By Speak english, Nouns

I don't know what you guys are all on about with devoiced /z/. It's not a devoiced /z/, it's just /s/. In the example that someone above used, "vases"... I don't know about up North or across the pond (either one), but American Standard has that as /s/ in the medial and /z/ in the final. Well, if...

Hi, This is how I was taught. The terminology can be confusing. I was taught that gerund is the noun form of a verb. Although it’ not a real noun by definition, it functions like one. Another confusing aspect of the “ing” form is that, it’s often mixed up with participle and gerund. i.e. I...

You're right - gerunds are not nouns, but rather they act like nouns in many situations. As you know, without an English Academy, language will evolve along, and eventually what enough speakers use in any given context becomes the correct form. (For your last example, I'd rewrite, by the way....

Yankee wrote:Only sentence (b) is correct.No, I can't think of any situation in which "so+adjective+uncountable noun" would work. In that structure you need a or an: "so+adjective+a/an+noun". If you wanted to use an uncountable noun, then you would need to add words: - so bad a piece of...

Orpheus wrote:Do you think that the complexity of grammar of a language reflects the elaborate thinking of its speakers?No, not in the least. If that were true, present-day Anglo-Saxons' thinking would be greatly inferior to that of their forebears 1200 years ago. While Old English wasn't...

Milky wrote:That is because you, though claiming your thoughts on the matter of English and easiness are subjective, seem to want us all to agree with you. Your posts on the matter, before you began backpedaling, seemed insistent that you were right, on a gemeral level, about English.I would...

Maverick9211 wrote:I can't differeniate between abt nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. I am not very bad at English. I do understand English very well. I can speak English, but not in fluently. I can't write it very well. Let's make do it this way: You give me some topic and I will...

Cool Breeze wrote: Grammarian-bot wrote:Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers to provide workers with unpaid leave so that they can care for sick or newborn children.I have a serious problem with deciding when to use prepositions before verbs and when not to. Any...

Grammarian-bot wrote:Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers to provide workers with unpaid leave so that they can care for sick or newborn children.I have a serious problem with deciding when to use prepositions before verbs and when not to. Any help/suggestions.Hi GBThe to in...

Another set of patterns occurred to me. These sometimes give learners trouble, and it's a good idea to practice them until they are automatic. They are drills on 'subject pronoun + auxiliary verb' contractions. Type X1: he's, she's, I'm, you're, we're, they're Type X2: he'll, she'll,...