal, we'll all have to wash dishes. Here, "someone" is the subject of the clause, and the verb is singular, to agree.

I know I didn't approach you question from the right end. If your dictionary quote were something like, "in the movie, someone agrees to do something terrible," "someone" would be the subject of the sentence and would follow your rule. But in your example, it is not the subject.

- A.

Edit. I hope you can follow this mess. I should have scrapped it and started over, but I have to go to work! Sorry.

Re: a question of "Simple Present Tense"

Mr. Profenglish — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:47:48 GMT

Anonymous wrote:

Hi everybody,

I have a question about the Negative Form of "Simple Present Tense", please help me.

Can I use "I don't read the book right now" to express the meaning of "I'm not reading the book right now"?

Thanks a lot in advance.

***********

Here is a summary about the present simple tense with all the forms of it plus examples

* * *

Form

Examples

Notes

Affirmative( Positive ) form:

Base form

S- form

1. Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen.

2. The world is round

3. He always eats a sandwich for lunch

4. My classes begin at nine.

5. She prefers to stay at home.

6. He appears to be asleep.

7. That belongs to me.

8. I remember my first teacher.

9. If you study hard, you will pass the exam.

10. If he comes early, he will catch the bus.

Present Simple Tense is used :

i. to show general statement of fact

ii. to express habitual or everyday activity

iii. with verbs of: senses, mental activity, possession and attitudes

iv. with conditional clauses type one.

Remarks:

Â§ Singular subjects take the S-from

Â§ Plural subjects take the Base form

Â§ ( he, she, it ) + S. form

Â§ ( we, they, you, I ) + Base form

S. = subject

inf. = infinitive form of the verb

S- form = verb + s

Base form = verb without ( s )

Negative form:

(do, does + not + inf.

1. They do not work at the hospital.

2. She does not go to the university everyday

Contracted Negative form:

donât + inf.

doesnât + inf.

1. They donât work in a bank.

2. I donât recognize that man

3. She doesnât prefer to stay at home.

Wh- question form :

Wh- + ( do / does ) + S. + inf. + ...?

1. Where do you live?

2. When does she go to work everyday?

3. Why do I like that nonsense?

Yes/No question form :

(Do / Does ) + S. + inf. + â¦ ?

Do they need a help?

Does he mean that book?

Short Answer form :

Yes, + S. + ( do / does ).

No, + S. + ( donât / doesnât )

Yes, he does. / yes, they do. / Yes, I do.

no, I donât. / No, he doesnât / No, they donât.

***

Regards,

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Re: which one is correct?

Yankee — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:23:44 GMT

I'm afraid neither one is correct, SSK.

You can say either one of these:

They do not insist --> simple present tense
They are not insisting --> present continuous

You can never say "They does".
The word they is third person plural, but you can only use 'does' with the third person singular.

Re: GUESS MY WORD

Mister Micawber — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 08:59:26 GMT

An echo is tangible. Tangible means 'perceptible to the senses; real'-- as opposed to conceptual or abstract.

Yes, it is countable in any terms. (As a noun, the word is plural countable; as a verb, it is 3rd person singular simple present tense)
It is a natural, physical phenomenon or process (as is an echo)-- so it is neither an invention nor a discovery.

Prez, where are you?

Re: And?

Clive — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:28:02 GMT

Hi,

Harry hardly does pay his bill on time, and his sister does too

What is the matter with this sentence? Can you explain it to me?

The problems with this sentence are in the area of usage more than the area of grammar.

There seems to be no reason to say 'does pay' rather than 'pays'.

The Simple Present suggests we are discussing Harry's habits, so i wonder if the plural 'bills' would be more appropriate.

'Hardly' is a slightly unusual word to use here. More common would be other words, eg 'barely', 'only just'

The main problem is that the second clause seems discordant. I think the problem is that there is a negative feeling to the first clause, despite the fact that the structure of the first clause is positive. Thus, it 'feels' wrong to have the second clause a positive one, ie it seems odd to say, in effect, "and his sister hardly pays her bill on time, too". I'd prefer to say something like

Harry pays his bill only just on time, and his sister does too. (I'd also prefer to say 'and so does his sister')

Both clauses are now more clearly positive.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: One of the ... that ...

Zj.frank — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:37:23 GMT

Tanit wrote:

Hi, good question!

I was wandering whether a slightly different point of view exists as for the subject of the sentence:
He is one [of the few] that knows the solution to the problem.
or
He is one of the few that know the solution to the problem.

After some research, I came across this:

"one of those who. Constructions such as one of those people who pose a different problem. Many people argue that who should be followed by a plural verb in these sentences, as in He is one of those people who just donât take ânoâ for an answer. Their thinking is that the relative pronoun who refers to the plural noun people, not to one. They would extend the rule to constructions with inanimate nouns, as in The sports car turned out to be one of the most successful products that were ever manufactured in this country.

But the use of the singular verb in these constructions is common, even among the best writers. In an earlier survey, 42 percent of the Usage Panel accepted the use of the singular verb in such constructions. Itâs really a matter of which word you feel is most appropriate as the antecedent of the relative pronounâ one or the plural noun in the of phrase that follows it. Note also that when the phrase containing one is introduced by the definite article, the verb in the relative clause must be singular: He is the only one of the students who has (not have) already taken Latin."

For what it's worth, heere are the Google search results for
"one of the few of that" and
"one of the few of who" in the BBC website only. If you consider only sentences in simple present , you will find both "have" and "has", "do" and "does" and so on.

Thanks, Tanit!

I was writing my previous reply while you posted this one.

The link you provided is really useful.

Re: One of the ... that ...

Tanit — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:18:48 GMT

Zj.frank wrote:
Dear all:

He is one of the few that knows the solution to the problem.
or
He is one of the few that know the solution to the problem.

Do the two "that"s denote different things? Shall we say that the first "that" denotes "he" while the second "that" denotes "the few"? If so, do the two sentences have slightly different meanings?

It seems that the first sentence is more often used. Here is an example from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/films/int/1mm/gluttony/-/films/oneminutemovies/watch/snowball.shtml?gluttony.shtml>

This is the best film on here... and one of the few that bothers with any sense of narrative and character.

Surely there are a few films that bother with some sense of narrative and character. Is it to say that in such case, we usually use "that bothers" rather than "that bother"? Thanks in advance for any enlightenment!

Hi, good question!

I was wandering whether a slightly different point of view exists as for the subject of the sentence:
He is one [of the few] that knows the solution to the problem.
or
He is one of the few that know the solution to the problem.

After some research, I came across this:

"one of those who. Constructions such as one of those people who pose a different problem. Many people argue that who should be followed by a plural verb in these sentences, as in He is one of those people who just donât take ânoâ for an answer. Their thinking is that the relative pronoun who refers to the plural noun people, not to one. They would extend the rule to constructions with inanimate nouns, as in The sports car turned out to be one of the most successful products that were ever manufactured in this country.

But the use of the singular verb in these constructions is common, even among the best writers. In an earlier survey, 42 percent of the Usage Panel accepted the use of the singular verb in such constructions. Itâs really a matter of which word you feel is most appropriate as the antecedent of the relative pronounâ one or the plural noun in the of phrase that follows it. Note also that when the phrase containing one is introduced by the definite article, the verb in the relative clause must be singular: He is the only one of the students who has (not have) already taken Latin."

For what it's worth, heere are the Google search results for
"one of the few of that" and
"one of the few of who" in the BBC website only. If you consider only sentences in simple present , you will find both "have" and "has", "do" and "does" and so on.

EDITED: "wandering" is a typo for "wondering". My apologies.

Re: differences ? thank you

Yankee — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:46:37 GMT

Peaceblinkfriend wrote:
Hi all agian

I would like to know the differences between these pairs of sentences. Which is correct and why ?

1. a) What are the differences between these two ? OK. This suggests that there is (or may be) more than one difference.
    b) What is the difference between these two ? OK. This indicates that there is only or exactly one difference.

2. a) How many people are there? OK
    b) How many people is there? Wrong. You need 'are' because people is plural.

3. a) I don't know if she know who Jim is ? Wrong. You need simple present tense and third person singular with 'she'.
    b) I don't know if she knows who Jim is. OK (but without the question mark because it is not a question).

Re: God blesses you all.

Jackson6612 — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:12:33 GMT

Yoong Liat wrote:
Jackson6612 wrote:

1: God bless you all. (IMO, 'May' has been left out from the sentence. MAY God bless you all.)
2. May this post finds you in good state of health. (The verb after 'may' should be plural and in the simple present tense [May I know the reason for that?]as in sentence 1 in bold.)